Understanding Cross-Racial Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction Through Interracial Anxiety and Cross-Group Contact

Managing Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction (CCI) is an essential task for any service provider since the presence of other consumers within the same service setting may spoil or enhance one’s service experience. CCI becomes even more critical in multiracial societies as it implies the integration of consumers from different racial backgrounds. This study, through an experiment ran amongst South African white subjects, demonstrates the fundamental impact of perceived homophily, anxiety and cross-group contact on CCI and consumers’ experience. Specifically, this study confirms, within the field of marketing, Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis and highlights its key influence on consumer behavior in a racially diverse marketplace.