Relational identity-safety cues for Black and Latinx Americans during interactions with White Americans

Abstract

Although interracial interactions often elicit identity threat, cues within and surrounding the encounter can promote identity safety. Across three studies, Black and Latinx Americans (N = 907) generated and evaluated relational identity-safety cues—words, body language, and behaviors during recalled and imagined interactions with White people that made them feel valued, respected, and less likely to be stereotyped. Participants generated distinct cues when imagining a race-relevant conversation with a White individual, including support (e.g., “expressing empathy”) and racism disapproval (e.g., “condemns racism”), compared to anticipating a non-race-relevant conversation, which elicited friendliness (e.g., “smiling”), comfort (e.g., “relaxed demeanor”), and similarity cues (e.g., “enjoy the same hobbies”). Corroborating these open-ended results with a preregistered experiment, participants anticipated experiencing more identity safety when imagining a White person exhibit support and racism disapproval cues during a discussion of racial injustice (vs. a non-race-relevant topic). This research highlights the subtle but powerful interpersonal signals from White Americans that foster racially minoritized people’s identity safety during general and race-relevant interactions.