PSYCHOLOGY: Close Encounters

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PSYCHOLOGY: Close Encounters
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Gilbert
J. Chin

The effect of contact between groups on prejudice has been a topic of
research at least as far back as the middle of the 20th century. Since
then, there have been a very large number of studies and many reviews of
this literature. Pettigrew and Tropp have conducted a meta-analysis of what
has become known as intergroup contact theory. They (and their dedicated
research assistants) have combed through published papers and unpublished
dissertations, using a methodological (rather than topical) basis for
inclusion; the final data set covers 515 studies, containing over 700
independent samples representing a quarter million individuals spread over
38 countries. The summary finding is that intergroup contact reduces
prejudice.

Their statistical analyses reveal that this cannot be ascribed to
self-selection by the participants, or to a publication bias toward
positive results, or to the rigor of the research (methodologically
stronger studies yielded larger effect sizes). Roughly half of the studies
focused on nonracial and nonethnic groups (as described by sexual
orientation or physical or mental disability, for example), and the effect
sizes seen within this subset were the same as that for the racial/ethnic
targets that stimulated the historical development of intergroup contact
theory. Furthermore, it appears that the effects on individual attitudes
can generalize to other members of the outgroup and even to other
outgroups.

How is this mediated? They find that Allport's four features (common goals,
intergroup cooperation, equal status, and official sanction) contribute
significantly to the reduction of prejudice but are not essential, and that
the last of the four conditions may be the most important one. Greater
contact may reduce feelings of uncertainty or discomfort that might
otherwise coalesce into anxiety or perceived threat, which might in turn
harden into prejudice. Yet these ameliorative shifts may not survive in the
absence of normative or authoritarian support, and studies of why contact
fails to curb prejudice are needed. -- GJC

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 90, 751 (2006).