Racial anxiety is a measurable stress response to intergroup contact

Evidence

Identity anxiety refers to discomfort surrounding the potential consequences of intergroup interactions. A subset of identity anxiety is racial anxiety—the specific stress response people may feel before or during an interracial interaction (Tropp & Page-Gould, 2015). While the phenomenon is far less known in the cultural conversation about race, it has long been studied in social psychology (e.g., Devine & Vazquez, 1998). For a person of color, the anxiety is that during the interaction they will experience stereotyping, discrimination, hostility, or distant treatment. White people often experience a “mirror anxiety,” fearing that racism will be imputed to them by the person they are interacting with (Devine & Vazquez, 1998). Racial anxiety has been measured with self-reports, and it also has been observed behaviorally with sweating, increased heart rate, facial twitches, fidgeting, and avoiding eye contact when engaging across race (Dovidio et al., 2006). Racial anxiety can also have cognitive effects such as diminishing people’s executive functioning (Richeson et al., 2006). As with implicit bias, researchers have developed physiological tools to measure racial anxiety by assessing release levels of norepinephrine from the locus coeruleus to the anterior cingulate cortex (Amodio, 2009). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1370 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Racial anxiety about Obama ignited the Tea Party movement — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 270; Ongoing minority status itself generates chronic psychological stress for reservation Indians. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 475; Online racial abuse triggers measurable physiological stress responses — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 15 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial anxiety produces measurable physiological, behavioral, and cognitive effects in interracial encounters. #expands (0.92) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1370