“Welcome to our neighbourhood”: Collective confidence in contact facilitates successful mixing in residential settings

Clifford Stevenson,Rhiannon Turner,Sebastiano Costa

doi:10.1177/1368430220961151

Abstract

Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to the antecedents of intergroup contact and, in particular, self-efficacy to engage in intergroup encounters. Contact self-efficacy has been shown to reduce intergroup anxiety and increase willingness to engage in future contact, and is influenced by the positive contact experiences of other group members. However, this work has neglected the collective nature of self-efficacy and, indeed, has typically counterposed the effects of contact and collective efficacy upon group behaviour. We highlight the potential role that collective efficacy can play in facilitating intergroup contact and propose a new concept to capture this phenomenon: collective confidence in contact (CCIC). Using data from two neighbourhood surveys in contrasting areas of Nottingham City, (UK), we show in our first survey ( n = 124) that CCIC is predicted by group identity and that this, in turn, predicts intergroup contact and feelings. In a second survey ( n = 232), we show that the effects of identity and support on CCIC are further mediated by a reduction in intergroup anxiety. We propose that the concept of CCIC returns the understanding of contact to the intergroup level, thereby allowing issues of group identity and the generalisation of contact effects to be investigated more directly.

Highlights

Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to the antecedents of intergroup contact and, in particular, self-efficacy to engage in intergroup encounters
The final model showed excellent fit to the data, χ2(7) = 10.81; p > .05, comparative fit index (CFI) = .99, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = .05, 90% CI [0.00, 0.10], SRMR = .04, indicating that community identity positively predicted community support (b = 0.73, 95% CI [0.60, 0.85], β = .64, p < .01) and collective confidence in contact (b = 0.21, 95% CI [0.07, 0.34], β = .23, p < .01)
We demonstrate that identifying with one’s community is associated with higher levels of perceived social support from one’s neighbours, which in turn predicts more positive contact with outgroup members and more positive feelings towards them

Summary

Introduction

Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to the antecedents of intergroup contact and, in particular, self-efficacy to engage in intergroup encounters. We propose that the concept of CCIC returns the understanding of contact to the intergroup level, thereby allowing issues of group identity and the generalisation of contact effects to be investigated more directly. The collective-level focus of this theoretical explanation reflects the lived reality of contact whereby encounters between groups occur between copresent (or imagined) ingroup and outgroup members: the bar, the shop, the park, and the workplace are typically sites of multipleparticipant intergroup interactions where individuals act and react to the behaviour of other ingroup and outgroup members (Connolly, 2000; Dixon et al, 2006; Hughes et al, 2011; Stevenson & Sagherian-Dickey, 2016). Contact self-efficacy places an emphasis on group-level social influence and the sharing of experience across the group

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Methods

Conclusion