CONTACT HYPOTHESIS

Favorable conditions of contact reduce prejudice and increase social harmony

    Regular and frequent contact
    Balance of in-group and out-group members
    Potential for friendship
    Variety of situations and settings
    Free of competition
    Important to participants
    Equal status of group members
    Interaction with non-stereotypic group members
    Organized around cooperation on a shared goal
    Normatively and institutionally supported
    Free of negative emotions

“…one of psychology’s most effective strategies for improving intergroup relations” (Dovidio et al., 2003, p. 5).

Integrated Education Movement in Northern Ireland - Catholic and Protestant children
 
    Common curriculum
    Multiple paths of contact

    Positive impact

        In-group identity
        Out-group attitudes
        Forgiveness
        Social cohesion

Criticisms of contact

    Utopianism

        Gap between ideal and everyday contact

            e.g., Black and White Americans

            Real contexts of interaction are not studied
  
            Implications for overcoming conflict unclear

    Neglect of group members’ perceptions about contact

        Imposed, generic measurement of contact

            e.g., “Is the contact you have with Muslim people Competitive (1) or Cooperative (7)?”

        Limits the capacity to evaluate constructive versus negative contact

        Lay perceptions of contact may maintain conflict

            e.g., White South Africans’ meaning of residential desegregation

    Individualism

        Contact may improve collective tolerance by reducing personal prejudice
        Contact may heighten conflict when perceived as a collective threat
        Individual perceptions may not generalize
        Individual tolerance and collective conflict may coexist

New directions

    Study ordinary versus contrived contact

        Black versus White shoppers
        Understanding impediments for social change

    Substitute emic for etic understanding of contact

        UK Muslims’ perceptions of integration
        Implications for promoting successful contact

    Change collective rationalization for structural advantages versus individual beliefs

        Intimacy does not preclude oppression

    Conduct comparative analyses to clarify how contact succeeds or fails

        Group relations in desegregated settings with different outcomes    

            e.g., “White flight”
        
        Relativity of contact experiences for different groups

            e.g., Desegregation that values white culture

DISCUSSION:

➢    Are human beings “hard-wired” for tribalism and, therefore, is intergroup conflict inevitable?

➢    What are the benefits to groups, either minority or majority, in remaining separate?

➢    What is the difference between maintaining a separate group identity versus being separate from the majority?