When prejudice does not pay: effects of interracial contact on executive function.

Full Abstract

This study examined the influence of interracial interaction on the cognitive functioning of members of a dominant racial group. White participants had a brief interaction with either a White or a Black confederate, and then completed an ostensibly unrelated Stroop color-naming test. Prior to the interaction, participants' racial attitudes regarding Whites and Blacks were measured via the Implicit Association Test. Racial attitudes were predictive of impairment on the Stroop test for individuals who participated in interracial interactions, but not for those who participated in same-race interactions. The results are consistent with recently proposed resource models of self-regulation and executive control in that interracial interaction, a particularly taxing exercise of self-regulation for highly prejudiced individuals, negatively affected performance on a subsequent, yet unrelated, test of executive function.

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Author information

Author/s: Richeson, Jennifer A (JA); Shelton, J Nicole (JN);

Affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. jriches(-atsign-)dartmouth.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS (Psychol Sci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-May; vol 14 (issue 3) : pp 287-90

Dates: Created 2003/05/13; Completed 2003/08/05; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12741756, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
African Americans - psychology
Attention
Color Perception
Discrimination Learning
European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology
Female
Humans

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