How Do People of Different
Ethnicities Interact?

Imagine yourself a student, walking into a dining hall. You notice a group of students who live near you and are of a racial group other than your own. Would you join them? If not, why?

Princeton psychologist Nicole Shelton studies interracial and interethnic relationships and often mines insights from students’ real-life experiences. Her work puts her at the forefront of an emerging approach to social psychology that moves beyond carefully structured laboratory interactions.

In a series of studies, Shelton shows how both majority and minority group members shape their interactions with a mix of emotions that is more dynamic than previously appreciated.

In one study, Shelton surveyed some 70 racially mixed pairs of university roommates, who were also asked to diary their interactions for 15 days. She measured the ethnic minorities' stigma consciousness, their dispositional tendency to expect Whites to be prejudice.

She found that during interracial interactions, the higher the ethnic minorities were in stigma consciousness, the less authentic they felt and the more they experienced tension, anxiety, or frustration.

In a different study, Shelton manipulated the extent to which ethnic minorities should expect to be the target of prejudice. "During interactions where prejudice was expected,” Shelton observes, “Whites had a positive experience, while ethnic minorities felt less authentic and experienced adverse emotions."

In her study, “Interpersonal Concerns in Social Encounters Between Majority and Minority Group Members,” published in Group Process & Intergroup Relations (2003, Vol 6[2]), Shelton examined the impact of Whites’ concerns with appearing prejudiced during an interracial interactions. Her results show that Whites who were explicitly instructed to try not to be prejudiced were better liked by a their Black interaction partner than were Whites who were not instructed to suppress prejudice.

These studies and others like them may yield new approaches for programs aimed at breaking down racial and ethnic barriers among students or other groups.

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