671 Interracial Roommate Relationships: Negotiating Daily Interactions Thomas E. Trail J. Nicole Shelton Princeton University Tessa V. West University of Connecticut with the same out-group person on a frequent basis. The nature of these interactions is not static: The interactions take place in a rich environment in which relationships develop and impressions change over time. Initial expec- tations may be confirmed or disconfirmed, habits that were once closely monitored are revealed, people let their guard down and say things they would not nor- mally say, and they reveal personal opinions (even ones that might best be left private). People forced to interact with each other through their jobs or other circum- stances generally try to get along, but each person’s initial efforts to get along may wane over time and be replaced by indifference or, at worst, hostility. These dynamics may be particularly important for coworkers, students, and so forth who are from different racial or ethnic backgrounds, because these sometimes subtle changes in behavior have very different meanings in interracial interactions than they do in same-race inter- actions (Sue et al., 2007). In the present research, we attempt to highlight the richness of interracial interactions as they unfold with the same person across time in a naturally occurring setting. The goals of this research are twofold. First, the goal is to Authors’ Note: The Russell Sage Foundation (No. 87-02-04) and the National Institute of Mental Health (No. 1 R03MH069121-01) pro- vided funding for this research. We are indebted to David Kenny for his invaluable statistical help on this manuscript, and to Lisa Pugh and Bonnie Burlingham for their assistance with data collection. Address correspondence to Tom Trail, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540; email: trail@princeton.edu. PSPB, Vol. 35 No. 6, June 2009 671-684 DOI: 10.1177/0146167209332741 © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. Jobs, social group memberships, or living arrangements lead many people to interact every day with another person from a different racial background. Given that research has shown that interracial interactions are often stressful, it is important to know how these daily interactions unfold across time and what factors con- tribute to the success or failure of these interactions. Both members of same-race and mixed-race college roommate pairs completed daily questionnaires measur- ing their emotional experiences and their perceptions of their roommate. Results revealed that roommates in mixed-race dyads experienced less positive emotions and intimacy toward their roommates than did room- mates in same-race dyads and that the experience of positive emotions declined over time for ethnic minority students with White roommates. Mediation analyses showed that the negative effects of roommate race were mediated by the level of intimacy-building behaviors performed by the roommate. Implications for future research and university policies are discussed. Keywords: interracial relationships; intimacy; dyads; daily diary; roommates I n some areas of life, people encounter the opportunity to interact with someone outside of their racial group on a daily basis. A Black employee, for example, may find herself working on a business merger that requires her to interact with the same White female on multiple occasions. A White man may be assigned to live with a Latino man during his freshman year of college, creat- ing a situation in which he may experience encounters at Bobst Library, New York University on November 14, 2016 psp.sagepub.com Downloaded from