Improving Intergroup Relations Research Articles

Identity Salience, Identity Acceptance, and Racial Policy Attitudes: American National Identity as a Uniting Force

Political science has paid a great deal of attention to sources of intergroup conflict, but the discipline has focused less on forces that bring people together and lead them to transcend group boundaries. This study presents evidence that attachment to a shared superordinate identity can improve intergroup relations by reducing the social distance between people of different racial groups. Using a survey experiment, this research shows that making a superordinate identity salient increased support for a tax increase. The effects of the identity salience treatment are compared to a policy particularism treatment in terms of effect size and their interaction with each other. The size and direction of the identity salience effect is affected by the degree of respondents' acceptance of the proffered identity. Implications for social identity theory, racial policy attitudes, and American national identity are discussed.

The Application of the Personalization Model in Diversity Management

In an attempt to extend the existing approaches to diversity management, and present a theoretically based intervention strategy that offers ways to reduce prejudice at the workplace, this article reviews the Personalization Model (Brewer & Miller, 1984; Ensari & Miller, 2002; Miller, 2002) and its components (self-other comparison, self-disclosure, and empathy). We argue that, when applied in an organizational context, personalization can improve intergroup relations in organizations, and thereby increase effectiveness and productivity. The present article also discusses how personalization effects can be extended to the out-group as a whole, and proposes alternative ways to implement it in organizations. We further present ideas for future research that can potentially explore the beneficial effects of intergroup personalized contact at the workplace.

An information search model of evaluative concerns in intergroup interaction.

In an information search model, evaluative concerns during intergroup interaction are conceptualized as a joint function of uncertainty regarding and importance attached to out-group members' views of oneself. High uncertainty generally fosters evaluative concerns during intergroup exchanges. Importance depends on whether out-group members' evaluations are perceived as diagnostic of one's social standing and outcomes. Perceived diagnosticity can arise from the out-group's control over resources (contingency) and/or ability to provide accurate assessments (expertise) and is a function of the relative status of one's group and the perceived legitimacy of the group status difference. Evaluative concerns trigger information search efforts and forms of uncertainty reduction that have a variety of negative downstream effects. Implications for efforts to improve intergroup relations are discussed.

Bridging the Researcher‐Practitioner Divide in Intergroup Relations

Editors' introduction: Walter Stephan's interest in intergroup relations grew from his early involvement in intercultural relations. He spent substantial time in Latin America as well as Vietnam during his college years. These experiences influenced his choice to study social psychology at the University of Minnesota. His first foray into intergroup relations came with his move to Austin, Texas, in 1971. A Court mandate ordered schools to be desegregated, and Stephan examined the effects of school desegregation there on students' self‐esteem and intergroup attitudes. His field research on the effects of desegregation as well as classroom interventions to improve intergroup relations was complemented by his laboratory research on intergroup biases, intergroup threat, intergroup anxiety, and empathy. Stephan brings this lifetime of involvement in both basic and applied research, and deep concern for effective practice and humanistic philosophy, to his commentary. He opens the commentaries with an elucidation of the difficulties in, and benefits of, the central thrust of this volume: the researcher‐practitioner collaboration. He paints portraits of practitioners, researchers, and practitioner‐researchers, and classifies articles in this issue accordingly. He notes the difficulties among the various parties interested in improving intergroup relations, spanning from simple lack of knowledge to lack of contact to lack of meaningful ways to interact. However, potential benefits of collaboration are abundant for all parties, and Stephan proposes a number of ways in which such partnerships could be actualized.

Being Seen As Individuals Versus As Group Members: Extending Research on Metaperception to Intergroup Contexts

Recent research has begun to examine people's expectations for how they are viewed in intergroup contexts, yet little work has considered how these metaperceptions relate to those that emerge in interpersonal contexts. As we extend research on metaperceptions into the intergroup realm, we must address several important conceptual issues. In this article, we provide a general overview of research on interpersonal metaperceptions, along with many factors that are likely to affect whether peo-ple think they are viewed as individuals or as group members. We also consider how metaperceptions are likely to be formed differently in interpersonal and inter group contexts, and depending on the group membership of the perceiver We then explore the consequences of different kinds of metaperceptions for intergroup relations, and how they relate to strategies we might use to improve intergroup relations, to suggest future directions for research on metaperceptions in intergroup contexts.

Judgment of Ingroups and Outgroups in Intra- and Intercultural Negotiation: The Role of Interdependent Self-Construal in Judgment Timing

Extending the common ingroup identity model (Gaertner et al. 1993, European Reveiw of Social Psycology, Vol. 4, pp. 1–26) and social categorization theory (Turner et al. 1987, Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.), the current study investigates when superordinate categorization with an opponent occurs during intra- and intercultural integrative negotiation. I hypothesize that a high level of interdependent self-construal (Markus and Kitayama 1991, Psychological Review, 98, 224–253) is associated with early superordinate categorization with an opponent and favorable judgment of an opponent’s cultural group before negotiation takes place, whereas a low level of interdependent self-construal shows favorable judgment of an ingroup and outgroup after negotiation is closed. One hundred fourteen participants of the U.S. and the Republic of Korea completed a multi-issue negotiation simulation with integrative potential in either intracultural or intercultural dyads. Results support the hypotheses. I discuss theoretical and practical implications of the sensitivity of interdependent self-construal to social context and fluid boundaries of ingroups and outgroups, and the role of integrative negotiation in improving intergroup relations in globalizing and multicultural organizations and societies.

Playing with identities and transforming shared realities: drama therapy workshops for adolescent immigrants and refugees

In North America’s large multiethnic cities, the percentage of foreign-born children isconstantly rising. The profile of these migrants has changed considerably over the past fewdecades (Henry, Tator, Mattis, & Rees, 1995). While in the 1960s, most of them camefrom Europe, the majority of recently arrived children and adolescents, whether refugeesor immigrants, now come from countries in which there is an internationally recognizedform of organized violence, due either to a repressive regime responsible for major social´tensions or to internal armed conflict.Thedramaworkshopprogramdescribedherewasdesignedtofacilitatetheadjustmentofnewlyarrivedteens.Itwasdevelopedforhighschoolsandfollowsuponcreativeexpressionworkshops for the same population in elementary schools. The aim of the program is tomake it easier for adolescents to adjust to their new environment through creative groupworkinvolvingidentityissuesrelatedtobeingmigrantsandmembersofculturalminorities.The program also seeks to improve intergroup relations in multiethnic schools.Beforedescribingtheworkshopprogram,wewillfirstbrieflydiscusssomeofthefeaturesspecifictomigrationinadolescence,andinparticular,theimportanceofidentityissuesatthispoint in the life cycle. We will then review the drama therapy experiences that inspired ourown program. Last, we will describe the various activities in the program, with a qualitativeassessment of its effects on the adolescents who took part.

Improving Intergroup Relations in Higher Education: A Critical Examination of the Influence of Educational Interventions on Racial Bias

This study examines the influence of various educational interventions in higher education on students’ racial bias. The author reviews studies in four principle domains: multicultural courses, diversity workshops and training, peer-based interventions, and service-based interventions. He pays particular attention to the varied approaches, measures, and research designs used to assess the effectiveness of interventions. He concludes with specific recommendations for improving the quality of intervention studies, suggests a conceptual model for explaining student change, and points out gaps in the extant knowledge base. An appendix provides an overview of racial bias measures used in the reviewed studies.

Working with emotion in educational intergroup dialogue

As a form of multicultural education, intergroup dialogue is one method to improve intergroup relations. Furthermore, this form of experiential education inevitably elicits emotional responses to diversity and social justice issues. The theory and research, however, supporting its pedagogy lack a comprehensive framework for working with emotion. Recent empirical and theoretical work on emotion in intergroup interaction gives us some guidance in conceptualizing the centrality and complexity of emotional content and processes in intergroup contact. Additionally, ample evidence exists for the primacy of affect in the regulation of social relationships from the parent–child dyad to intergroup interactions. Most empirical work on affect in intergroup relations primarily focuses on assessing reactions to imagined or actual, one-time laboratory encounters and examines the reactions of only dominant group members. In contrast to experimental work, intergroup dialogue involves complex dynamics within the context of structured, sustained, face-to-face conversation among real people of dominant and subordinate social identity groups. Recommendations to improve intergroup contact include intervention at the level of emotion. Although it does not focus systematically on the affective layer, intergroup dialogues’ philosophy and structure prime the ground to do so. This paper proposes a set of principles to work with emotion in intergroup dialogue that would provide ways (1) to foster overall positive intergroup contact, (2) to work effectively with negative affect and resistance as integral and not subversive to positive intergroup interactions, (3) to attend to the force that ambivalence exerts on intergroup interaction, and (4) to work with facilitators’ affective processes. Implications for research are also discussed.

Handbook of research on multicultural education

Introduction. Contributors. Reviewers. HISTORY, GOALS, STATUS, AND ISSUES. Multicultural Education: Historical Development, Dimensions, and Practice (J. Banks). Curriculum Theory and Multicultural Education (G. Gay). National and State Initiatives for Multicultural Education (D. Gollnick). Gender and Race as Factors in Educational Leadership and Administration (C. McGee Banks). An Analysis of the Critiques of Multicultural Education (C. Sleeter). RESEARCH AND RESEARCH ISSUES. Quantitative Educational Research with Ethnic Minorities (A. Padilla & K. Lindholm). Ethnography in Communities: Learning the Everyday Life of America's Subordinated Youth (S. Heath). Ethnographic Studies of Multicultural Education in Classrooms and Schools (H. Mehan, et al.). Multicultural Education Through the Lens of the Multicultural Education Research Literature (C. Grant & W. Tate). KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION. Knowledge Construction and Popular Culture: The Media as Multicultural Educator (C. Cortes). Knowledge Construction, Competing Critical Theories, and Education (B. Gordon). ETHNIC GROUPS IN HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH. Historical and Social Science Research on Mexican Americans (R. Gutierrez). Puerto Ricans in Historical and Social Science Research (C. Rodriguez). American Indian Studies (C. Snipp). Asian American Studies (W. Liu & E. Yu). Culture-Centered Knowledge: Black Studies, Curriculum and Transformation, and Social Action (J. King). IMMIGRATION POLICY AND THE EDUCATION OF IMMIGRANTS. The American Civic Culture and an Inclusivist Immigration Policy (L. Fuchs). Immigrants and Education (M. Olneck). THE EDUCATION OF ETHNIC GROUPS. Educating Native Americans (K. Lomawaima). Historical and Sociocultural Influences on African American Education (C. Lee & D. Slaughter-Defoe). Educating Mexican American Students: Past Treatment and Recent Developments in Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice (E. Garcia). A History of the Education of Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Mainland Schools: Losers, Outsiders, or Leaders? (S. Nieto). Asian Pacific American Students: A Diverse and Complex Population (V. Pang). LANGUAGE ISSUES. Language Issues in Multicultural Contexts (M. Minami & C. Ovando). Bilingual Education: Broadening Research Perspectives (C. Moran & K. Hakuta). ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: APPROACHES, THEORIES, AND RESEARCH. Inequality and Access to Knowledge (L. Darling-Hammond). Learning Styles and Culturally Diverse Students: A Literature Review (J. Irvine & D. York). Research on Families, Schools, and Communities: A Multicultural Perspective (N. Hidalgo, et al.). Effective Schools Research (D. Levine & L. Lezotte). Social Class and Schooling (M. Knapp & S. Woolverton). African American Teachers and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (M. Foster). Understanding Cultural Diversity and Learning (J. Oghu). INTERGROUP EDUCATION APPROACHES TO SCHOOL REFORM. Review of Research on School Desegregation's Impact on Elementary and Secondary School Students (J. Schofield). Multicultural Education: Its Effects on Students' Racial and Gender Role Attitudes (J. Banks). Cooperative Learning and Intergroup Relations (R. Slavin). Improving Intergroup Relations Among Students (J. Shofield). Toward a Theory of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy (D. Sue). HIGHER EDUCATION. Research on Racial Issues in American Higher Education (C. Bennett). Asian Pacific Americans and Colleges and Universities (D. Nakanishi. Ethnic Studies in U.S. Higher Education: History, Development, and Goals (E. Hu-DeHart). Women's Studies and Curriculum Transformation (B. Schmitz, et al.). Multiculturalism and Core Curricula (A. Fitzgerald & P. Lauter). Multicultural Teacher Education: Research, Practice, and Policy (G. Ladson-Billings). INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION. Multicultural Education in Australia: Historical Development and Current Status (R. Allan & B. Hill). Multicultural Education in the United Kingdom: Historical Development and Current Status (P. Figueroa). Multicultural Education in Canda: Historical Development and Current Status (K. Moodley). Multicultural Education in Germany: Historical Development and Current Status (G. Hoff). Name Index. Subject Index.

Improving Race Relations in Higher Education

This article suggests that colleges and universities can improve intergroup relations on campus by implementing a cooperative learning technique known as the jigsaw classroom. What is argued is that use of the jigsaw classroom will facilitate a recategorization process by which members of racial-ethnic groups other than one’s own (“them”) will begin to be seen as being members of a more inclusive “we.” Included in this article is an examination of on-campus racial discrimination, a discussion of some social psychological work that is useful in helping us understand why this discrimination exists, and a discussion of the ways in which the jigsaw classroom has the potential to reduce this discrimination.

Developing a More Inclusive Social Identity: An Elementary School Intervention

School integration, stimulated by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, has influenced students' social and educational experiences. Drawing on practice and theory, we focus on strategies for improving intergroup relations. In a series of sessions over four‐weeks, 830 first and second grade children participated in Green Circle program activities designed to widen their circles of inclusion to include people who are different from themselves. Although the intervention did not influence children's biases in sharing or how happy they would be playing with others who were different from themselves based on race, sex, and weight, it did lead them to be more inclusive in selecting their most preferred playmate. Implications for friendship development and improvement in intergroup attitudes are considered. He drew a circle that shut me out‐ Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win‐ We drew a circle that took him in. —Edwin Markham (1936, p. 67)

I feel for us: the impact of categorization and identification on emotions and action tendencies.

Building upon the social emotion model (Smith, 1999), we examined the combined impact of categorization context and social identification on emotional reactions and behavioural tendencies of people confronted with the victims of harmful behaviour. Depending on conditions, participants were led to categorize the victims and themselves in the same common group or in two distinct subgroups of the larger common group. We also measured participants' level of identification with the group that was made contextually salient. As predicted, emotional reactions of anger and their associated offensive action tendencies were more prevalent when participants were induced to see the victims and themselves as part of the same group and when they were highly identified with this common group. In line with appraisal theories of emotion, we also found that the emotional reaction fully mediated the impact of categorization context and identification on action tendencies. We discuss the data with respect to their implications for the role of emotion in improving intergroup relations.

Social Identity and Diversity in Organizations

In this paper, a social identity perspective on the management of diversity in organizations is outlined. The perspective is well-placed to offer considerable insight in this area, given that it explicates the processes through which group memberships impact on people's attitudes and behaviour both within and between groups that are operative in the workplace. According to this perspective, relative group status and the perceived permeability of intergroup boundaries are key factors that need to be considered in any efforts to understand intergroup relations in the workplace. After a brief overview of the social identity perspective, the paper discusses: i) the role that group status and perceived permeability play in determining the nature of intergroup relations in the workplace, and 2) the type of interventions that can be derived from a social identity perspective in an effort to improve intergroup relations in the workplace.

Fostering Meaningful Racial Engagement Through Intergroup Dialogues

Current attention on improving intergroup relations and participation in diverse societies compels us to understand the requisite values and skills for such participation. An action research approach examined an applied model of engagement across differences—intergroup dialogues that are facilitated in face-to-face encounters of college students from diverse social backgrounds meeting over a sustained period of time. Results show that overall program effects are evident only for racial identity outcomes—importance and centrality. However, regression analyses show students’ valuing of the dialogic learning process (e.g. peer facilitation, sharing experiences, and asking questions) is significantly related to increase in frequency of thinking about racial group membership, perspective-taking ability, comfort in communicating across differences, positive beliefs about conflict, and interest in bridging differences.

Intergroup Contact and Prejudice Toward Immigrants in Italy: The Mediational Role of Anxiety and the Moderational Role of Group Salience

Two studies investigated intergroup contact with immigrants in Italy. In Study 1 ( N = 310 students) contact had direct positive effects on perceived out-group variability and out-group attitude, and a direct negative effect on subtle prejudice; the last two effects were mediated by intergroup anxiety. Contact also had a greater effect on reduced anxiety and improved out-group perception and evaluation when group salience was high. In Study 2 ( N = 94 hospital workers) contact at work had direct effects on out-group attitudes and rights for immigrants, and an effect on attitudes toward ethnic coworkers that was mediated by intergroup anxiety at work. The effects of contact were again moderated by group salience. These findings show that the combination of positive contact with individuals from the out-group and group salience is effective in improving intergroup relations, and often does so via reduced anxiety.

Intergroup Contact: The Past, Present, and the Future

The Contact Hypothesis has long been considered one of psychology’s most effective strategies for improving intergroup relations. In this article, we review the history of the development of the Contact Hypothesis, and then we examine recent developments in this area. Specifically, we consider the conditions that are required for successful contact to occur (e.g. cooperation), investigate basic psychological processes that may mediate the consequent reductions in bias (e.g. decreased intergroup anxiety, increased common group representations), and explore factors that can facilitate the generalization of the benefits of intergroup contact in terms of more positive attitudes toward the outgroup as a whole (e.g. increased group salience). We conclude by outlining the contents of the contributions to this Special Issue on Intergroup Contact, highlighting common themes, and identifying findings that suggest directions for future research.

Towards a more social Social Psychology: The case of meta-stereotypes

Based on the review by Gómez, who summarizes recent social-psychological work about meta-stereotypes, this domain of research will be located and discussed in the broader context of current Social Psychology. It is argued that the current work on meta-stereotyping is a prime example for a truly social-psychological approach, as it includes aspects of perspectivity, context-specificity, and of mutual social influence. By providing a more complete picture of the phenomenon of stereotyping in social contexts, research on meta-stereotypes can offer a good theoretical background to derive more efficient interventions towards reducing negative prejudice and improving intergroup relations.

Political Contacts: Analyzing the Role of Similarity in Theories of Prejudice

Over the last 50 years, many theories of prejudice reduction in social psychology have embraced the premise that intergroup contact allows people to recognize similarities between themselves, and that this perceived similarity overwhelms the social distance associated with intergroup antipathy. Given the mixed empirical evidence, however, we suggest that the positive effects of perceived similarity have been overemphasized. Although similarity may be sufficient for improved intergroup relations, the relationship between similarity and intergroup relations is far more complex than the literature usually suggests. Moreover, studying difference in intergroup contexts may yield new ways to resolve intergroup conflict and address group inequalities.

Youth Civic Development: Implications of Research for Social Policy and Programs

Youth Civic Development: Implications of Research for Social Policy and Programs