Miscommunications surrounding efforts to reach out across group boundaries

Two studies examined the communication of friendship interest within versus across group boundaries in relatively intimate exchanges. The main hypothesis was that so long as reasonable levels of friendship interest were in place, individuals would be more apt to exaggerate the clarity of their overtures (i.e., to exhibit a signal amplification bias) in intergroup as compared to within-group interaction. In line with predictions, this pattern was evident for lower-prejudice individuals, who were equally interested in ingroup and outgroup members as potential friends, but not for higher-prejudice individuals, who were relatively disinterested in cross-group friendship and instead tended to underestimate the friendship interest they conveyed to outgroup members. In contrast with the implications of past research centering on trait impressions and impersonal exchanges, both of these effects appeared to be driven by heightened feelings of transparency in intergroup as compared to within-group interaction.