Contextual effects of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice
Abstract
We assessed evidence for a contextual effect of positive intergroup contact, whereby the effect of intergroup contact between social contexts (the between-level effect) on outgroup prejudice is greater than the effect of individual-level contact within contexts (the within-level effect). Across seven large-scale surveys (five cross-sectional and two longitudinal), using multilevel analyses, we found a reliable contextual effect. This effect was found in multiple countries, operationalizing context at multiple levels (regions, districts, and neighborhoods), and with and without controlling for a range of demographic and context variables. In four studies (three cross-sectional and one longitudinal) we showed that the association between context-level contact and prejudice was largely mediated by more tolerant norms. In social contexts where positive contact with outgroups was more commonplace, norms supported such positive interactions between members of different groups. Thus, positive contact reduces prejudice on a macrolevel, whereby people are influenced by the behavior of others in their social context, not merely on a microscale, via individuals’ direct experience of positive contact with outgroup members. These findings reinforce the view that contact has a significant role to play in prejudice reduction, and has great policy potential as a means to improve intergroup relations, because it can simultaneously impact large numbers of people.
Citation
Christ , O , Schmid , K , Lolliot , S , Swart , H , Stolle , D , Tausch , N , Al-Ramiah , A , Wagner , U , Vertovec , S & Hewstone , M 2014 , ' Contextual effects of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice ' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , vol. 111 , no. 11 , pp. 3996-4000 . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320901111
Publication
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0027-8424Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Authors 2014. Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320901111
Description
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Fellowship CH 743, 2-1 (to O.C.) and a Leverhulme Trust Programme Grant (to M.H.).Collections
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