You deplete me: The cognitive costs of colorblindness on ethnic minorities

a r t i c l e i n f o This study examined how priming Whites with colorblind or multicultural approaches to diversity prior to an inter-racial interaction affects ethnic minorities' cognitive functioning. Although ethnic minorities did not explicitly know which prime their White partner received, ethnic minorities paired with Whites primed with colorblindness (vs. multiculturalism) showed poorer cognitive performance on the Stroop (1935) color-naming task following the interaction. Furthermore, Whites in interracial interactions primed with colorblindness exhibited more behavioral prejudice, which mediated ethnic minorities' decreased cognitive performance. These findings suggest that Whites' exposure to certain ideologies may affect the cognitive performance of the ethnic minorities they encounter. Introduction Racial diversity is on the rise, with increasing numbers of ethnic minorities in the workplace, schools, and neighborhoods (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). At the same time, intergroup tensions remain high. Interacting with people from different ethnic backgrounds often elicits negative reactions, such as anxiety and threat (Blascovich, Mendes, Hunter, Lickel, & Kowai-Bell, 2001). Given increasing diversity, understanding how to smoothly navigate interracial interactions is important for fostering harmonious relationships and well-integrated environments. What is the best way to facilitate positive interracial interactions? Two ideological perspectives – colorblindness and multiculturalism – have emerged to shed light on this question. Colorblindness down-plays the salience and importance of race by focusing on the common-alities people share, such as one's underlying humanity. In contrast, multiculturalism acknowledges and highlights racial differences. domains. The prevalence of colorblind policies is particularly concerning given psychological findings on the adverse effects of colorblindness. Exposure to col-orblind (vs. multicultural) messages predicts negative outcomes among Whites, such as greater implicit and explicit racial bias Given the negative effects of colorblind messages on Whites, what are the outcomes for ethnic minorities who come into contact with these Whites? People are oftentimes unaware of the ideologies endorsed by their colleagues and peers, yet these ideologies may influence them in powerful ways. Indeed, the more White employees endorse a multicultural ideology, the more ethnic minority co-workers demonstrate engagement in the workplace; in contrast, ethnic minority co-workers are less engaged the more Whites endorse a colorblind ideology (Plaut et al., 2009). In addition to being less engaged, do ethnic minorities perform worse on cognitive tasks in settings where those around them endorse colorblindness? The current study examines ethnic minorities' cognitive performance following interactions with Whites who have been primed with a colorblind or multicultural message …