Nonverbal Asymmetry in Interracial Interactions: Strongly Identified Blacks Display Friendliness, but Whites Respond Negatively

This study examined the role of Blacks ’ level of racial identification in understanding how Blacks and Whites behaved, both verbally and nonverbally, toward each other in interracial interactions. The more Blacks identified with their racial group, the more nonverbally friendly they behaved toward their White partners. Paradoxically, Whites behaved less nonverbally friendly toward Blacks who were strongly racially identified relative to those who were weakly identified. Thus, Blacks who tried the hardest in these interactions were treated the worst by Whites. Blacks ’ racial identification did not predict Whites ’ and Blacks ’ verbal behavior, suggesting that Whites ’ biases emerge only on behaviors that are difficult to control and not on behaviors that are more amenable to control. Keywords stigma, group identification, discrimination, interracial interactions, compensation Racial minorities who are strongly identified with their racial group report experiencing more discrimination than those who are weakly identified (see Major, Quinton, & McCoy, 2002 for a review). Scholars have typically located the cause of this relationship between racial identification and perceived dis-crimination in subjective biases that lead to increased sensitiv-ity toward perceiving discrimination among strongly identified minorities (Operario & Fiske, 2001; Shelton & Sellers, 2000). Recent research, however, demonstrates that the relationship between racial identification and perceived discrimination also has its roots in reality whereby strongly identified minorities are objectively more likely to be targeted by discrimination than their weakly identified counterparts (Dovidio, Gaertner