In a longitudinalstudy of African American students (Study 1), cross-groupfriendships with majority-group peers buffered studentshigh in RS-race from lack of belonging and dissatisfactionat their university. An experimental intervention (Study 2)that induced cross-group friendship replicated the findingsand established their specificity for minority-group stu-dents.

Cross-group friendship led to decreases incortisol reactivity (a hormonal correlate of stress; W. R. Lovallo & T. L. Thomas, 2000) over 3 friendshipmeetings among participants high in race-based rejection sensitivity (R. Mendoza-Denton, G. Downey,V. J. Purdie, A. Davis, & J. Pietrzak, 2002) and participants high in implicit prejudice (A. G. Greenwald,B. A. Nosek, & M. R. Banaji, 2003). Cross-group partners’ prior intergroup contact moderated therelationship between race-based rejection sensitivity and cortisol reactivity. Following the manipulation,participants kept daily diaries of their experiences in an ethnically diverse setting. Implicitly prejudicedparticipants initiated more intergroup interactions during the diary period after making a cross-groupfriend. Participants who had made a cross-group friend reported lower anxious mood during the diaryperiod, which compensated for greater anxious mood among participants high in race-based rejectionsensitivity.