Longitudinal Examination of the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Across the College Experience Nathan R. Todd DePaul University Lisa B. Spanierman McGill University V. Paul Poteat Boston College This longitudinal investigation adds to the growing body of scholarship on the psychosocial costs of racism to Whites, which refer to the consequences of being in the dominant position in an unjust, hierarchical system of societal racism. We examined how White students’ affective costs of racism (i.e., White empathy, guilt, and fear) changed across the college experience and how gender, colorblind racial ideology, and diversity experiences were associated with those costs. Findings indicated that White empathy, guilt, and fear each had a distinct trajectory of change across the college experience. Moreover, patterns of change for each cost were moderated by colorblind racial attitude scores at college entrance. We also found that participation in college diversity experiences (e.g., diversity courses) was associated with the costs; moreover, different types of diversity experiences were linked to particular costs. These findings provide insight into the affective experiences of White students across college and thus may be useful to counseling psychologists and educators who design and implement programs and policies to enhance diversity education. Keywords: costs of racism to Whites, White racial attitudes, White guilt, racial empathy, diversity education A growing body of literature affirms the positive influence of diversity on multiple outcomes for college students. There are positive associations between participation in diversity courses and cognitive development (Bowman, 2009, 2010); cross-racial friend- ships and intellectual, social, and civic development (Chang, As- tin, & Kim, 2004); diversity activities and lower racial prejudice (Denson, 2009; McClelland & Linnander, 2006; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008); and a diverse student body and academic and social growth (Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, & Gurin, 2002). Moreover, aca- demic and social benefits of diversity are accentuated for White students (Gurin et al., 2002; Hu & Kuh, 2003), perhaps because novel situations promote growth. Although White students’ emo- tional responses to campus diversity experiences are important outcomes to consider (e.g., Goodman, 2001), race-related affect is less well-studied. Research on race-related affect (e.g., anger, sadness, guilt, and fear) has shown positive and negative responses to engagement with diversity (e.g., Iyer, Leach, & Pedersen, 2004; Leach, Snider, & Iyer, 2002; Spanierman, Oh, et al., 2008; Todd, Spanierman, & Aber, 2010); however, these studies are mainly cross-sectional, and changes in such emotional responses across the college expe- rience remain unexamined. Thus, examining racial affect longitu- dinally extends prior scholarship by providing a nuanced under- standing of the dynamic nature of how affect changes over time. Furthermore, because counseling psychologists have expertise in emotions and multicultural issues, their attention to these changes could inform their training of diversity educators and work with the general student population. Our study provides such an exam- ination by investigating White students’ race-related affect and how gender, colorblind racial ideology, engagement in diversity courses, activities, and cross-racial friendships may correlate with race-related affect across the college experience. Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites The psychosocial costs of racism to Whites refer to the negative cognitive (e.g., distorted view of reality), behavioral (e.g., living in segregated neighborhoods), and affective (e.g., guilt about un- earned privilege) consequences of dominant group membership in a White supremacist system (Goodman, 2001; Kivel, 2002; Spani- erman & Heppner, 2004). These costs are in no way comparable to the substantial economic, spiritual, political, and social costs that people of color face as a result of White racism and privilege. However, it is important to recognize that racism affects everyone in negative ways. Spanierman and Heppner (2004) developed the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW), which assesses three distinct affective costs: (a) White empathy, which refers to anger This article was published Online First August 22, 2011. Nathan R. Todd, Department of Psychology, DePaul University; Lisa B. Spanierman, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; V. Paul Poteat, Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston Col- lege. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nathan R. Todd, Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 North Ken- more Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614. E-mail: ntodd@depaul.edu Journal of Counseling Psychology © 2011 American Psychological Association 2011, Vol. 58, No. 4, 508 –521 0022-0167/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0025066 508