The final type of cross-category friendship is interethnic friendship: a bond between people who share the same cultural background (for example, “American”), but who are of different ethnic groups (“African American,” “Asian American,” “Euro-American,” and so forth). Similar to cross-orientation friendships, interethnic friendships boost cultural awareness and commitment to diversity (Shelton, Richeson, & Bergsieker, 2009). In addition, interethnic friends apply these outcomes broadly. People who develop a close interethnic friendship become less prejudiced toward ethnicities and cultures of all types as a result (Shelton et al., 2009).

The most difficult barriers people face in forming interethnic friendships are attributional and perceptual errors. Too often we let our own biases and stereotypes stop us from having open, honest, and comfortable interactions with people from other ethnic groups. We become overly concerned with the “correct” way to act and end up behaving nervously. Such nervousness may lead to awkward, uncomfortable encounters and may cause us to avoid interethnic encounters in the future, dooming ourselves to friendship networks that lack diversity (Shelton, Trail, West, & Bergsieker, 2010).

How can you overcome these challenges and improve your ability to form interethnic friendships? Review the discussion in Chapter 3 of attributional errors and perception-checking. Look for points of commonality during interethnic encounters that might lead to the formation of a friendship—such as a shared interest in music, fashion, sports, movies, or video games. This effort is well worth it. Having friends from different ethnicities and cultures not only improves your world-mindedness but substantially increases the chances you will forge such friendships in the future (Sias et al., 2008). This is because you learn the enormous benefits that such relationships provide and decrease fear and uncertainty about “outgroupers.”