Given these converging lines of research, we tested whetherfriendships with majority-group peers would buffer minoritystudents who are high in RS-race from feelings of alienation anddiscomfort in historically White university settings.

Givenresearch documenting the benefits of cross-group friend-ship for intergroup attitudes, we tested whether friend-ships with majority-group peers would attenuate theeffects of RS-race within these contexts

Zande, 1999), we report a study in which friendship was inducedbetween same- and cross-group dyads of Latinos/as and Whites.

Building on the experimental paradigm used by Wright andcolleagues (Wright et al., 1998, 2002, 2005; Wright & van der

Wright and his colleagues(see Wright, Aron, & Tropp, 2002; Wright, Brody, & Aron, 2005;Wright, Ropp, & Tropp, 1998; Wright & van der Zande, 1999)described research that provided initial evidence for the causaleffects of cross-group friendship on self-reported anxiety.

Even though interactions between members of different socialgroups are sometimes characterized by anxiety and threat (Blas-covich, Mendes, Hunter, Lickel, & Kowai-Bell, 2001; Mendes,Blascovich, Lickel, & Hunter, 2002; Stephan & Stephan, 1985,2000), a growing body of research suggests that cross-groupfriendship can attenuate such anxiety.

The authors induced cross-group friendship between Latinos/as and Whites to test the effects ofcross-group friendship on anxiety in intergroup contexts.