Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 95, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104117
Keywords
Diversity; Race; Segregation; Structural; institutional racism; Organizational exclusion
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study found that Whites choose to increase racial segregation in structuring their local communities to avoid incidental intergroup contact, especially by concentrating other Whites around landmarks that are more relevant to them. They also reduce opportunities for incidental intergroup contact by instituting exclusionary policies that disproportionately exclude non-Whites.
The current research explores how local racial diversity affects Whites' efforts to structure their local communities to avoid incidental intergroup contact. In two experimental studies (N = 509; Studies 1a-b), we consider Whites' choices to structure a fictional, diverse city and find that Whites choose greater racial segregation around more (vs. less) self-relevant landmarks (e.g., their workplace and children's school). Specifically, the more time they expect to spend at a landmark, the more they concentrate other Whites around that landmark, thereby reducing opportunities for incidental intergroup contact. Whites also structure environments to reduce incidental intergroup contact by instituting organizational policies that disproportionately exclude non-Whites: Two largescale archival studies (Studies 2a-b) using data from every U.S. tennis (N =15,023) and golf (N =10,949) facility revealed that facilities in more racially diverse communities maintain more exclusionary barriers (e.g., guest policies, monetary fees, dress codes) that shield the patrons of these historically White institutions from incidental intergroup contact. In a final experiment (N = 307; Study 3), we find that Whites' anticipated intergroup anxiety is one driver of their choices to structure environments to reduce incidental intergroup contact in more (vs. less) racially diverse communities. Our results suggest that despite increasing racial diversity, White Americans structure local environments to fuel a self-perpetuating cycle of segregation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available