Why can\u27t we be friends? : the effect of positive expectations and implicit beliefs on interracial interactions

Investigating the contact hypothesis with participants of each race, the study targeted implicit beliefs and differences between minorities and majorities upon cognitive depletion, racial attitudes, and approach or avoidance goals. Based on former research, a negative expectationsreducing intervention, involving watching a pair of interracial friends and writing about one’s own experience, was hypothesized to reduce prejudicial thinking. Twenty-three undergraduate interracial dyads completed self-report questionnaires and engaged in a recorded interaction involving interactive games. The intervention was found to increase accurate personality perception of one’s partner. Results also supported the different concerns of majority members and minority members. For majorities, implicit theories predicted approach goals, avoidance goals, and depletion, but for minorities, theories predicted negative post affect and negative partner affect