Responsiveness in interracial interactions

Perceived responsiveness—feeling understood, validated, and cared for—is critical for wellbeing and successful relationships, yet these feelings are experienced less frequently in interracial interactions than in same race-interactions. In this article, we synthesize recent research on responsiveness in interracial interactions and relationships. We first highlight how responsiveness differs in interracial versus same-race contexts. We next discuss the role of cross-race partners’ goals and motivations in responsiveness, with particular attention to the ways in which self-presentation goals undermine responsiveness as well as emerging research on goals and motivations that may facilitate responsiveness in interracial interactions. Finally, we discuss how a contextual factor, the salience of race, influences responsiveness in interracial interactions.