Interracial Relationships among White College Students: An Anti-Racist and Virtues-Driven Intervention — ASN Events
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  3. Interracial Relationships among White College Students: An Anti-Racist and Virtues-Driven Intervention

Interracial Relationships among White College Students: An Anti-Racist and Virtues-Driven Intervention (#910)

William B Whitney 1 , Madison K. Gilbertson 2 , Sarah A Schnitker 3 , Juliette Ratchford 3 , Andrew Shelton 1
  1. Azusa Pacific University, Pasadena, CA, United States
  2. Edwards Life Sciences, Irvine, California
  3. Baylor University, Waco, Texas

Background

Although research has demonstrated that psychological factors (e.g. anxiety) may hinder majority group members from greater engagement in interracial interactions, more interventions are needed that target majority group members to engage in interracial interactions (5,6). This study investigates the effects of virtue interventions (courage, patience) on interracial interactions for White U.S. college students.

Aims

The aim of this study is to determine if virtue interventions for courage and patience increase the presence of these virtues and decrease prejudice. It is hypothesized that White students who receive virtue interventions focused on interracial interactions will demonstrate decreased prejudicial attitudes and increased levels of courage and patience.

Method

A sample of 176 White college students was recruited from two medium-sized private universities and through Amazon’s MTurk (74.4% female, 22.7% male, 2.8% transgender/nonbinary; Mage=20.57, SD=2.99). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions: virtue condition, virtue/race condition, race salient condition (no virtue), and control. Participants completed the Courage Measure (1), Patience Questionnaire (2), Internal Motivation to Respond without Prejudice (3), and the Big-Five Inventory-2 (4), at two time points, four weeks apart.

Results

A series of 4x2 mixed model ANCOVA were conducted with condition as between-subjects, time (T1 vs. T2) as within-subjects, and personality variables as covariates. Separate analyses were conducted for each outcome variable. Results indicated a significant main effect for patience (p=.010). Significant condition x time interaction effects were found for responding without prejudice (p=.041) and courage (p=.045). Participants in the virtue/race salient condition had increased motivation to respond without prejudice and those in the race salient (no virtue) condition had decreased courage; no other changes between T1 to T2 were identified.

Conclusion

Results demonstrate that White college students receiving the virtue/race intervention had decreased prejudicial attitudes. Those who received the race salient intervention (without virtues) had decreased levels of courage. Findings are discussed in light of positive psychology, virtue development, and anti-racism.

  1. Howard, M. C., & Alipour, K. K. (2014). Does the courage measure really measure courage? A theoretical and empirical evaluation. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9, 449–459. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2014.910828
  2. Schnitker, S. A. (2012). An examination of patience and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7, 263–280. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.697185
  3. Plant, E. A., & Devine, P. G. (1998). Internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 811–832. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.3.811
  4. Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096
  5. Turner, R. N., Hewstone, M., Voci, A., & Vonofakou, C. (2008). A test of the extended intergroup contact hypothesis: The mediating role of intergroup anxiety, perceived ingroup and outgroup norms, and inclusion of the outgroup in the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 843–860. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0011434
  6. West, T. V, & Dovidio, J. F. (2012). Intergroup contact across time: Beyond initial contact. In G. Hodson & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Advances in Intergroup Contact (pp. 166–189). London: Psychology Press.
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