Around But Not Close? Mapping Normative Trends in Cross-Race Contact During Adulthood
Stephen Antonoplis & Claude S. Fischer
Abstract
How do people form cross-race relationships in everyday life, and do people vary from each other in this process? Answering these questions can yield useful insights for scholars interested in encouraging cross-race contact. We investigated how people (N = 1,156 Bay Area adults) met their different-race (vs. same-race) contacts, the roles that different-race contacts occupied in their personal networks, and the content and quality of their relationships with their different-race contacts. We found that different-race contacts were, on average, "around but not close." They were met in less intimate settings; they occupied less intimate roles; and they were felt less close to. Importantly, processes varied across people. People who formed cross-race kin relationships were the most likely to have stable cross-race contact, and people who engaged in "high effort" activities with their different-race contacts (e.g., confiding in) had closer relationships with them. We highlight insights of these results for encouraging cross-race contact.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.