When Prejudice Does Not Pay: Effects of Interracial Contact on Executive Function
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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Suppressing stereotypes requires effort, which can deplete cognitive resources and adversely affect the ability to solve problems and make correct decisions.
“In addition, suppressing stereotypes requires effort,65 which can deplete cognitive resources and adversely affect the ability to solve problems and make correct decisions.66”
From Reducing Racial Bias Among Health Care Providers: Lessons from Social-Cognitive Psychology (2007) · cites this paper as [66]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Richeson, J. A., & Shelton, J. N.
- Affiliations
- Dartmouth College (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Richeson, Jennifer A.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-05
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 287-290
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2118796101
- Cited by
- 538
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 35 · 2014: 43 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 41
- FWCI
- 67.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- interracial interaction, prejudice, racial attitudes, implicit attitudes, Stroop task, executive function, self-regulation, resource model, cognitive performance, interracial contact
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Black or African American, Color Perception, Discrimination Learning, Female, Humans, Male, Prejudice, Problem Solving, Psychological Tests, Race Relations, Reaction Time, Semantics, Word Association Tests, White People
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