Navigating racial/ethnic code-switching: implications for authenticity and shared reality

Racial/ethnic code-switching, or modifying one’s behavior to align with dominant cultural contexts, is a common self-presentational strategy, yet its implications remain underexplored. We propose that code-switching may influence how authentic individuals feel; how authentically they believe they are viewed by members of their own racial/ethnic in-groups and dominant (i.e. White) out-groups; and the degree to which they perceive shared reality with in-groups and out-groups. Across a cross-sectional pilot and a 14-day diary study, we found that code-switching among self-identified people of color is linked to lower subjective authenticity. In the diary study, code-switching was also linked to lower in-group meta-perceptions of authenticity at the daily level. In terms of shared reality, code-switching was associated with lower in-group and greater out-group shared reality at the within-person level, and with greater shared reality across both groups at the between-person level. These results were often moderated by in-group identification, with less negative associations between code-switching and our outcome variables among those lower in identification at the between-person level. Together, these findings point to nuanced psychological and social tradeoffs associated with code-switching, including variations not only in subjective and meta-perceptions of authenticity but also in perceptions of shared reality with members of different groups.