Abstract
AbstractWe conducted a longitudinal study to test whether, in addition to being predicted by personality, intergroup contact is longitudinally associated with personality traits. Participants were 388 majority (Italian) and 109 minority (immigrant) first‐year high school students. Results revealed a bidirectional relationship between contact and personality: Quality of contact was longitudinally associated with greater agreeableness and openness to experience, whereas agreeableness and openness to experience were longitudinal predictors of contact quality. An unexpected negative longitudinal association also emerged between quantity of contact and agreeableness. These effects were not moderated by group of belonging (majority vs. minority). Our findings highlight the importance of integrating research on intergroup contact with research on personality.
Highlights
Our primary aim was to go beyond results by Turner et al (2014) by examining whether intergroup contact can be longitudinally associated with personality
We are aware of only three studies examining the causal or longitudinal relationship from intergroup contact to one individual difference variable deeply rooted in personality and strongly associated with prejudice, social dominance orientation (SDO; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999)
We conducted a longitudinal study with majority and minority group members enrolled in the first year of high-school in order to examine the bidirectional relationship between intergroup contact and personality traits
Summary
Our primary aim was to go beyond results by Turner et al (2014) by examining whether intergroup contact can be longitudinally associated with personality. W. Jackson & Poulsen, 2005) have advocated the need to integrate research on prejudice with research on personality, research linking intergroup contact and personality is surprisingly scarce (for an exception, see Boccato, Capozza, Trifiletti, & Di Bernardo, 2015, who tested cross-sectionally secure attachment, an individual difference variable, as an antecedent of intergroup contact) Some work in this direction has concerned SDO (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA; Altemeyer, 1998), two variables strongly associated with prejudice (Sibley & Duckitt, 2008). As noted above, SDO and RWA may be assimilated to social attitudes and values rather than personality traits (Sibley & Duckitt, 2008)
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