Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Publication Title

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

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.

Keywords

felt understanding, intergroup friendships, interracial interactions

Volume

40

Issue

9

First Page

1193

Last Page

1204

DOI

10.1177/0146167214538459

ISSN

01461672

Rights

© The Author(s)

Comments

Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.

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