Feeling (Mis)Understood and Intergroup Friendships in Interracial Interactions

Nicole Shelton; Sara Douglass; Randi L. Garcia; Tiffany Yip; Thomas E. Trail

doi:10.1177/0146167214538459

Feeling (Mis)Understood and Intergroup Friendships in Interracial Interactions

Nicole Shelton, Sara Douglass, Randi L. Garcia, Tiffany Yip, Thomas E. Trail

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

The present research investigated whether having out-group friends serves as a buffer for feeling misunderstood in interracial interactions. Across three experience sampling studies, we found that among ethnic minorities who have few White friends or are not interacting with White friends, daily interracial interactions are associated with feeling less understood. By contrast, we found that among ethnic minorities who have more White friends or are interacting with White friends, the relationship between daily interracial interactions and feeling understood is not significant. We did not find similar results for Whites; that is, having ethnic minority friends did not play a role in the relationship between daily interracial interactions and feeling understood. Together, these studies demonstrate the beneficial effects of intergroup friendships for ethnic minorities.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1193-1204
Number of pages	12
Journal	Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume	40
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214538459
State	Published - Sep 8 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Social Psychology

Keywords

felt understanding
intergroup friendships
interracial interactions

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10.1177/0146167214538459

Cite this

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abstract = "The present research investigated whether having out-group friends serves as a buffer for feeling misunderstood in interracial interactions. Across three experience sampling studies, we found that among ethnic minorities who have few White friends or are not interacting with White friends, daily interracial interactions are associated with feeling less understood. By contrast, we found that among ethnic minorities who have more White friends or are interacting with White friends, the relationship between daily interracial interactions and feeling understood is not significant. We did not find similar results for Whites; that is, having ethnic minority friends did not play a role in the relationship between daily interracial interactions and feeling understood. Together, these studies demonstrate the beneficial effects of intergroup friendships for ethnic minorities.",

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AU - Douglass, Sara

AU - Garcia, Randi L.

AU - Yip, Tiffany

AU - Trail, Thomas E.

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Feeling (Mis)Understood and Intergroup Friendships in Interracial Interactions

Abstract

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