Negotiating interracial interactions: Costs, consequences, and possibilities

ABSTRACT—The United States is becoming increasingly diverse, yet interracial contact continues to be awkward, if not stressful, for many. Indeed, recent research suggests that individuals often exit interracial interactions feeling drained both cognitively and emotionally. This article re-views research examining how interracial encounters give rise to these outcomes, zeroing in on the mediating role of self-regulation and the moderating influence of prejudice concerns. Given that interracial contact may be the most promising avenue to prejudice reduction, it is important to examine factors that undermine positive interracial contact experiences, as well as those that facilitate them. KEYWORDS—interracial interactions; self-regulation; pre-judice As the United States becomes increasingly diverse, contact with individuals of different ethnicities, races, and cultures will no longer be rare. Although increased contact may have positive effects over time (see Pettigrew&Tropp, 2006), there is reason to believe that increased interracial contact may initially result in a host of negative side effects. Research has found, for instance, that interracial interactions induce a relatively malignant form of cardiovascular reactivity in most White individuals (Blasco