Future directions for intergroup contact theory and research

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2012

Research has recently shown that imagining intergroup contact can reduce hostility toward outgroups. The present experiment explored whether imagining intergroup contact leads to more positive perceptions of outgroups differentially stereotyped on the two fundamental dimensions of social perception, namely warmth and competence. Depending on the experimental condition, participants (N = 123) imagined either an intergroup encounter with an outgroup member rated as high (vs. low) on warmth and competence or an outdoor scene. Results showed that imagining an intergroup encounter enhances warmth and competence perception of dehumanized groups, and promotes the perception of warmth and competence of envied and paternalized groups, respectively. These findings suggest that imagined contact could promote positive intergroup relationships toward a wide range of social groups, even dehumanized groups.

Politics & Policy, 2015

Research on attitudes toward gay people and same-sex marriage finds that individuals who know a gay person in their immediate personal network are not only more likely to view gay people positively but also support samesex marriage. Here we examine whether this result extends to an individuals stance toward specific ballot measures regarding same-sex marriage across different social and political climates ranging from the conservative South to the liberal Pacific Northwest. Using survey data collected in three states that considered banning or approving same-sex marriage during the 2012 election cycle, we analyze the hypothesis that a personal relationship with a gay person affects an individuals vote choice on a ballot measure with actual policy consequences. In the end, we find mixed results across the three states. Our results suggest the importance of state-level variation in the social climate that may temper the effect of contact.

Journal of Peace Education, 2014

There is growing interest in the impact of Jewish and Arab historical narratives on intergroup relations and conflict. A randomized placement comparative study set out to examine it empirically. Conventional-Authoritative official narrative, Empathetic-Dual narrative, and Critical-Disciplinary multiplesource teaching interventions were designed around the topic of the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem. 75 Jewish and 85 Arab Israeli adolescents were placed in each of the three different approaches to teaching history and in a control group. Following the learning intervention, participants from both communities were paired by condition and discussed the causes and possible solution of the refugee problem. Dominance and agreement in discussion were analyzed, revealing a significant effect of teaching approach. Findings show discussions in Empathetic-Dual narrative, and Critical-Disciplinary feature a lower degree of dominating discourse by the dominant group. Conventional-Authoritative approach featured lower frequency of agreement on solution for the problems caused by the conflict, compared to control and multiple perspective teaching approaches.

Social Psychology, 2009

Prejudices are linked. Research over the past seventy years has repeatedly uncovered this important fact. More recently the point has been underscored by the discovery in intergroup contact research of a secondary transfer effect (STE).

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2011

European Review of Social Psychology, 2014

Research in social psychology has provided impressive evidence that intergroup contact reduces prejudice. However, to the extent that strategies based on direct contact are sometimes difficult to implement, scholars have more recently focused on indirect contact. An effective form of indirect contact is extended contact. According to the extended contact hypothesis, simply knowing that ingroup members have outgroup friends (extended contact), or observing these friendships vicariously (vicarious contact), can improve intergroup relations. Since its initial formulation a large body of studies has supported the validity of the extended contact hypothesis. In reviewing the available literature on two forms of indirect contact (extended and vicarious), we outline a model that identifies their antecedents and consequences, spanning from cognitive to affective to behavioural outcomes. In addition to identifying the main moderators of indirect contact, we also distinguish two different routes, one cognitive and one affective, that underlie what processes mediate their effects. Finally, we indicate some possible avenues for future research and we consider how direct and indirect contact strategies can be used in combination to improve intergroup relations.

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 2014

This research introduced the concept of intercultural sensitivity to investigate the relationships between the context of volunteer tourism and the change in intercultural sensitivity, empirically assessing the supposition that volunteer tourism facilitates cross-cultural understanding. As a theoretical backdrop, the study utilized Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) postulating that one's journey towards greater intercultural sensitivity consists of six consecutive stages along the enthnocentrism-ethnorelativism continuum. Canonical correlation analysis of the survey data revealed that quality of interaction with the host community was the most significant predictor of change in intercultural sensitivity. Additionally, this study demonstrated that volunteer tourism is linked to positive and negative changes in intercultural sensitivity and therefore has the potential to simultaneously promote and inhibit cross-cultural understanding.

Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2016

Journal of International Students

Social media has become the window to the world near and far for international students. Apart from socializing and connecting with friends, what educational outcomes can be attributed to social networking sites (SNS)? This study examines the possibility that intercultural interactions on SNS can serve as a means of developing the transnational competence required for effective participation in an interconnected world. In this exploratory study, Japanese students studying in the United States participated in a mixed method study involving (1) a structured questionnaire about their perceived empowerment benefits of frequenting global SNS and (2) semi-structured interviews about the nature of these intercultural interactions on SNS. The implications of Facebook use for transnational-competence development are explored.

Journal of Community Psychology, 2011

This study investigates the sense of community and interethnic relations in two different metropolitan areas that vary in ethnic heterogeneity. The study was conducted in Milan, Italy using a sample of 318 participants living in different city districts that vary in ethnic heterogeneity (low vs. high). The participants completed a questionnaire that assessed their psychological sense of community, blatant and subtle prejudice, host community acculturation strategies, and some measures of contact (quality, quantity, and type). The results indicate that high ethnic heterogeneity is related to a lower sense of community, higher blatant prejudice, and exclusionism. Residents living in lower ethnic heterogeneity neighborhoods reported closer contact opportunities and lower levels of prejudice. C 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Traditionally, studies of intergroup contact have primarily relied on self-reports, which constitute a valid method for studying intergroup contact, but has limitations, especially if researchers are interested in negative or extended contact. In three studies, we apply social network analysis to generate alternative contact parameters. Studies 1 and 2 examine selfreported and network-based parameters of positive and negative contact using cross-sectional datasets (N = 291; N = 258), indicating that both methods help to explain intergroup relations.

British Educational Research Journal

European Journal of Social Psychology

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Positive neighborhood norms, such as strong local networks, are critical to people's satisfaction with, perceived disadvantage of, and intentions to stay in, their neighborhood. At the same time, local ethnic diversity is said to be detrimental for these community outcomes.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Hiel for their constructive input in the design of Study 1.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Frontiers in Psychology, 2016

Motor resonance (MR) involves the activation of matching motor representations while observing others' actions. Recent research has shown that such a phenomenon is likely to be influenced by higher order variables such as social factors (e.g., ethnic group membership). The present study investigates whether and how the perception of a social threat elicited by an outgroup member and by contextual cues can modulate motor responses while an individual observes others' movements. In an experimental study based on an action observation paradigm, we asked participants to provide answers through computer mouse movements (MouseTracker). We manipulated the agents' group membership (ingroup vs. outgroup) and the social valence of the objects present in a context (neutral vs. threatening) to elicit social menace through contextual cues. Response times and computer mouse trajectories were recorded. The results show a higher level of MR (i.e., participants started to respond earlier and were faster at responding) when observing an action performed by the ingroup members rather than by the outgroup members only when threatening objects are present in a given context. Participants seem to resonate better with their ingroup; conversely, the outgroup member movements tend to delay motor responses. Therefore, we extend prior research going beyond the general ingroup bias effect on MR and showing that the interaction between membership and contextual cues is likely to elicit threat-related stereotypes. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Journal of Peace Research

How do individuals’ personal experiences with various aspects of political violence affect their attitudes toward hosting conflict refugees? More specifically, how do their personal exposure to violence, their own personal experience of being displaced, and their recent contact with refugees influence these attitudes? To explore answers to these questions, we draw upon a recent survey of 2,400 Lebanese residents where we identify individuals who experienced violence during the Lebanese civil war (1975–90), those forced to flee their homes during that conflict, and those who enjoy recent contact with Syrian immigrant and/or displaced populations. We examine whether these distinct experiences affect respondents’ regard for members of the Syrian refugee population. Results demonstrate that historical exposure to violence and experience of displacement have no discernible impact on individual attitudes toward hosting refugees. We find much stronger evidence that attitudes are associated...

European Journal of Social Psychology

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2018

This paper broadens our understanding of the consequences of negative intergroup contact. Study 1 reports cross-sectional evidence that negative contact with European immigrants in Britain is not only associated with increased prejudice, but also the avoidance of future contact with this group. Study 2A and 2B provided an experimental replication in a different intergroup context. A negative encounter with an outgroup member, but not an ingroup member, was found to reduce intentions to engage in contact with the outgroup in the future. Study 3 went on to demonstrate that the effect of negative contact on outgroup avoidance is not limited to the contacted outgroup, but is indirectly associated with reduced intentions to engage with other, secondary outgroupsan effect we refer to as an 'avoidance generalization effect'. Negative contact was also associated with lower general contact selfefficacy. Together, findings suggest that negative contact is damaging not just because it increases prejudice but also because it compromises future engagement with diversity.

Sport, Education and Society, 2012

Despite decreasing homophobia, openly gay male athletes are still rare in organized, competitive teamsports (Anderson 2005). In this action research, we explore two aspects of homosexuality and sport: 1) the effect of a gay male soccer player coming out to his teammates; and 2) the effect of having an openly gay researcher in the field. This is therefore the first-ever first-hand account of an athlete's coming-out process with researchers in the field. Even though this is action research and therefore not generalisable, we highlight that this research contributes to the body of literature on sexuality and sport because we document the interactions of straight athletes with a gay player and a gay researcher among the heterosexual players at a small, Catholic college in the American Midwest. We use interviews to show that players were accepting of homosexuality before the beginning of this research, and show that discussions with these two gay men further promoted players' perspectives on homosexuality. This led to an increase in the team's social cohesion and a decrease in heteronormativity.

Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie

Journal of community & applied social psychology

Caring is a positive social act, but can it result in negative attitudes towards those cared for, and towards others from their wider social group? Based on intergroup contact theory, we tested whether care workers' (CWs) positive and negative contact with old-age care home residents (CHRs) predicts prejudiced attitudes towards that group, and whether this generalises to other older people. Fifty-six CWs were surveyed about their positive and negative contact with CHRs and their blatant and subtle attitudes (humanness attributions) towards CHRs and older adults. We tested indirect paths from contact with CHRs to attitudes towards older adults via attitudes towards CHRs. Results showed that neither positive nor negative contact generalised blatant ageism. However, the effect of negative, but not positive, contact on the denial of humanness to CHRs generalised to subtle ageism towards older adults. This evidence has practical implications for management of CWs' work experience...

Political Studies Review

In this meta-analysis, we summarize the results of 48 peer-reviewed articles on the radical right-wing vote in Western Europe. These results come from 48 peer-reviewed articles published from January 1990 until October 2017. We use the following inclusion criteria, the selected articles must focus on Western Europe, they must have the vote share of one or several radical right-wing parties as the dependent variable, and at least one structural variable as the independent variable. We find that more than 20 different structural variables have been tested. Most of them, like unemployment, reflect mitigate results in explaining the electoral support for radical right-wing parties. For others, like immigration, the statistical significance and direction of the relationship seem to be highly dependent on the type of proxies used. In fact, only a few variables, such as crime rates and the district magnitude seem to have a consistent effect on the vote share for radical right-wing parties.

European Journal of Training and Development, 2012

Purpose-The use of teams in organizations given the current trend toward globalization, population changes, and an aging workforce, especially in high-income countries, makes the issue of diverse team building critical. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of team diversity and team performance through the examination of theory and empirical research. Specifically, the paper seeks to answer the question: "How might individuals with diverse characteristics such as culture, age, work experience, educational background, aptitude and values, become successful team members?". Design/methodology/approach-A review of theories that are pertinent to individual differences and team formation, including social identity theory, mental models, inter contact theory, social comparison theory, and chaos theory, was conducted. Team formation and diversity literature were reviewed to identify ways of developing diverse and effective teams. Findings-It is a truism that working together in teams is a smart way of achieving organizational performance goals. This paper discusses the theories, research and practices that underlie the development of efficient and effective teams. It demonstrates that recognizing the underlying individual differences, mental models, and assumptions that team members bring to the organization can help build teams that are able to overcome dysfunctional barriers and ensure performance improvement of the individuals, teams and organizations. Research limitations/implications-The approach used to review the literature is a limitation of this study as the authors may have missed a discussion surrounding an important concept or theory related to team diversity and performance. Practical implications-Human resource development interventions that target team building, team work and team learning include modules that raise awareness of the perspectives of team members' individual differences and appropriateness of actions. Training at the team level should focus on the interaction between factors that shape the identity of individuals. Procedures and work design systems should be redesigned to insure that the development of strong and functional teams is supported from a holistic and organizational perspective. Originality/value-This paper highlights diversity issues related to individual differences that underlie team formation and suggests strategies needed to develop effective teams.

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Background/Context As a result of migration processes, schools in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium) are notably ethnically diverse. This evolution has coincided with an increasing number of studies focusing on ethnic-minority pupils’ experiences of ethnic prejudice from their ethnic majority counterparts. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Taking into consideration the lack of research on the importance of cultural school features to students’ ethnic prejudice, this study investigates the association between a multicultural teacher culture and the ethnic prejudice of Flemish secondary school pupils. In addition, the analysis tests the mediating role of pupils’ perceptions of the multicultural educational practices of teachers and controls for individual and school characteristics that have been shown to be related to ethnic prejudice. Population/Participants/Subject/Research Design Multilevel analyses were carried out on data from 2,083 Flemish pupils a...

Mass Communication and Society

Her research interests include how media use in the current media environment influences people's attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors, especially as related to outgroup attitudes.

Political Psychology, 2013

Informed by social identity theory and a rhetorical approach to the study of social category construction in social interaction, this study analyzed the nature and function of participant utterances in two conditions of intergroup dialogue about history between Israelis and Palestinians. Across conditions that sought to either emphasize recategorization into a common in-group identity or subcategorization into mutually differentiated identities, Palestinian and Arab Israeli utterances primarily reflected the theme of victimization, while Jewish Israeli utterances primarily reflected themes of justification and victimization. The way in which these utterances produced social competition for victim and perpetrator roles and reproduced master historical narratives of Palestinian victimization versus Jewish Israeli "righteous" victimization is illustrated. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of narrative and rhetoric about social categories in settings of intractable political conflict, and implications for dialogue-based intervention about history are addressed.

Social Sciences, 2018

The aim of this study is to analyze the nature of multiethnic academic interactions in relation to theories of cultural capital and boundary-work. More precisely, it considers to what extent school structure is related to the cultural capital of students from different ethnic backgrounds and explores its relationship to Intergroup Contact Theory and identity. Methods include documentary analysis, participant observation, interviews, and focus groups conducted from an ethnographic perspective between 2015 and 2016. Based on data collected in a Basque school attended by a high proportion of immigrant students, intraethnic and interethnic student–student and student–teacher relationships, and inequalities within these, are analyzed. Results indicate that the distribution of students in different classes tended to be ethnically marked, as most immigrant students chose to attend classes that were taught mostly in Spanish, whereas most autochthonous students were enrolled in classes with ...

European Journal of Political Research, 2017

We study the causal effect of personal contact with ethnic minorities on majority members' views on immigration, immigrants' work ethic, and support for lower social assistance benefits to immigrants than to natives. We get exogenous variation in personal contact by randomizing soldiers into different rooms during the basic training period for conscripts in the Norwegian Army's North Brigade. Based on contact theory of majority-minority relations, we spell out why the army can be regarded as an ideal contextual setting for exposure to reduce negative views on minorities. We find a substantive effect of contact on views on immigrants' work ethic, but small and insignificant effects on support for welfare dualism and on views on whether immigration makes Norway a better place to live.

Child development, 2017

The effects of school-based ethnic diversity on student well-being and race-related views were examined during the first year in middle school. To capture the dynamic nature of ethnic exposure, diversity was assessed both at the school-level (n = 26) and based on academic course enrollments of African American, Asian, Latino, and White students (n = 4,302; M = 11.33 years). Across all four pan-ethnic groups, school-level ethnic diversity was associated with lower sense of vulnerability (i.e., feeling safer, less victimized, and less lonely) as well as perceptions of teachers' fair and equal treatment of ethnic groups and lower out-group distance. Underscoring the role of individual experiences, exposure to diversity in academic classes moderated the association between school-level diversity and the two aforementioned race-related views.

Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2017

Using communication infrastructure theory (CIT), this study examines how place-based communication, including neighborhood interpersonal discussion, geo-ethnic media, and local organizations, may have the potential to promote multiethnic intergroup relations through forging a sense of neighborhood belonging. Based on survey data consisting of 405 diverse community members, this study employs structural equation modeling to test the relationships among residents' connection to place-based communication, their level of neighborhood belonging, out-group contact frequency, and perceived interaction quality across six interethnic dyads. Findings suggest that place-based communication does impact multiethnic intergroup interaction, but the direction and magnitude of such effects diverge along ethnic lines.

Sociology of Education, 2012

This study uses qualitative data to investigate the process of social integration for minority students at a majority white high school and identifies significant gender differences in this process. At this school, integration is the result of processes that occur at two different levels of interaction. On the interpersonal level, African American and Latino/a males and females engage in very different integration strategies. Males are able to gain social status at the school through their participation in athletics and their physical embodiment of the urban “hip-hop star” and also by engaging in strategies to play down negative stereotypes. In contrast, females do not have access to similar avenues for social status and do not engage in such strategies. The organization of the school contributes to these gender differences by facilitating interracial contact for the males under ideal conditions, while providing the females with less opportunity for contact. This study has implicati...

Ethnicities, 2014

Contact theory and threat group theory offer contradictory hypothesis regarding the effect of contact with immigrants. Does contact reduce or increases negative attitudes towards immigration? This article integrates both approaches and tests the effect of contact towards immigrants when different contexts are considered. We investigate the effect of the economic environment and the immigrant group size on modifying attitudes towards immigration in the context of Catalonia, which offers a complex environment where traditional hypotheses can be tested. Results show that close contact and family contact with immigrants reduce prejudices. However, mixed results are reported regarding the effect of the economic environment or the immigrant group size. Findings also show that Catalan identity is related to lower levels of negative attitudes towards immigrants, regardless of having experienced contact with foreigners. Results have implications on the impact of context when dealing with the...

Journal of Family Issues, 2022

The present study investigated factors associated with parent awareness and socialization surrounding COVID-19-related racial disparities among White parents of children ages 1.5–8 living in Canada and the United States ( N = 423, 88% mothers). Participants responded to an online survey about parenting during the pandemic between mid to late-April 2020. Participants reported on their level of awareness of COVID-19-related racial disparities as well as how often they discussed these with their children. Although 52% reported some level of awareness, only 34% reported any amount of discussion with their child about it. Regression models were used to further examine stress-related, socioeconomic, parenting, and news-watching associations with awareness and socialization. This study provides unique insight into which White parents are aware of racial inequities exposed by the pandemic and which are choosing to speak to their children about them. Current summary recommendations for White...

British Journal of Social Psychology, 2018

This study investigated the associations between cross-group friendships and psychological well-being among a sample of physically disabled adults. A total of 269 disabled people (M age = 39.13, SD = 13.80; 114 females, 152 males, 3 unknown) completed questionnaires including the quality of their friendships with non-disabled people, perceived majority group's attitudes towards the minority group, collective self-esteem, collective action tendencies, own outgroup attitudes, and psychological well-being. Findings demonstrated that disabled people's cross-group friendships were directly and indirectly associated with higher levels of psychological well-being via two routes: one by promoting perceived majority attitudes which consequently led to more positive own outgroup attitudes (well-being through social integration hypothesis) and the other by leading to higher levels of collective self-esteem which enhanced collective action tendencies (well-being through empowerment hypothesis). Findings offer important insights into the study of cross-group friendships in relation to the psychological well-being of stigmatized minority group members. Ample evidence throughout the world has shown intergroup contact (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew, 1997, 1998), especially when it is positive, to be an effective strategy to foster positive attitudes and behaviours between different group members (see Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006 for meta-analysis). Recent research in the contact literature has started to focus more on the relatively understudied aspects of intergroup contact and take into account the perspective of minority group members which has been overlooked for years (e.g.,

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2021

The effects of virtual cooperative video games have not yet been explored within the setting of hostile intergroup contexts; nor have they been tested among school-aged children. We present results from a longitudinal schoolbased intervention that enabled virtual contact between Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli children. The program included six virtual and two face-to-face sessions. We find that relative to an intragroup contact control group, children who participated in the intergroup program showed reduced intergroup bias on both cognitive and emotional indicators, including reduced stereotypical views, negative emotions and discriminatory tendencies toward members of the other ethnic group, as well as increased willingness to engage in social contact with outgroup members. These effects were long lasting and preserved six months after termination of the program. The intervention's effectiveness was consistent across measures, gender, and ethnic groups. Thus, the program we developed offers a feasible, relatively cost-effective gaming intervention that can be applied even in areas characterized by severe ethnic tension and hostile conflict.

Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2017

Intergroup contact scholars have recently called for analyzing the effects of negative intergroup contact. In response to this call, we examined the correlates of positive and negative contact with one of the most stigmatized ethnic minorities, that is, Roma. We conducted a study in Bulgaria considering the point of view of the ethnic Bulgarian majority (n = 516) and of Bulgarian Turks (n = 274), an ethnic minority with higher status compared to Roma. Regression analyses showed that positive contact was associated with reduced prejudice and more support for pro-Roma policies, while negative contact revealed the opposite pattern. These associations did not differ between ethnic Bulgarians and Bulgarian Turks. Moreover, positive and negative intergroup emotions mediated the relationships between positive and negative contact on the one hand and prejudice and policy support on the other. Our study highlights the importance of emotional processes involved in positive and negative intergroup contact experiences and encourages future research to analyze how absolute vs. relative status differences shape the effects of positive and negative contact in complex hierarchical societies.

Healthcare

Background: Attitude is a relatively permanent inclination towards a positive or negative evaluation of a given social or physical object, which determines a person’s disposition towards their surrounding social reality and informs his/her behavior. Aims: The aim of this study is to assess the attitudes of nursing staff, in terms of the emotional and behavioral components, in relation to selected social groups: a Roma person, a hearing-impaired person, a Muslim, and a person of a homosexual orientation. Design: This cross-sectional study was conducted by means of an Internet questionnaire. Methods: This study included 3900 nurses from Poland who were participants in social networking sites and discussion groups for nurses. The study data were collected by using a self-constructed survey questionnaire. The results were reported using the STROBE Checklist. Results: The following scale was adopted: mean 1.0–3.5—positive attitude, 3.6–6.0—negative attitude. Respondents showed positive a...

Social Justice Research, 2018

Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2022

The study examines whether qualitative and quantitative characteristics of intercultural service encounters (ISEs) between majority customers and ethnic minority service providers are associated with better attitudes toward the entire minority group. The study was conducted in Israel through an online survey of 402 respondents. The study revealed that the customers derived pleasure from high perceived value of services and from taking advantage of a good deal. This pleasure, in turn, was positively related to attitudes toward the outgroup. High perceived value of service was associated with higher frequency of ISE that may be interpreted as repurchasing behavior. Overall, the total effect of perceived value of services between majority population and ethnic minority on attitudes toward this minority was significant and positive. Thus, economic beneficiality, which is a very important component of ISE, may contribute to improving relationships between groups in deep conflict. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Higher Education

This article systematically reviews the literature (313 articles) on language and communication in international students’ cross-cultural adaptation in institutions of higher education for 1994–2021. We used bibliometric analysis to identify the most impactful journals and articles, and the intellectual structure of the field. We used content analysis to synthesize the results within each research stream and suggest future research directions. We established two major research streams: second-language proficiency and interactions in the host country. We found inconclusive results about the role of communication with co-nationals in students’ adaptation, which contradicts the major adaptation theories. New contextualized research and the use of other theories could help explain the contradictory results and develop the existing theories. Our review suggests the need to theoretically refine the interrelationships between the interactional variables and different adaptation domains. Mo...

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2017

Three experiments were conducted to test whether an imagined contact scenario with friendship potential would be more effective than the standard imagined contact scenario in changing Turkish participants’ attitudes and behaviors towards Syrian refugees. Experiment 1 ( N = 99) showed that adding a specific friendship indicator to the contact scenario (intimacy or interaction) increased the effectiveness of the typical positive contact strategy on outgroup trust. Experiment 2 ( N = 145) demonstrated that imagining a positive contact scenario which included both intimacy and interaction elements simultaneously was more effective than the standard imagined contact scenario in increasing outgroup trust and behavioral intentions. Experiment 3 ( N = 79) demonstrated that simply adding an explicit statement about the potential of forming a cross-group friendship improved the effectiveness of the imagined contact paradigm on attitudes, trust, behavioral intentions, and perceived threat. The...

British Journal of Social Psychology, 2011

Longitudinal effects of intergroup contact on prejudice were investigated in a sample of 65 young adults (Sample 1) and a sample of their close friends (Sample 2, N = 172), adopting a full cross-lagged panel design. We first validated the self-report measure of intergroup contact from sample 1 with observer ratings from sample 2 by demonstrating that self-reports and observer ratings of contact were highly correlated. Moreover, we obtained significant cross-lagged effects of intergroup contact on prejudice with both contact measures, thereby providing a second validation for the use of selfreports of intergroup contact. Finally, by the use of latent change modeling we demonstrated that, although no overall significant change in contact and prejudice over time was found, there was meaningful variation in absolute change in the individual levels of intergroup contact and prejudice. In particular, some individuals showed increases while others showed decreases in contact or prejudice across time. Moreover, higher levels of intergroup contact at Time 1 were followed by larger subsequent decreases in prejudice between Time 1 and Time 2, and changes in contact were significantly and negatively related to changes in prejudice. Methodological implications of the findings are discussed.

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2013

Research has shown that intergroup contact is one of the most powerful approaches for improving outgroup attitudes. Further, it has been revealed that contact exerts its effects on prejudice reduction mostly by inducing positive affective processes. The present study ( N = 146) investigated whether stereotype content enhancement along the core dimensions of competence, sociability, and morality might represent a basic cognitive mechanism driving the contact effects. Results showed that face-to-face encounters with immigrants increased their perceived competence, sociability, and morality. However, only increased perceived outgroup morality mediated the effect of contact on outgroup responses. Our findings extend prior research on the mediators of intergroup contact, showing the key role of perceived morality in driving the contact effects. The importance of these findings for improving intergroup relations is discussed.

Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2014

Implicit racial prejudice is a prevalent form of racial bias less subject to conscious awareness and control, compared with self-reported bias. Implicit pro-White/anti-Black bias has documented negative implications for the lives of African Americans. Guided by a “shared-reality” approach, research shows how implicit prejudice shapes the lives of White Americans. Two basic principles emerge. First, under the right circumstances, Whites’ implicit prejudice decreases to correspond with the apparent egalitarianism of their contacts. Second, although individuals cannot introspect much on it, implicit prejudice predicts Whites’ desire to affiliate with fellow Whites. Specifically, greater implicit prejudice predicts liking other Whites who seem uncomfortable interacting with Blacks. This work has ramifications for policies to mitigate prejudice—such as including own-group strategies—as well as societal implications of social networks saturated with individuals who hold similar degrees of...

Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2016

Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2016

Two correlational studies investigated the associations between different forms of intergroup contact, on the one hand, and Italians' prejudice and humanity attributions toward immigrants in Italy, on the other. Study 1 examined the effects of direct contact, extended contact, and parasocial contact through mass-media, assessing separately contact through TV news and newspapers and contact through entertainment programs. Study 2 analyzed the distinct effects of positive and negative episodes of the contact forms considered in Study 1. Across the studies, we tested the mediational role of intergroup anxiety, empathy, and trust. Overall, results showed the importance of taking into account different forms of contact and considering the emotional processes during contact experiences to understand intergroup attitudes.

Howard Journal of Communications, 2011

Over the years, Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis has become the primary theoretical approach to intergroup contact, yet researchers are just now beginning to explore specific contact contexts. This article introduces proactive performance as a context for intergroup contact. Specifically, interACT, a collegiate performance troupe located at California State University, Long Beach, is used to demonstrate how proactive performance meets the requisite conditions of the contact hypothesis; i.e., promoting social change. Moreover, proactive performance is able to account for several important mediating and moderating variables in intergroup contact. With this in mind, this article is illustrative of praxis, or the intersection between theory and practice. KEYTERMS contact hypothesis, contact theory, identity, interACT, intergroup contact, prejudice, proactive performance According to Allport (1954), there are a number of necessary conditions that are optimal for what he called ''intergroup contact,'' or contact between social groups. Importantly, the goal of intergroup contact is to reduce prejudice. When prejudice between groups is reduced, then the potential for building community can occur. This article introduces proactive performance (Pelias & VanOosting, 1987) as a relevant context where intergroup contact takes place and can ultimately improve social relations and cultivate community.

Uluslararası Dil Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi

Bu çalışma, uluslararası öğrencilerin Türkiye’de bulundukları süre içerisinde, Türk Toplumu ile kurdukları etkileşimin, kültürleşme tutumları üzerindeki etkisini ortaya koymayı amaçlamıştır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda kültürlerarası iletişimin öğrencilerin kültürleşme tutumları üzerindeki etkisi, Gordon Allport (1954) tarafından ortaya konulan Temas Hipotezi temel alınarak incelenmiştir. Çalışma verileri nicel araştırma tekniklerinden olan, anket aracılığıyla toplanmış, ve Kayseri’de öğrenim gören 201 uluslararası üniversite öğrencisi katılmıştır. Araştırma verilerinin değerlendirilmesi yol analizi kullanılarak yapılmıştır. Çalışma sonuçları, uluslararası öğrencilerin ev sahibi ile kurduğu iletişimin, ev sahibi kültüre ait unsurların kısmen ya da tamamı ile benimsenmesini ifade eden bütünleşme ve asimilasyon tutumları üzerinde belirleyici bir etkiye sahip olduğunu göstermektedir. Yine elde edilen sonuçlara göre, ev sahibi toplum ile kurulan temasın niceliğinin artması, temas niteliğinin ...

European Journal of Social Psychology, 2015

Knowing that fellow ingroup members have cross-group contact can affect how people think, feel, and behave towards an out-group. Previous research on extended contact focused almost exclusively on positive cross-group interactions, neglecting the fact that extended contact can also be negative. In this contribution, we introduce negative extended contact and investigate how both forms of extended contact predict direct cross-group contact and intergroup attitudes. In two cross-sectional studies (N1=286, N2=237), we found evidence that positive and negative extended contact uniquely predict intergroup attitudes, and that direct cross-group contact mediates this effect. In Study 2, we also provide initial evidence that extended contact might either prepare for or impair direct contact by changing ingroup norms and intergroup self-efficacy, which in turn influence feelings of intergroup anxiety.

Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2019

Canada is known for its multiculturalism and is a major receiving country for international students. The successful integration of international students relies to some extent on positive social interaction and friendship formation with host-national students, which has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes. Nevertheless, consistent with existing research, we discover that international students develop their closest friendships with conationals and other international students. Based on survey responses and in-depth interviews with international students at one Canadian university, this study explains why international students are not taking advantage of opportunities to form friendships with host-national students, and/or why the friendship opportunities available are inadequate for deep friendship formation. Students' responses might best be explained in terms of a cost/benefit analysis. Although interaction opportunities at Canadian universities exist, interaction constraints that are seen as costly to international students reinforce cultural boundaries and create barriers to intercultural friendship formations.

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, 2013

This article introduces the special issue on 'The effects of ethnic diversity and immigration in Europe' to the JEPOP readers. The article starts with a summary of the controversy generated by Putnam's 2007 article 'E Pluribus Unum'. Next, it provides a brief account of the state of the art in the scholarship analysing the link between diversity, trust, social capital and social cohesion. The article continues with a discussion of a number of key problems that affect the existing scholarship, and highlights how the contributions to this special issue overcome some of these limitations. After this, the article considers the implications of this debate for the study of elections and public opinion. It concludes with a succinct overview of the contributions to the special issue and a discussion of how they help move forward the scholarship in this area.

Current Psychology, 2012

Through the lenses of contemporary social psychological perspectives this article explains how, by using service-learning and reflection as a vehicle to facilitate change, the conditions of optimal intergroup contact can be applied. An argument is made for how cultural immersion through service-learning transforms students through the change processes of (1) Resistance to take the first step, (2) Border crossing: Reacting to difference, (3) Becoming conscious of complexity, (4) Seeing similarity, (5) Intercultural comfort and competence, (6) Celebrating diversity, (7) Forming friendships, and (8) Paying it forward. It is proposed in this research that, in the South African context where diverse students do not have much opportunity to share social spaces, service-learning creates living and learning opportunities that balances challenge with support and diversity with connecting in similarity.

Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2017

Different acculturation strategies (i.e. integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization) tend to contribute to different adaptation outcomes for international students. The current study examines Chinese international students' acculturation strategies under the influence of sociodemographic variables and social ties they developed in the host country. A group of Chinese international students in Belgium (N = 183) participated in an online survey. The results indicate that integration was the most commonly adopted strategy among Chinese international students in Belgium, followed by separation, marginalization and assimilation. The results from three separate multiple regressions show that English proficiency, local language proficiency, prior adaptation experience and female were significant predictors of Chinese students' social ties (i.e. host-national ties, international ties and co-national ties). The discriminant analysis identified host-national ties, international ties, co-national ties, local language proficiency and prior adaptation experience as important variables that can distinguish Chinese students' acculturation strategies.

Frontiers in Psychology

In the present contribution, we aimed to test the psychometric properties of the Intergroup Contact Interactions Scale (ICIS). The ICIS is a tool that can easily be administered to assess ethnic minority and majority adolescents’ positive and negative intergroup contact in both school and out-of-school contexts. Study I included 169 adolescents in Italy (40.2% ethnic minority adolescents; 51.5% female; Mage = 14.41) and provided initial support for the two-factor structure (i.e., positive and negative contact) of the ICIS in both school and out-of-school contexts. Study II, conducted with a sample of 1,037 adolescents in Italy (26.5% ethnic minority adolescents; 59.7% female; Mage = 14.58), indicated that the fit of the two-factor ICIS structure was excellent for both school and out-of-school contexts. Measurement invariance across ethnic minority and majority adolescents was also established. Convergent validity was also ascertained by highlighting meaningful associations of adoles...

European Political Science Review, 2022

We distinguish between the experience and expectation of subjective status decline in relation to electoral behaviour. Studies often link support for radical parties, especially radical right ones, to voters' experience of status decline. A few other studies argue that voters' expectation of status decline also triggers radical right support. Without precise measures of both perceptions, it has been difficult to distinguish which (or both) is most relevant for radical right support in Western Europe and the USA. Using survey data from 2018 (n = 4,076) and 2020 (n = 2,106) in Finland, we could precisely measure and distinguish between voters' experience and expectation of status decline. Descriptively, voters who have experienced status decline have low income, whereas voters who expect status decline have (lower)middle income. Using multivariate analyses, we find that voters who expect status decline consistently prefer radical right parties more than voters who expect status improvement. However, there is no robust evidence of radical right support among voters who have experienced status decline. These findings suggest that the expectation, not experience, of status decline drives radical right support. If these expectations trigger radical right support in Nordic welfare states, they may be even more pertinent in less comprehensive welfare states.