Ethnic Inconsistency in an Anticipated Interaction Partner

Abstract

Racial and ethnic categorization has important behavioral consequences in diverse contexts. But how are these consequences shaped if a person’s ethnic group membership is unclear or ambiguous—that is, when a person is perceived as belonging to more than one ethnic group, or carrying markers of two ethnic groups? Building from several literatures, I attempt to examine how undergraduates perceive a target whose ethnicity cues appear inconsistent by measuring distancing and questioning behavior. In study 1 (n = 110), participants, expecting to interact with a person with either a European American or Arab appearance and either an English or Arabic name, wrote questions, reported expectations, and set up chairs for the anticipated conversation. Participants distanced themselves least from and asked the most questions to a consistent outgroup member. In contrast, those targets with inconsistent cues—those who had both Arab and European American identity cues--were distanced from significantly more, but not as much as from consistent ingroup members. In study 2 (n = 63), resolving the inconsistency between name and appearance did not affect distancing, but participants did spend more time writing questions for these targets. Results are inconsistent with both outgroup bias and cognitive fluency explanations. The absence of threat and potential interest to be taken in outgroup members may explain why participants did not exhibit the expected higher discomfort or uncertainty in meeting a person with an ethnic outgroup marker.