Interracial Roommate Relationships Lab Report

In the experiment “Interracial Roommate Relationships” by Natalie J. Shook and Russell H. Fazio, prejudice in a college setting and changes in prejudice when interacting with people of other races was explored. The experimenters decided that a college dormitory would be the perfect setting to explore their questions. The underlying basis for their questions was the idea that prejudice stems from insufficient knowledge and exposure. For their experiment, they explored two different areas. One being the satisfaction of individuals with their roommates in interracial rooms and same race rooms. The other being how perceptions of other races change after having or not having an interracial room during the first year of college. The study was a natural field experiment. Whereas in a lab, conducting field research allowed to follow long term interactions. There was no need for manipulation and random assignment was guaranteed by how the school assigned housing to freshmen, which served as the independent variable. Each student completed a task and self ranking report twice during their first semester, in the first two weeks and the last two weeks, and then were followed up with each following spring semester. In the study, there were 136 white students and 126 African American

One where participants rated their satisfaction with their roommates on a scale, and the other they used a cover story of multitasking ability to test their racial prejudices. The change in racial prejudices served as the dependent variable. Their results in roommate satisfaction matched that in previous studies. Interracial roommate relationships were reported as less satisfying, less socially involving, and less comfortable than those with same race roommates. Racial attitudes changed after being measured in the second session. White students in interracial roommate relationships had more positive racial attitudes and lower intergroup