INTERRACIAL INTERACTIONS COMPREHENSIVE REPORT

Abstract

People interact with each other on a regular basis and is very common in today's society. Even though society is more accepting of all people, past studies indicate that interracial interactions have a negative effect on people's cognitive processes, namely executive functioning. This work examined the consequences of interracial interactions on a specific typing of executive functioning-flexible thinking. It was hypothesized that interracial interactions compared to same-race interactions (e., minority-minority, or White-White interactions) will deplete flexible thinking. Twenty participants diverse in age, gender, and race were video recorded while having a brief interaction with either a minority or White experimenter. After the interaction, participants completed a measure of flexible thinking known as the Wisconsin Sorting Task. Results shows that participants in interracial interactions produced more errors and had longer response times on the Wisconsin Sorting Task compared to same-race interactions, though these results were statistically significant. Implications for future