This National Science Foundation Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship will advance our understanding of the emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal consequences of witnessing a racial group member behave stereotypically during an ongoing interracial interaction. Research documents that the anxiety caused by interracial interactions raise many interpersonal concerns that affect people?s experiences with members of other racial groups. However, much less research has explored how the stereotype-confirming behaviors of ingroup members affect such interactions. This project will examine whether minority (Blacks, Latinos) and majority (Whites) group members experience negative mental health outcomes, compensate for ingroup members behavior, or avoid interactions with outgroup members during an interracial interaction after ingroup members have committed stereotype-confirming behaviors. This research will provide novel insights regarding the experiences of people during interracial interactions and highlights how the behavior of racial group members, rather than one?s own behavior, can impact individuals? mental health and behavior in interracial contexts.
The fellow will perform her research at Princeton University, under the sponsorship of Dr. Nicole Shelton in the Psychology Department. Princeton University has a wealth of resources and courses that will assist the fellow in acquiring new methodological and statistical techniques regarding intergroup interactions, mental health, and behavior. Dr. Shelton is one of the premier researchers on intergroup relations in the country. Broadly, her research focuses on 1) the concerns of ethnic minorities and Whites during interracial interactions and 2) the mental health and psychological outcomes of minorities. In her work, she shows that the different interpersonal concerns of ethnic minorities and Whites not only affect the quality of interracial interactions, but the impressions people have about racial outgroup members. Additionally, she examines the psychological adjustment of minority youth and, in another line of work, she investigates how racial bias and mental illness stigma leave people vulnerable to mental health problems. Learning from Dr. Shelton?s expertise in intergroup relations and mental health outcomes, the fellow will be trained to conduct dyadic interaction and mental health research with diverse populations. To date, there has been a dearth of research on how stereotype-confirming behavior affects people?s mental and behavioral outcomes during interracial interactions. People are aware that the stereotypic behaviors of ingroup members are often generalized to them; thus, they may experience negative mental health outcomes (e.g., shame, anxiety, low state self-esteem) in the face of ingroup members? stereotype-confirming behavior during interracial interactions. Previous research suggests that such mental health outcomes will lead to avoidance behaviors uniformly. However, the current proposal suggests that rather than disengage from interracial interactions when ingroup members behave stereotypically, individuals may exhibit approach behaviors and show improved performance in an attempt to disprove negative group stereotypes. To test these hypotheses, four experimental studies will focus on the mental health and behaviors of racial minorities (Latino/as, Blacks) and Whites after witnessing an ingroup member behave stereotypically during intra- and interracial interactions. To explore the breadth of this phenomenon, all four studies use different racial groups, stereotypes, and situations. This work will provide novel insights into how negative mental health outcomes experienced during interracial interactions after witnessing ingroup members behave stereotypically may be motivating. The postdoctoral fellowship will allow the fellow to learn new theoretical perspectives on intergroup relations and provide her with methodological and statistical training in this area. With these goals in mind, the fellow has five training objectives while at Princeton: 1) to learn methodology appropriate for studying dyadic interaction; 2) to enhance her statistical knowledge by taking advanced statistics courses; 3) to attend psychology colloquia and seminars by premier researchers in the field; 4) to publish research; and 5) to attend and present her work at national conferences. With the training and resources at Princeton University, the fellow will demonstrate how stereotype-confirming behavior may cause negative mental health outcomes, but also lead to unexpected approach behaviors in interracial interactions. Ultimately, the postdoctoral training will prepare the fellow for a tenure-track position at a research university.
With self- and group-image concerns already high in interracial interactions, how do people respond during such interactions when a member of their racial group behaves stereotypically? To explore this question, my research investigated whether the stereotypic behavior of racial group members differentially affects minorities’ emotional, cognitive, and social outcomes during same-race (intraracial) and different-race (interracial) interactions. Past research finds that people desire not to be viewed stereotypically by others (Barreto, Ellemers, & Banal, 2006) and they also anticipate avoiding interactions with racial group members who behave stereotypically (Schmader & Lickel, 2006). For ethnic minorities, stereotypic racial group members also may pose a social liability during interracial interactions: Minorities risk embarrassment, being viewed stereotypically, and inadvertently behaving stereotypically, though they may be highly motivated to represent their racial group positively. A series of experimental studies were conducted to examine people’s response to witnessing a racial group member commit stereotype-confirming acts during an interracial or intraracial interaction. One study found that when people of diverse ethnic backgrounds imagined viewing members of their racial group commit a decidedly stereotypic act in the presence of a different-race partner—as opposed to a negative or a neutral act—they reported feeling greater embarrassment and were motivated to behave counter-stereotypically to disprove negative group stereotypes. Furthermore, they desired to shy away from future interactions with the different-race, compared to the same-race, partner. In a second study, Black female participants witnessed a black woman perform poorly (stereotypically) or perform well (non-stereotypically) on a cooperative sorting task in the presence of a previously unacquainted white or black female partner. After witnessing a racial group member commit stereotypic (versus non-stereotypic) acts in the presence of a white (versus black) partner, participants expressed greater embarrassment, frustration, and anger, felt they would be viewed stereotypically, and desired to avoid further interaction with their partner. Moreover, participants underperformed on the cooperative sorting task, though they expressed high motivation, pressure to perform well on the task, and a desire to not be viewed stereotypically by their partner. This research provides novel insights into the challenges that members of negatively stereotyped groups face in interracial, compared to intraracial, settings. While people may desire to distance themselves from stereotypic racial group members, this research suggests that they also may be motivated to disprove racial stereotypes to reduce the possibility that they too will be viewed stereotypically. Unfortunately, such pressure may be detrimental to people’s performance in diverse environments and may lead them to avoid such settings over time. It is important to note that this research does not suggest that all diverse settings cause emotional and social distress; the findings also suggest that when such stereotypic behavior is absent during interracial interactions, people thrive emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Taken together, this work contributes to a broader understanding of interracial relations and contributes to multiple disciplines, including Social Psychology, Sociology, and Education, by providing insight into how stereotypic group members' performance in interracial settings (i.e., classrooms) may undermine students’ learning, performance, and social interactions. Finally, this research should not be taken as a blanket condemnation to racial group members who, at times, may behave stereotypically. Instead, this work speaks to the larger issue of the detrimental impact of negative group stereotypes and highlights how racial group members must constantly monitor their behavior because of them in diverse settings—even when they do not embody negative group stereotypes themselves. It is hopeful that this work can assist researchers and educators in identifying how social interactions and stereotypic group members might contribute to, as well as prevent, the maintenance of group stereotypes so that all individuals can thrive in diverse academic and social settings.
