Abstract
This study sought to examine the suitability of the Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI) items for contemporary interracial social relationships on social media. The study employed qualitative cognitive interviews with 28 persons of color in the U.S. Findings suggest that the CMI may not be a suitable measure for accurately assessing relational trust across different racial groups on social media due to generational change in consciousness about race relations, and the perceived ambiguity of the CMI items. Findings also reveal that the CMI is limited in its ability to assess racial trust on social media and may not account for how trust manifests across different social media platforms. These findings suggest that the continued use of the CMI to assess contemporary interracial relationships is not recommended.
Highlights
Four decades after its conception, researchers have not fully interrogated the suitability of Terrell and Terrell’s (1981) conceptualization of “cultural mistrust” for today’s interracial social relationships
To examine how students of color today conceptualize cultural mistrust on social media in order to determine if the Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI) items are suitable for use today, and if they require updating, qualitative methods were deemed appropriate for this inquiry
Cognitive interviews largely exposed a generational mismatch between the participants and the constructs in the 13 CMI items drafted in 1981
Summary
Four decades after its conception, researchers have not fully interrogated the suitability of Terrell and Terrell’s (1981) conceptualization of “cultural mistrust” for today’s interracial social relationships. Because “race” is a socio-historical concept (Omi & Winant, 2014), it stands to reason that current conceptions of race, interracial trust, and interracial social relationships are likely to reflect decades of social, cultural, and political change since 1981. All such scales have limitations based on changing social contexts. An examination of the CMI is needed to improve the validity of social science inquiries that seek to better understand how interracial social relationships are carried out by new generations in the 21st century’s trademark relational space, social media
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