Concealability beliefs facilitate navigating intergroup contexts

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Abstract
Living in a diverse world requires the ability to navigate intergroup contexts. However, interacting with outgroup members can cause anxiety that leads to lower‐quality interactions and avoidance of future contact. One reason people experience this anxiety is the concern that others will judge them on the basis of an identity. These concerns may be reduced among people who believe the identity is unperceivable by others. The belief that one's identity is concealable may therefore reduce intergroup anxiety and ease people's experiences in intergroup contexts. The present work tests this proposition in two studies and finds that individual differences in concealability beliefs are negatively associated with intergroup anxiety and positively associated with the propensity to initiate intergroup contact and with the quantity and quality of people's cross‐group friendships. Materials, data, and code for both studies and a pre‐registration for Study 2 are available online (https://osf.io/4cjhg/).
Funding Information
  • Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science (ER14‐10‐186)
  • Canada Research Chairs (950‐230493)
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (435‐2017‐0509)

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