Affect and understanding during everyday cross-race experiences.

The present research uses an event sampling method to test whether, compared to same-race interactions, everyday cross-race contact is better characterized by the presence of negative affect or the absence of positive affect. Everyday intergroup interactions have some positive and negative aspects, so the present research independently assesses positive affect and negative affect along with felt understanding and misunderstanding. Across 3 studies (Study 1, n = 107; Study 2, n = 112; Study 3, n = 146), we find that European, Asian, and African Americans report that everyday cross-race interactions generate less positive affect and felt understanding than same-race interactions. Yet cross-race interactions entail no more negative affect than same-race interactions. This supports the idea that positive emotions are mostly reserved for and experienced with the ingroup, rather than the idea that people feel animosity toward the outgroup. Given that nearly half of racial-minority group member's everyday interactions are cross-race, their daily encounters are typically less positive than those of racial-majority group members. Feeling less well understood as a result of cross-race contact may increase the likelihood that racial-minority group members question whether they belong on a college campus.

Culture, interpersonal perceptions, and happiness in social interactions.

The authors examined cultural differences in interpersonal processes associated with happiness felt in social interactions. In a false feedback experiment (Study 1a), they found that European Americans felt happier when their interaction partner perceived their personal self accurately, whereas Asian Americans felt happier when their interaction partner perceived their collective self accurately. In Study 1b, the authors further demonstrated that the results from Study 1a were not because of cultural differences in desirability of the traits used in Study 1a. In Studies 2 and 3, they used a 2-week event sampling method and replicated Study 1. Unlike Asian Americans, African Americans were not significantly different from European Americans in the predictors of happiness in social interactions. Together, this research shows that interpersonal affirmation of important aspects of the self leads to happiness and that cultural differences are likely to emerge from the emphasis placed on different aspects of the self.

Cultural variations in motivational responses to felt misunderstanding.

Three studies examined cultural variations in the motivational consequences of being misunderstood by others. Study 1 found that European American students who felt misunderstood by others performed progressively better academically, whereas Asian and Asian American students who felt misunderstood by others performed progressively worse. In Studies 2 and 3, felt misunderstanding was experimentally manipulated, and motivational responses were measured with a handgrip task (Study 2) and prefrontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry (Study 3). Across the two studies, Asians and Asian Americans showed more withdrawal-related responses but European Americans showed either no difference (Study 2) or more motivated responses (Study 3) after being misunderstood versus being understood. Together, these studies demonstrate systematic cultural variations in motivational responses to felt misunderstanding.