Abstract
Recent research finds that interracial interactions can negatively impact executive function. The present study examined whether regulatory focus may moderate this effect. Specifically, prior to an interracial interaction, 45 White female students were told either to try to have a positive interracial exchange (promotion focus), avoid prejudice (prevention focus), or given no instruction (control). After the interaction, participants completed the Stroop color-naming task, which assessed executive attentional task performance. Results revealed that participants in the prevention and the no instruction, control conditions performed worse on the Stroop than participants in the promotion condition. The findings suggest that promoting positive contact through active engagement rather than prejudice avoidance attenuates the previously documented negative effects of interracial contact on cognitive functioning.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 406-412 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2006 |
Funding
This research was supported by a Rockefeller Center Faculty Fellowship from Dartmouth College, NSF Grant #0132420, NIMH Grant #MH63913, support from the Russell Sage Foundation, and a visiting fellow award from RICSRE at Stanford University, each awarded to the second author. Portions of this work were presented at the 2004 meeting of the New England Association of Social Psychologists and the 2005 Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. We thank Shermaine Jones and Sorochi Esochaghi for help with data collection.
Keywords
- Ego-depletion
- Executive function
- Interracial contact
- Interracial interactions
- Regulatory focus
- Self-regulation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Sociology and Political Science