An Unbridgeable Gap? Racial Attitudes and Friendship in Prison

The United States is experiencing growth in racial and ethnic diversity, yet racial tensions remain high. Proponents of contact theory suggest that interracial contact should alleviate racial tensions when contact occurs under the right conditions. The current study uses a network approach to examine the relationship between race, racial attitudes, and friendship within a novel setting satisfying the “right” conditions: a good behavior prison unit. Using social network data from 133 men and Exponential Random Graph Models, we examine whether racial attitudes influence the patterns of intraracial versus interracial ties. Results reveal that negative racial attitudes do not differentially impact the sending of intraracial versus interracial ties, but reduce the odds of receiving interracial ties from other participants. We discuss the implications of these findings for contact theory as well as for research on race relations both within and outside of prison.