Ananthi Al Ramiah

Contextual effect of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice

Significance Although mixed social environments can provoke conflict, where this diversity promotes positive intergroup contact, prejudice is reduced. Seven multilevel studies demonstrate that the benefits of intergroup contact are broader than previously thought. Contact not only changes attitudes for individuals experiencing direct positive intergroup contact, their attitudes are also influenced by the behavior (and norms) of fellow ingroup members in their social context. Even individuals experiencing no direct, face-to-face intergroup contact can benefit from living in mixed settings where fellow ingroup members do engage in such contact. Two longitudinal studies rule out selection bias as an explanation for these findings on the contextual level. Prejudice is a function not only of whom you interact with, but also of where you live. 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.

Intergroup contact as a tool for reducing, resolving, and preventing intergroup conflict: evidence, limitations, and potential.

We propose that intergroup contact provides an effective means by which to reduce, resolve, and prevent conflict of all kinds, including violent conflict. We review the vast literature on the effectiveness of intergroup contact and discuss when and how it reduces prejudice. We also discuss key features of successful interventions, highlighting examples from conflict zones around the world. Rather than accepting, as some scholars do, that conflict is inevitable, we argue that intergroup contact, in its various forms, can play a pivotal and preemptive role in conflict prevention. We suggest that a blunt application of contact theory, particularly when groups are of unequal status, can have some unfortunate consequences, and contact interventions can, and should, be designed to overcome these pitfalls. We argue that, ultimately, contact is a powerful tool that needs to be used alongside other means of conflict reduction, resolution, and prevention in order to frame sound public policy and build lasting peace.

Neighborhood Ethnic Diversity and Trust: The Role of Intergroup Contact and Perceived Threat

This research reported here speaks to a contentious debate concerning the potential negative consequences of diversity for trust. We tested the relationship between neighborhood diversity and out-group, in-group, and neighborhood trust, taking into consideration previously untested indirect effects via intergroup contact and perceived intergroup threat. A large-scale national survey in England sampled White British majority (N = 868) and ethnic minority (N = 798) respondents from neighborhoods of varying degrees of diversity. Multilevel path analyses showed some negative direct effects of diversity for the majority group but also confirmed predictions that diversity was associated indirectly with increased trust via positive contact and lower threat. These indirect effects had positive implications for total effects of diversity, cancelling out most negative direct effects. Our findings have relevance for a growing body of research seeking to disentangle effects of diversity on trust that has so far largely ignored the key role of intergroup contact.

It's Never Too Late for "Us" to Meet "Them:" Prior Intergroup Friendships Moderate the Impact of Later Intergroup Friendships in Educational Settings.

BACKGROUND In this paper, we focused on mixing in educational settings between members of Catholic and Protestant ethnoreligious groups in Northern Ireland. AIMS In Study 1, we examined whether opportunities for contact at home and at university were associated with greater actual out-group friendships, and whether this friendship was associated with a reduction in prejudice. We also assessed whether the impact of out-group friendships at university was moderated by experience of out-group friendships outside university, such that the prejudice-reducing effect of university friendships was stronger for those with fewer friendships at home. In Study 2, we assessed opportunities for contact and actual out-group friendships at prior stages of the educational system and their relationship with prejudice. Sample(s). In both studies, our participants were students at universities in Northern Ireland (Study 1 N= 304 and Study 2 N= 157). METHODS We analysed the data using multiple regression and structural equation modelling. RESULTS First, opportunities for contact were positively associated with self-reported out-group friendships in all domains and stages of the educational system. Second, having more out-group friends was associated with reduced prejudice. Finally, the relationship between out-group friendships and current levels of prejudice was moderated by prior levels of out-group friendships (at home in Study 1; and at secondary and primary school in Study 2). CONCLUSIONS Contact, in the form of out-group friendships, was more powerful when it was a novel feature in a persons life. We discuss these findings in terms of the impact of mixing in educational contexts, especially in Northern Ireland, and outline suggestions for future research.

Neighborhood Diversity and Social Identity Complexity: Implications for Intergroup Relations

The authors argue that exposure to contextual diversity can prompt more complex, differentiated, and inclusive multiple in-group perceptions, that is, social identity complexity, with positive consequences for intergroup relations. Two unique, large-scale national surveys, involving respondents sampled from neighborhoods of varying degrees of diversity in Germany (Study 1; N = 1,381 drawn from 50 different neighborhoods) and England (Study 2; N = 580 drawn from 192 different neighborhoods), tested the prediction that people living in ethnically diverse neighborhoods would be higher in social identity complexity and, in turn, hold less negative intergroup attitudes. Results confirmed this hypothesis, showing that greater diversity was directly associated with higher social identity complexity (Studies 1 and 2) and indirectly associated with less in-group bias (Studies 1 and 2), and less social distance (Study 2), via social identity complexity. Findings are discussed with regard to their implications for the consequences of diversity for intergroup relations.

'Rallying around the flag': Can an intergroup contact intervention promote national unity?

A longitudinal study evaluated the success of a contact-based nation-building intervention (the Malaysian National Service Programme) in promoting various facets of national unity. The study assessed how post-test measures of quality of intergroup contact, outgroup evaluations, and levels of identification changed compared to their respective pre-test levels, for both National Service and control group participants. The intervention did not lead to a worsening of any of the constructs related to intergroup relations, which is noteworthy given the novelty for many participants of mixing in a multi-ethnic setting. Furthermore, all rater groups (Malays, Chinese, and Indians) maintained their ethnic identity, even in the presence of high levels of national identity, which we discuss with respect to past research on the effects of positive intergroup contact on minority group identification. However, the changes associated with the intervention yielded only small effect sizes, and, on the whole, National Service participants did not show significantly greater improvement than that experienced by control participants. We discuss the value of intergroup contact in this novel setting, considering various features of this programme that may have limited its effectiveness and discuss how such interventions can more successfully meet their goals.

'It's never too late for 'us' to meet 'them': Prior intergroup contact moderates the impact of later intergroup contact in educational settings

BACKGROUND In this paper, we focused on mixing in educational settings between members of Catholic and Protestant ethnoreligious groups in Northern Ireland. AIMS In Study 1, we examined whether opportunities for contact at home and at university were associated with greater actual out-group friendships, and whether this friendship was associated with a reduction in prejudice. We also assessed whether the impact of out-group friendships at university was moderated by experience of out-group friendships outside university, such that the prejudice-reducing effect of university friendships was stronger for those with fewer friendships at home. In Study 2, we assessed opportunities for contact and actual out-group friendships at prior stages of the educational system and their relationship with prejudice. Sample(s). In both studies, our participants were students at universities in Northern Ireland (Study 1 N= 304 and Study 2 N= 157). METHODS We analysed the data using multiple regression and structural equation modelling. RESULTS First, opportunities for contact were positively associated with self-reported out-group friendships in all domains and stages of the educational system. Second, having more out-group friends was associated with reduced prejudice. Finally, the relationship between out-group friendships and current levels of prejudice was moderated by prior levels of out-group friendships (at home in Study 1; and at secondary and primary school in Study 2). CONCLUSIONS Contact, in the form of out-group friendships, was more powerful when it was a novel feature in a persons life. We discuss these findings in terms of the impact of mixing in educational contexts, especially in Northern Ireland, and outline suggestions for future research.

Building trust in a postconflict society : an integrative model of cross-group friendship and intergroup emotions

Across one longitudinal and two cross-sectional surveys in Northern Ireland, we tested a model of intergroup relations in which out-group attitudes and behavioral tendencies are predicted by cross-group friendship and positive intergroup appraisals, mediated by intergroup emotions and out-group trust. In study 1, out-group friendship at time 1 predicted out-group trust at time 2 (one year later), controlling for prior out-group trust. In study 2, positive and negative intergroup emotions mediated the effects of friendship on positive and negative behavioral tendencies and attitudes. In study 3, a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that trust and emotions are distinct constructs with unique predictive contributions. We then tested a model in which cross-group friendship predicted intergroup emotions and trust through intimate self-disclosure in out-group friendships. Our findings support an integration of an intergroup emotions framework with research highlighting the importance of cross-group friendship in fostering positive intergroup outcomes.

The Influence of Status on the Relationship between Intergroup Contact, Threat, and Prejudice in the Context of a Nation-building Intervention in Malaysia

We assessed whether intergroup contact at a nation-building intervention in Malaysia improved participants’ perceptions of threat and outgroup evaluations and whether this process was conceptually moderated by group status in a three-group setting. We found evidence of a strong relationship between post-intervention contact and post-intervention outgroup evaluations in all groups and evidence of indirect effects of post-intervention contact on outgroup evaluations by symbolic threat for the minority groups rating the majority group. We found that in the context of institutional inequalities, integrated threat theory may not be sufficiently complex to uncover the processes that underlie the contact–attitude link for majority groups rating minority groups. Further, we found indirect effects of post-intervention contact on outgroup evaluations via realistic threat for interminority group ratings. Thus, we elucidate some of the different mechanisms that underlie the intergroup perceptions of majority and minority group members.

Inducing similarities and differences in imagined contact: A mutual intergroup differentiation approach:

To enhance the prejudice-reducing effects of imagined contact we investigated a novel form of imagined contact (“balanced similarity”) which emphasized both similarities and differences between the ingroup(er) and the outgroup(er). Experiment 1 compared balanced similarity with conditions inducing only differences or only similarities. “Balanced similarity” led to more positive outgroup attitudes; its differences with the “high similarity” condition were mediated by reduced distinctiveness threat, whereas its differences with the “low” similarity condition were mediated by higher perceived intergroup similarity. Experiment 2 compared the “balanced similarity” imagined contact scenario with the “standard” (positive) imagined contact scenario (Crisp, Stathi, Turner, & Husnu, 2008), and found that both conditions promoted equally favourable attitudes that were significantly more positive than in the control condition. However, only the “balanced similarity” imagined contact condition differed from the control condition on intergroup anxiety and contact self-efficacy. The “balanced similarity” condition also had an indirect effect (via self-efficacy) on positive action tendencies towards the outgroup. We discuss the utility of “balanced similarity” imagined contact, especially where contact is limited and conflict is present.