The trust gap: The effect of stigmatization on academic experience

Stigma and Group Inequality

“…Together, these combined findings suggest that our traditional focus on establishing optimal conditions within the intergroup context may not be enough to promote positive intergroup relations among members of both minority and majority status groups. Beyond emphasizing conditions of the contact situation, we must also recognize that group members have histories of perceptions and experiences that are likely to inform their understanding of the intergroup relationship (Cohen et al, 2004;Livingston et al, 2004), and their responses to cross-group interactions (Devine & Vasquez, 1998;Plant & Devine, 2003;Tropp, 2003). Indeed, even when objective attempts are made to establish optimal conditions within the contact situation, group members' subjective responses to contact may still be guided by their long-standing views of the intergroup relationship (see Cohen, 1982;Robinson & Preston, 1976).…”

“…Thus, members of minority status groups may be especially vigilant in their relations with the majority outgroup until they feel outgroup members are worthy of their trust (Brown & Dobbins, 2004;. Cohen, Walton, & Garcia (2004) recently examined these issues among ethnic minority and majority students in a high school context. These authors found that ethnic minority and majority students reported similar levels of concern about their academic abilities, as well as comparable levels of social anxiety.…”

“…We then sought to test whether the differences in patterns of effects among White and Black participants might be associated with distinct views of the intergroup relationship. Since members of minority groups anticipate being targeted by prejudice and discrimination to a greater extent than members of majority groups (e.g., Cohen et al, 2004), we focused our analysis on group members' perceptions of diusramination against their group. Specifically, we used respondents' answers to a separate item concerning "how much discrimination there is against (Whites/Blacks) in our society today," with reverse-coded responses ranging from 1 (none at all) to 4 (a great deal).…”