Recalibrating Valence Weighting Tendencies as a Means of Reducing Anticipated Discomfort with an Interracial Interaction

Abstract

We utilized a general intervention that affects (through “recalibration”) the way people generalize negative associations when evaluating objects to promote less negative expectations about an interaction with a Black Internet “chat” partner. During this intervention, participants played a game to learn which “beans” varying in shape and speckles increased or decreased their points. Participants later classified game beans and new beans as good or bad. Recalibration condition participants were told whether they classified beans correctly, thus receiving feedback regarding the appropriate weighting of resemblance to a known positive versus negative object. Control participants, who received no feedback, were more likely to classify new beans as negative than recalibration participants. Compared to control, the recalibration condition also anticipated feeling less intergroup anxiety during a chat with a Black partner (Experiments 1 and 2) and this effect was strongest among participants who reported fewer close interactions with Black people (Experiment 2).