So You’d Rather Do Nothing?: Social Decision Making and Interracial Interactions

Abstract

Despite the fact that interracial interactions have many affective and social benefits, particularly to majority participants, most people participate in interracial interactions at rates far below what chance would predict (Ramiah et al., 2015). There remains an open question in the study of interracial avoidance as to which interactions participants choose to engage in when interracial and intraracial interactions are not competing for participants’ time (Paolini et al., 2018). This study uses techniques from the study of social rewards to investigate participants’ drive to engage in inter- and intraracial interactions in relation to being alone. Given that people seem to value even minimal social experiences (Tamir et al., 2015), it was predicted that participants would value interracial interactions more than being alone, though less than intraracial interactions. Instead, this study found no significant difference between the valuation of interracial and intraracial interactions in relation to being alone, and that most participants preferred to be alone rather than engage in a social interaction regardless of race. This could indicate that, while participants did not view interracial interactions in particular as a deterrent to interacting, in some cases the inherent drive to socialize can be overcome by other contextual factors. This study furthers our understanding of the antecedents of interracial avoidance, and provides groundwork for designing more effective interventions to increase voluntary, positive, sustained contact between different racial groups in the United States.