Interracial interactions at racially diverse university campuses.
The present research was an observational study of casual interracial and intraracial public-group interactions among African American, Asian American, Latino, and White students at 6 southern California State University campuses. Results indicated (a) that at these racially diverse public-university campuses, there was no difference between the percentages of interracial and intraracial groups; (b) specifically, that at the campus with the second largest percentage of non-White students, there were more interracial than intraracial interactions; and (c) that for each of the 4 ethnic groups, at the campuses with the largest percentages of the specific group, interactions were more likely to be intraracial than they were at campuses that had smaller percentages of the specific group. Despite reports of self-segregation, these findings suggest that when Whites are not the majority of students, interracial interactions are common.
Cowan
Gloria
G
Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino 92407, USA. gcowan@csusb.edu
D000328:Adult; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011287:Prejudice; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities