White anxiety about appearing prejudiced can actually make their Black partners like them more

Evidence

Whites often go into interracial interactions with concerns about appearing prejudiced, and the more they do so, the more anxiety they feel and the less they enjoy the interaction. Ironically, their black partner may like them more under precisely those circumstances (Shelton, 2003). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 347

Majority groups prejudge minorities as likely to be prejudiced against them, which decreases self-esteem and makes the interaction feel unpleasant as people become narcissistically preoccupied with how they themselves are viewed (Vorauer & Kumhyr, 2001). Nevertheless, this can improve the interaction. Whites often go into interracial interactions with concerns about appearing prejudiced, and the more they do so, the more anxiety they feel and the less they enjoy the interaction. Ironically, their black partner may like them more under precisely those circumstances (Shelton, 2003). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 347

Categorization

• SEED: The counterintuitive inversion in interracial liking is a hook for a vault piece on contact theory’s unexpected findings.
• QUESTION: What mechanism makes the white’s anxiety legible to the partner as sincerity rather than discomfort?
• XREF: Counterintuitive dynamic directly relevant to the vault’s contact-theory reassessment: the subjective discomfort and objective success of interracial contact diverge.
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 347; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 347