White out of mind: Identity suppression as a coping strategy among Whites anticipating racially charged interactions

Abstract

Discussing racial issues often makes Whites anxious, particularly when their conversation partners are Black. We theorized that Whites seek to avoid anxiety by suppressing thoughts of White identity prior to such interactions. In Study 1, White participants expected to discuss a race-related or nonracial topic with a Black or White partner. An Implicit Association Test (IAT) measured subsequent changes in the activation of participants’ White identities (i.e., self–White associations). The prospect of discussing race-related (vs. nonracial) topics with a Black partner reduced participants’ self–White associations, implying identity suppression. Moreover, participants’ nonverbal responses suggest that identity suppression functioned to mute participants’ anxiety. In Study 2, participants completed the identity activation measure only after learning that they would not interact with a partner. Consistent with “rebound” effects known to follow suppression, participants who previously expected to discuss a race-related topic with a Black partner showed heightened self–White associations.