Contact and Attitudes Between Ethnic Groups: A Survey-based Study of Adolescents in Norway

Abstract

Intergroup attitudes in a Norwegian town were investigated based on a survey with 12 to 16 year-old adolescents. Members of the ethnic majority group ( n > 1,100) and members of a minority group (ethnic Turks, n = 54) were studied. Two smaller immigrant groups (Pakistanis and Vietnamese) were used as additional attitude objects. The study demonstrated the expected association between outgroup friendships and more favourable outgroup attitudes. Explained variance of outgroup attitudes was limited among majority members, but was significantly higher among minority members. Boys among majority members demonstrated less favourable outgroup attitudes than those demonstrated by girls. However, they also revealed a higher association between contact and attitudes than girls did. The study was particularly interested in generalization effects across various outgroups. Although no common generalization effect was evident, the data indicated that friendships with members of one outgroup may be associated with either more positive or more negative attitudes towards another outgroup, dependent on the interrelations between the two outgroups. The study supported several hypotheses derived from the Contact Hypothesis, from Social Identity Theory, and from the Common Ingroup Identity Model. Still, it also demonstrated that intergroup relations in real world settings are more complex than laboratory experiments involving two groups can reflect. The data indicated that Muslim immigrant groups with different ethnic backgrounds might hold a common ingroup identity. At the same time, ethnic Norwegians demonstrated the least positive outgroup attitudes towards Muslim groups.