Does It Matter Where You Know Them from? Race-Ethnicity and the Impact of Social Domain on Intergroup Contact

PurposePrevious studies show that intergroup contact, through common ingroup identity, has impact on intergroup processes such as reducing intergroup bias, improving intergroup relations, etc. The effect of intergroup contact on individual psychological process (through common ingroup identity), however, needs further exploration. Based on the positive effect of both intergroup contact and ingroup identification on mental health and well-being, this article proposes and tests a new model of individual loneliness reduction through intergroup contact by promoting common ingroup identity.MethodsA total of 263 majority ethnic members and 275 minority ethnic members from China participated in the survey. Intergroup contact, common ingroup identity and loneliness were measured at three time-points (T1-T3) over an 8-month period. Longitudinal mediation analysis and parallel process Latent Growth Curve Model for mediation are used for the examination of the indirect effect of common ingroup identity.ResultsLongitudinal mediation analysis showed that intergroup contact quality at T1 positively predicted common ingroup identity at T2, and common ingroup identity at T2 alleviated loneliness at T3. Intergroup contact quality at T1 was indirectly linked to loneliness at T3 via common ingroup identity at T2. The parallel process latent growth curve model for mediation confirmed the robustness of the indirect effect of common ingroup identity. In addition, the growth rate of the quality of intergroup contact increased the growth rate of common ingroup identity, but reduced the growth rate of loneliness.ConclusionThe current study revealed the protectiveness of intergroup contact and common ingroup identity on loneliness, viz., intergroup contact reduces individual loneliness by promoting common ingroup identity, the implication being that intergroup contact and common ingroup identity should be taken into account in intervening process of loneliness prevention so that an individual’s physical and mental health could be better safeguarded.

A goal shared enthusiastically amongst many social psychologists is the improvement of intergroup relations. Conflict between groups is usually related to distinct, and in many cases opposing, identities, based on (for example) ethnicity, nationality, and religion, but also gender, age, sexual orientation and political or individual preferences. Our research has developed a new intervention for improving intergroup relations based on an integration of theory and empirical work on social cognition and intergroup relations. We've called the technique Imagined Contact because it is based on the mental simulation of intergroup contact experiences. Collectively, our research has focused on refining and evaluating imagined contact as an effective tool for the enhancement of intergroup relations. Our article in Social and Personality Psychology Compass provides a summary of the basic theory underlying imagined contact, a review of empirical findings to date, and a framework for developing practical applications of the intervention (in particular as a school-based intervention). We wanted to offer a teaching and learning guide for this article because we believe that the imagined contact task provides a flexible, effective, and easy-to-use tool for teachers, seminar leaders, students, and practitioners. The task can be used as a basis for encouraging more positive and open attitudes towards other groups, a way of preparing people for future intergroup encounters, a stimulus for discussions about the value in experiencing social diversity, and a way of illustrating the power of mental processes in forming and challenging attitudes about others.

Intergroup relations and contact between groups has historically been considered a mechanism to promote support for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights. However, LGBT identities are often concealable, and stigma discourages members of the LGBT community from disclosing that they are LGBT, which may prevent contact. Some subsets of the LGBT population make up a small percentage of the overall population, which may also decrease the quantity of contact. As such, the process of coming out to friends, relatives, and coworkers has been a common strategy of the modern LGBT movement. The strategy could be effective because the intergroup contact literature has found support for intergroup contact decreasing prejudice in meta-analyses. At the same time, researchers have challenged the assertion that intergroup contact promotes social change because intergroup contact is sometimes negative, or may be impractical or avoided, positive attitudes can coincide with acceptance of inequality, and intergroup contact may have unintended negative side effects. Research has generally found support for the notion that intergroup relations are more positive when there is greater contact. For LGBT people greater contact has been associated with decreasing anti-LGBT prejudice and increasing support for LGBT rights. However, similar to other domains of contact, the influence of LGBT contact is contextually sensitive, and a combination of psychological and structural barriers can decrease or prevent the positive effects of intergroup contact. There are strategies which may overcome these limitations, through policies (e.g., protection against discrimination), promoting types of contact that promote social change as opposed to merely positive attitudes, secondary transfer of contact effects, imagined contact, indirect forms of contact, and positive media representations of LGBT people. Gaps in the literature include a relative lack of research on contact with members of the LGBT community other than gays and lesbians (particularly non-cisgender people), intergroup contact between members of different subsets of the LGBT community, and a need for experimental and/or intervention-based research.

Growing evidence suggests that intergroup contact, psychology's most-researched paradigm for reducing prejudice, has the "ironic" effect of reducing support for social change in disadvantaged groups. We conducted a preregistered meta-analytic test of this effect across 98 studies with 140 samples of 213,085 disadvantaged-group members. As predicted, intergroup contact was, on average, associated with less perceived injustice (r = -.07), collective action (r = -.06), and support for reparative policies (r = -.07). However, these associations were small, variable, and consistent with alternative explanations. Across outcomes, 25%-36% of studies found positive associations with intergroup contact. Moderator analyses explained about a third of the between-sample variance, showing that, at least for perceived injustice, associations with intergroup contact were most consistently negative in studies that measured direct, qualitatively positive contact among adults. We also found evidence for an alternative explanation for the apparent "ironic" effects of intergroup contact as, after controlling for the positive association of negative contact with support for social change, positive contact was no longer associated with any of the outcomes. We close by discussing the strengths and limitations of the available evidence and by highlighting open questions about the relationship between intergroup contact and support for social change in disadvantaged groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Research has demonstrated that positive intergroup contact improves intergroup relations among children. However, empirical evidence about how positive and negative intergroup contact relates to intergroup outcomes at different ages is scant. By combining theories and empirical evidence in social and developmental psychology, this study aimed to examine positive and negative intergroup contact in a sample of N = 394, 9 and 12‐year‐old Italian children (females and males). We expected to find interactive effects of positive and negative intergroup contact on outgroup trust and behavioural intentions. Furthermore, for both types of contact, we predicted that associations with intergroup outcomes (outgroup trust, behavioural intentions) would be stronger among older than younger children. Results provided support for the interactive effects of positive and negative intergroup contact (bs ≥ .08, ps ≤ .08, interaction coefficients), but not for age‐related differences. Negative intergroup contact facilitated the effects of positive intergroup contact and positive intergroup contact buffered the effects of negative intergroup contact. These findings suggest that intergroup relations in childhood can be improved by creating opportunities for positive intergroup contact in educational and social settings.

Two studies investigated the role of intergroup contact in predicting collective action tendencies along with three key predictors proposed by the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA; Van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears, 2008). Study 1 (N= 488 Black South African students) tested whether social identity would positively, whereas intergroup contact would negatively predict collective action and support for policies benefiting the ingroup. Study 2 (N= 244 White South African students) predicted whether social identity would positively predict collective action benefiting the ingroup, and intergroup contact would positively predict support for policies to benefit the Black outgroup. Both studies yielded evidence in support of the predictive power of social identity and contact on collective action and policy support. Additionally, Study 1 confirmed that intergroup contact moderated the effects of social identity on relative deprivation, and relative deprivation on collective action. Overall findings support an integration of SIMCA and intergroup contact theory, and provide a fuller understanding of the social psychological processes leading to collective action.

Virtual Reality (VR) has often been referred to as an “empathy machine.” This is mostly because it can induce empathy through embodiment experiences in outgroup membership. However, the potential of intergroup contact with an outgroup avatar in VR to increase empathy is less studied. Even though intergroup contact literature suggests that less threatening and more prosocial emotions are the key to understanding why intergroup contact is a powerful mean to decrease prejudice, few studies have investigated the effect of intergroup contact on empathy in VR. In this study, we developed a between-participants design to investigate how VR can be used to create a positive intergroup contact with a member of a stigmatized outgroup (ethnic minority) and present the results of the effect of intergroup contact in VR on empathy. Sixty four participants experienced either positive contact (i.e., equal intergroup status, collaborative) with a black (experimenter-controlled) avatar (experimental condition) or no intergroup contact (i.e., ingroup contact with a white avatar; control condition), with situational empathy (personal distress and empathic interest) being measured through a self-report questionnaire up to a week before and right after the VR contact experience. The experiment showed that satisfying degrees of body ownership of participants’ own avatar and co-presence with the contacted avatar can be achieved in simple and universally accessible virtual environments such as AltspaceVR. The results indicated that while VR intergroup contact had no significant direct effect on empathy, exploratory analyses indicated that post-intervention empathic interest increased with stronger feelings of co-presence in the intergroup contact condition.

Social psychologists only recently started to examine the joint effects of positive and negative intergroup contact. The present research contributes to this nascent field. After reviewing the current evidence for joint effects of positive and negative intergroup contact, the present work examines factors that influence positive and negative contact effects, specifically the intensity of intergroup contact and the individual’s history of intergroup contact. Manuscript #1 thereby focuses on the contact situation and how it is perceived. Specifically, we find that increasing intensity in the realm of positive contact increased favourable intergroup attitudes. For negative contact on the other hand, the (perceived) intensity of the negative experience did not make a difference. Manuscript #2 moves the focus to how an individual’s history of intergroup contact influences subsequent intergroup contact effects. Building on observations of in- and outgroup behaviour in a behavioural game, we demonstrate that having a positive history of intergroup contact can foster subsequent intergroup contact effects, while a negative history of intergroup contact decreased subsequent effects of intergroup contact. Overall our findings provide further evidence that it is indeed important to take not only positive but also negative contact into consideration when examining intergroup contact effects. The relevance of our findings for society and future research will be discussed.

The present research tests the indirect effects of intergroup contact on adolescents’ bystander intervention intentions via four potential mediators: “empathy,” “cultural openness,” “in‐group bias,” and “intergroup anxiety.” British adolescents (N= 855), aged 11–13 years, completed measures of intergroup (interethnic) contact and the identified indirect variables. Intended bystander behavior was measured by presenting participants with an intergroup (immigrant) name‐calling scenario. Participants rated the extent to which they would behave assertively. The findings extend previous intergroup contact research by showing a significant indirect effect of intergroup contact on assertive bystander intentions via empathy, cultural openness and in‐group bias (but not via intergroup anxiety). Theoretical implications and practical suggestions for future prejudice‐reduction interventions are discussed.

Positive contact between members of different groups reduces prejudice and increases cooperation, findings known as intergroup contact effects. Yet in real-world settings not only positive, but also negative intergroup contact occurs, which have opposing effects. To date little is known about whether and how an individual's valenced history of intergroup contact influences contact effects and how this dynamic change happens during specific instances of intergroup contact. A pilot study examined the psychological impact of a novel paradigm to assess intergroup contact using a behavioral game. We then conducted two studies, which allowed us to observe a sequence of up to 23 in- and outgroup interactions and their behavioral outcomes in a continuous prisoner's dilemma behavioral game (N = 116, 2,668 interactions; N = 89, 1,513 interactions). As expected, participants showed a clear ingroup bias in expectations and cooperation. Furthermore, the quality of contact history moderated contact effects. Specifically, intergroup contact following a positive history of intergroup contact had a stronger effect on intergroup expectations than contact following a negative history thereof. Findings are discussed in view of the importance of considering the valenced history of intergroup contact, as well as new research questions on intergroup contact that can be addressed with this novel contact paradigm. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Ingroup norms, intergroup contact and intergroup anxiety as predictors of the outgroup attitudes of majority and minority youth

This chapter discusses how media use changes when everyday life undergoes change, focusing on major life transitions. I briefly introduce different perspectives on evolving media repertoires across the life course, and argue for the relevance of studying periods of destabilization and reorientation, when elements of media repertoires and modes of public connection are temporarily or more permanently transformed. I argue that easily adaptable media technologies such as smartphones tend to become more important in unsettled circumstances, as easy-to-reach for tools for new forms of self-expression, information-seeking or social contact, in accordance with shifting social roles and everyday circumstances. The primary empirical material analyzed in the chapter is a small qualitative interview study with mothers, about their media use the first year with a new-born.

IntroductionThe effect of intergroup contact on cooperation is well documented, but little is known about the cultural moderators of this relationship. Contributing to the literature, we examined whether cultural orientation moderates the effect of positive intergroup contact on cooperation and places emphasis on individualism.MethodsBy creating a gamecooperation situation by the trust game paradigm, 322 Taiwanese youth were involved in the study and completed the positive intergroup contact scale, individual-collectivism scale, and social distance scale.Results(1) positive intergroup contact effectively promotes cooperative behavior; (2) Taiwanese youth who have closer social distance with mainland youth demonstrate higher levels of cooperative behavior after group interactions than larger social distance; and (3) individualism has a significant moderating role in the relationship between positive inter-group contact and cooperation. The effect of positive inter-group contact on cooperation became stronger in the less individualistic group. The effect of social distance on cooperation became stronger in the less individualistic group.Cultural orientation represented by individualism is proved to be one moderato of the intergroup contact-cooperation relationship.

The effects of intergroup contact on prejudice are well established. However, its effects on minority group well-being have been rarely studied. We hypothesized that contact with members of the majority culture will be related to better well-being, and that this is facilitated by majority language proficiency. We tested this hypothesis in a three-wave longitudinal study of refugees over 2 years (N = 180). Cross-lagged path modeling confirmed that intergroup contact at earlier time points was associated with increased well-being at later time points; the reverse associations (from earlier well-being to later contact) were not reliable. Self-rated earlier English language competence was positively associated with later intergroup contact (but not the reverse), suggesting that improving majority language proficiency might be the key to better well-being of refugees, with intergroup contact being the mediator between language and well-being.

Purpose: This paper reports findings of an investigation of the effects of intergroup contact in a bilingual language teaching context on stereotypes of each group towards each other. The pre and post intergroup contact attitudes of Cameroonian Anglophone Bilingual Teachers (ABT) and those of Francophone Bilingual Teachers (FBT) towards each other were determined and compared.
 Methodology: A mixed method research design that relied on a two-phase explanatory sequential strategy was employed to collect the data. It comprised an anonymous self-report survey of 97 bilingual teachers and a follow-up interview of 6 of these teachers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data and content analysis was used to explore the textual data.
 Findings: The study revealed that while ABT indicated negative attitudes towards FBT, prior to starting their training, FBT on their part, expressed positive considerations of Anglophones (they saw them as polite, hospitable and hardworking people). In the end, ABT moved from seeing FBT as arrogant to calling them simple and assiduous learners. Nevertheless, they scorned the FBT’s insolence. The contact reinforced FBT’s prior training positive attitudes towards ABT whom they found to be friendly, convivial and courteous. 
 Recommendations: The study concludes that intergroup contact positively influenced ABT attitudes towards FBT, while FBT maintained their pre-training positive attitudes towards ABT. Intergroup contact in an official bilingual teacher training classroom, therefore, can be a fertile ground for the elimination of stereotypes and promotion of the spirit of living together.