You speak English well! Asian Americans’ reactions to an exceptionalizing stereotype.

An Experimental Analogue Evaluation of Asian and Asian Americans’ Immediate Reactions to Therapist Microaggressions

“…Generally, participants perceived moderate and overt microaggressions as much more offensive and negative than control statements and subtle microaggressions. These results are consistent with microaggression research and literature on individuals’ negative perceptions of microaggressions, and expand upon the experimental evidence indicating that microaggressions are experienced negatively (e.g., Tao et al, 2017; Tran & Lee, 2014).…”

“…To date, there are only a handful of experimental studies examining immediate reactions to microaggressions, and only one in psychotherapy. In the first study (Tran & Lee, 2014), participants were asked to evaluate confederate conversational partners who made neutral statements (e.g., “Nice talking to you”), or committed microaggressions that did or did not explicitly mention race (e.g., “Nice talking to you. You speak English so well for an Asian” versus “Nice talking to you.…”

“…The above studies suggest that interactions that include microaggressions are generally experienced more negatively. However, individuals may not consistently react negatively to microaggressions that do not explicitly target racial group membership (e.g., Tao et al, 2017; Tran & Lee, 2014).…”

“…Second, participants rated perceptions of the overall interaction involving the individual who committed the microaggression, rather than the actual microaggressions being presented. Although confederates in Tran and Lee (2014) followed scripts in interactions with participants, interactions that unfold between individuals are difficult to standardize; perceptions of the interactions may have been impacted by confederates unconsciously acting differently due to knowing they had to commit a microaggression. Finally, differences in perceptions of racially explicit microaggressions may be due to differences in statement lengths across conditions that vary in the amount of negative assumptions conveyed.…”

Microaggressions and Perceptions of Cultural Humility in Counseling

“…Microaggressions have been defined as “brief and commonplace daily verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults that potentially have a harmful or unpleasant psychological impact on the target person or group” (Sue et al, , p. 273). Scholarship originally focused on racial microaggressions, but counselors have now applied the construct to a range of identities (e.g., gender, spirituality, sexual orientation; Charles & Arndt, ; Nadal, ; Owen, Tao, & Rodolfa, ; Shelton & Delgado‐Romero, ; Tran & Lee, ). Once defined, researchers found that microaggressions correlate with indicators of physical health (e.g., hypertension), mental health outcomes, and proximal mediators of stress (e.g., social isolation, rumination, suppression, impulsive risk taking, hopelessness, negative self‐schemas, risk‐taking behavioral expectancies; for a review, see Wong, Derthick, David, Saw, & Okazaki, ).…”