Allport’s contact chapter anticipated the three main post-1980 contact models

Evidence

The final words of Allport’s chapter on contact are the suggestion that contact will reduce prejudice “provided it is of a sort that leads to the perception of common interests and common humanity between members of the two groups” (1954/1979, p. 281). This contention is borne out most directly in the research examining decategorized, personalized interaction (Brewer & Miller, 1984; Miller, 2002), and in that which advocates recategorization of group structures (Gaertner et al., 1989). Allport (1954/ 1979) also foresaw research which promotes intergroup encounters that retain relatively high levels of group salience (Hewstone & Brown, 1986) when he included in his comprehensive list of key “Kinds of Contact” that it was important to ask, “Is the contact perceived in terms of intergroup relations or not perceived as such?” (p. 263). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1841

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the Allport reassessment thread — maps Allport’s original text onto Brewer/Miller, Gaertner, and Hewstone/Brown research lines.