Dyadic interracial interactions: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examined over 40 years of research on interracial interactions by exploring 4 types of outcomes: explicit attitudes toward interaction partners, participants' self-reports of their own emotional state, nonverbal or observed behavior, and objective measures of performance. Data were collected from 108 samples (N = 12,463) comparing dyadic interracial and same-race interactions, predominantly featuring Black and White Americans. Effect sizes were small: Participants in same-race dyads tended to express marginally more positive attitudes about their partners (r = .07), reported feeling less negative affect (r = .10), showed more friendly nonverbal behavior (r = .09), and scored higher on performance measures (r = .07) than those in interracial dyads. Effect sizes also showed substantial heterogeneity, and further analyses indicated that intersectional, contextual, and relational factors moderated these outcomes. For example, when members of a dyad were the same sex, differences between interracial and same-race dyads in negative affect were reduced. Structured interactions led to more egalitarian performance outcomes than did free-form interactions, but the effects of interaction structure on nonverbal behavior depended on participant gender. Furthermore, benefits of intergroup contact were apparent: Differences in emotional state across dyadic racial composition disappeared in longer term interactions, and racial minorities, who often have greater experience with intergroup contact, experienced less negative affect in interracial interactions than did majority group members. Finally, there was a significant historical trend toward more egalitarian outcomes across dyadic racial composition for explicit attitudes and for nonverbal behavior; however, participants' emotional responses and performance have remained consistent.     

Dyadic interactions in accepted and rejected children

Forty same-sex dyads were separated into three groups (accepted, rejected, and mixed status) on the basis of their scores on the likability and rejection scales of the Pupil Evaluation Inventory [Pekarik, E.,et al. (1976).Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 4, 83–97]. These dyads participated in a 10-min videotaped interaction which was separated into three segments: waiting period, cooperative task, and conversational period. Observational recordings of six micro behaviors (talk time, gestures, gaze, smiles, orientation, and laughs), as well as ratings of physical attractiveness and speech volume (loudness) and observational counts of cooperation were obtained from these tapes. These data were subjected to a 2 (sex) × 3 (status) × 3 (segment) MANOVA, with sex and status as between-group factors and segment as a within-group factor. The results indicated a number of significant multivariate effects. Univariate tests for attractiveness, speech volume, and cooperation measures indicated a significant status effect for the variable of intensity. These results are interpreted in terms of the developmental literature on social behavior, as well as the data on face-to-face interactions provided by S. D. Duncan and D. W. Fiske [(1977).Face to face interaction: Research methods, and theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum]. Suggestions for future research are offered.The authors wish to thank the principals, parents and children of Clinton Central Elementary, Frontier Elementary, and Western Elementary Schools for their help and participation in this project. We would also like to express our gratitude to Judith Conger, Patricia Moisan-Thomas, Judith Dygdon, and all other members of the research team who contributed their time and effort to this project.     

Dyadic social behaviour in the hamster: Evidence for contextual mediation

Dyadic social interactions among 34 adult male golden hamsters reared in either standard wire cages (Experiment 1) or cages with sandy substrates (Experiment 2) were observed for 15 min on consecutive days in two neutral arenas with either a bare Plexiglas or a sandy substrate. The tests showed that in the arena with the sandy substrate the hamsters spent less time engaged in agonistic encounters, initiated fewer agonistic encounters of all kinds and engaged in fewer agonistic encounters of a potentially physically damaging nature (i.e. violent encounters) than they did in the arena with the Plexiglas substrate. These effects were the same in animals reared under either condition. This finding argues against the behavioural effects being due to the novelty of a sand substrate to laboratory-reared hamsters. Consequently, the social behaviour of hamsters in laboratory settings is highly labile across various contexts. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the behavioural effects of contextual variables if general behavioural principles are to be derived from laboratory indices of social behaviour in hamsters, and possibly a number of other species.     

Alignment in social interactions

According to the prevailing paradigm in social-cognitive neuroscience, the mental states of individuals become shared when they adapt to each other in the pursuit of a shared goal. We challenge this view by proposing an alternative approach to the cognitive foundations of social interactions. The central claim of this paper is that social cognition concerns the graded and dynamic process of alignment of individual minds, even in the absence of a shared goal. When individuals reciprocally exchange information about each other's minds processes of alignment unfold over time and across space, creating a social interaction. Not all cases of joint action involve such reciprocal exchange of information. To understand the nature of social interactions, then, we propose that attention should be focused on the manner in which people align words and thoughts, bodily postures and movements, in order to take one another into account and to make full use of socially relevant information.     

Negative self-imagery in social anxiety contaminates social interactions

Patients with social phobia report experiencing negative images of themselves performing poorly when in feared social situations. The present study investigates whether such negative self-imagery (based on memory of past social situations) contaminates social interactions. High socially anxious volunteers participated in two conversations with another volunteer (conversational partner). During one conversation, the socially anxious volunteers held in mind a negative self-image, and during the other they held in mind a less negative (control) self-image. As predicted, when holding the negative image the socially anxious volunteers felt more anxious, reported using more safety behaviours, believed that they performed more poorly, and showed greater overestimation of how poorly they came across (relative to ratings by the conversational partner). Conversational partners rated the socially anxious volunteers' performance as poorer in the negative image condition. Furthermore, the conversation was contaminated since both groups of participants rated its quality as poorer in the negative image condition.     

Visual categorization of social interactions

Prominent theories of action recognition suggest that during the recognition of actions the physical patterns of the action is associated with only one action interpretation (e.g., a person waving his arm is recognized as waving). In contrast to this view, studies examining the visual categorization of objects show that objects are recognized in multiple ways (e.g., a VW Beetle can be recognized as a car or a beetle) and that categorization performance is based on the visual and motor movement similarity between objects. Here, we studied whether we find evidence for multiple levels of categorization for social interactions (physical interactions with another person, e.g., handshakes). To do so, we compared visual categorization of objects and social interactions (Experiments 1 and 2) in a grouping task and assessed the usefulness of motor and visual cues (Experiments 3, 4, and 5) for object and social interaction categorization. Additionally, we measured recognition performance associated with recognizing objects and social interactions at different categorization levels (Experiment 6). We found that basic level object categories were associated with a clear recognition advantage compared to subordinate recognition but basic level social interaction categories provided only a little recognition advantage. Moreover, basic level object categories were more strongly associated with similar visual and motor cues than basic level social interaction categories. The results suggest that cognitive categories underlying the recognition of objects and social interactions are associated with different performances. These results are in line with the idea that the same action can be associated with several action interpretations (e.g., a person waving his arm can be recognized as waving or greeting).     

Supportive and problematic social interactions: A social network analysis

Assessed the number of sources of supportive and problematic social interactions in the total social network as well as the number who were the sources of consistently supportive or problematic interactions in a sample of 2nd year medical students. Number of problematic interaction sources was hypothesized to be more predictive of psychological and physical well-being than number of supportive interaction sources. Results showed that total supportive and total problematic interaction sources were equally predictive of life satisfaction. The presence of at least one individual who is a consistent source of problematic interactions was most predictive of lower life satisfaction. Results indicate the importance of studying both supportive and problematic social interactions. They also suggest that interactions with individuals that are consistently problematic may negatively impact upon well-being.     

Steroid hormones and some evolutionary-relevant social interactions

The steroid hormones, testosterone and cortisol, have some common characteristics, but they are related to generally antagonic processes at both the physiological and psychological levels. In addition, they are the product of the activation of two axes, the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA), which are very sensitive to a wide range of stressors. Our review focuses on the role of testosterone and cortisol in some social situations, such as competition and others related to the challenge hypothesis, that are evolutionary-relevant and have a component of social stress. Research findings are presented on these points, especially emphasizing the relevance of how the individual interprets social stimuli and attributes of the other participant in the interaction, producing consequences in the response pattern to the social situation. This paper presents empirical support for the role of the interaction between the reproductive HPG and stress HPA axes in several social behaviors with important adaptive significance.     

Thought about actions in social domains: Morality,social conventions,and social interactions

Judgments about actual and hypothetical events were examined. The study, conducted in elementary (first, third, and fifth grades) and junior high (seventh grades) schools, included behavioral observations and assessments of judgments. Observations were conducted of 108 events classified as moral, as conventional, and as mixed type. Participants’ reactions and communications differed by domain of the event. Judgments and justifications of 312 participants in the events showed that they discriminated between the domains on several dimensions. Judgments and justifications corresponded with ones made about comparable hypothetical situations. The study supported the proposition that judgments in the domains of morality and social convention about actual events correspond with judgments about hypothetical situations. It was also found that the domains are associated with the ways children interact socially.     

Perceiver threat in social interactions with stigmatized others

The extent to which stigmatized interaction partners engender perceivers' threat reactions (i.e., stigma-threat hypothesis) was examined. Experiments 1 and 2 included the manipulation of stigma using facial birthmarks. Experiment 3 included manipulations of race and socioeconomic status. Threat responses were measured physiologically, behaviorally, and subjectively. Perceivers interacting with stigmatized partners exhibited cardiovascular reactivity consistent with threat and poorer performance compared with participants interacting with nonstigmatized partners, who exhibited challenge reactivity. In Experiment 3, intergroup contact moderated physiological reactivity such that participants who reported more contact with Black persons exhibited less physiological threat when interacting with them. These results support the stigma-threat hypothesis and suggest the utility of a biopsychosocial approach to the study of stigma and related constructs.     

Dyadic synchrony in parent–child interactions: A link with maternal representations of attachment relationships

The study examined the relation between maternal representations of attachment relationships from childhood and current parent–child interactions with their own preschool aged children. Thirty-six mother–child dyads were recruited from a community sample. The Adult Attachment Interview was converted into a questionnaire (AAIQ) and used to classify mothers as either “secure” or “insecure.” The mother–child dyads then engaged in a 20-min, videotaped play interaction task. The quality of maternal representations of attachment relationships was related to the degree of dyadic synchrony, as well as maternal affect and style of relating. Secure mothers and their children engaged in a more fluid, synchronous process of give-and-take than insecure mothers and their children. In addition, secure mothers expressed more warmth and affection, and their style of relating was less intrusive and more encouraging of child autonomy than insecure mothers. Children of secure mothers sought closer contact and were more compliant than children of insecure mothers. These interaction patterns were uniquely related to maternal representations of attachment, independent of maternal age, education and SES. There were no differences in these patterns of relating between mothers who had experienced loving relationships in childhood (continuous secure) and mothers who had come to terms with unloving and painful childhood relationships (earned secure). Therefore, rather than the quality of childhood histories, it was the manner in which these early experiences were mentally organized and integrated in adulthood that was significantly related to current parent–child interaction patterns. Finally, these differences in parent–child interaction patterns that were apparent on the observational measure were in contrast to information obtained from a maternal self-report measure. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Marginal and mindful: deviants in social interactions

Master status people's behavior, physical appearance, or life circumstance is statistically unusual and centrally defining (e.g., the physically attractive, the obese, the intellectually gifted, the facially scarred, the talented, the athletic, Blacks, gays, the wealthy, rape and incest victims). These individuals were paired with people without such conditions. Each pair was left alone on a pretext and covertly videotaped. Pairs were then separated; each member spontaneously recalled information about her partner and the experimental room and provided a record of her thoughts and feelings during the interaction. As hypothesized, all master status Ss were particularly likely to be mindful in social interactions; they recalled detailed information about the situation and often took their partner's perspective during the interaction. The positive or negative connotations of the master status conditions were irrelevant in predicting Ss cognitions (mindfulness) but were critical in determining Ss behaviors (interaction strategies).