Perceived importance of contact revisited: Anticipated consequences of intergroup contact for the ingroup as predictors of the explicit and implicit ethnic attitudes of youth

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of the perceived importance of intergroup contact on the explicit and implicit attitudes of Finnish adolescents ( N = 93) towards Russian immigrants. It is argued that irrespective of the effects of personal contact experiences, perceived importance of contact depends on the anticipated consequences of contact for the ingroup, further divided into realistic (i.e., economic) and symbolic (i.e., cultural) gains. Controlling for age and gender, results showed that there was no association between perceived realistic gains and explicit attitudes, while perceived symbolic ingroup gains were associated with more positive explicit attitudes towards immigrants. In addition, perceived realistic ingroup gains predicted more negative implicit attitudes. Implications for the promotion of cultural diversity and work-related immigration are discussed.