10.1177/0146167205274894 ARTICLEPERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETINShelton et al. / INTERETHNIC INTERACTIONS Expecting To Be the Target of Prejudice: Implications for Interethnic Interactions

Two studies investigated the implications of ethnic minorities’ prejudice expectations for their affective and behavioral out-comes during interethnic interactions. In both studies, the more ethnic minorities expected Whites to be prejudiced, the more nega-tive experiences they had during interethnic interactions. This finding held true for chronic prejudice expectations in a diary study of college roommates (Study 1) and for situationally induced prejudice expectations in a laboratory interaction (Study 2). In Study 2, the authors extended this work to examine the relationship between ethnic minorities ’ prejudice expectan-cies and their White partners ’ psychological experience during interethnic interactions. Consistent with predictions, the more ethnic minorities expected Whites to be prejudiced, the more their White partners had positive experiences during interethnic inter-actions. These divergent experiences of ethnic minorities and Whites have important implications for the psychological success of interactions between members of these groups