Vorauer Jacquie D, Sakamoto Yumiko
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Psychol Sci. 2006 Apr;17(4):326-31. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01706.x.
This study examined the precursors and consequences of systematic miscommunications regarding relationship interest during intergroup interaction. Pairs of previously unacquainted same-sex students (White-White, White-Chinese, or Chinese-Chinese) engaged in a relatively intimate controlled interaction. White participants who had had little prior contact with Chinese persons were more apt to exhibit a signal-amplification bias (i.e., to perceive that their overtures had conveyed more interest than was actually the case) in intergroup as compared with intragroup exchanges. In contrast, White participants with high levels of prior contact with Chinese persons and Chinese participants did not show enhanced signal amplification in intergroup relative to intragroup exchanges. These results support our hypothesis that lack of intergroup contact experience sets the stage for miscommunications regarding friendship interest. White participants' tendency to feel that they had initially communicated more interest in being friends than their Chinese partner mediated a downward shift in their actual friendship interest over time, suggesting that signal amplification triggers defensive distancing and ultimately lowers the likelihood of cross-group friendship formation.
本研究考察了群体间互动中关于关系兴趣的系统性沟通失误的前因后果。此前互不相识的同性学生配对（白人-白人、白人-中国人或中国人-中国人）进行了相对亲密的可控互动。与组内交流相比，之前很少与中国人接触的白人参与者在群体间互动中更倾向于表现出信号放大偏差（即，认为他们的主动表示传达出的兴趣比实际情况更多）。相比之下，与中国人有大量前期接触的白人参与者以及中国参与者在群体间交流中相对于组内交流并未表现出增强的信号放大。这些结果支持了我们的假设，即缺乏群体间接触经验为关于友谊兴趣的沟通失误埋下了伏笔。白人参与者觉得他们最初表达的成为朋友的兴趣比中国伙伴更多的这种倾向，介导了他们实际友谊兴趣随时间的下降，这表明信号放大引发了防御性疏远，并最终降低了跨群体友谊形成的可能性。
