Attitude generalization, not in-group deprioritization, drives secondary transfer effects

Evidence

Social identity complexity may also be an important factor explaining why contact brings about so-called secondary transfer effects (Pettigrew, 2009). Secondary transfer effects describe situations in which contact with a member of one particular out-group (the “ primary” out-group) has positive consequences for attitudes not only toward this group in general, but also towards other, even unrelated out-groups that were not involved in the initial contact situation (“secondary” out-groups). This phenomenon has been observed in a range of different contexts, including various European countries and the United States (see Pettigrew, 1997, 2009; Tausch et al., 2010). Pettigrew (1997) argued that such secondary transfer effects might occur as a result of deprovincialization, yet Tausch et al. (2010) reported consistent support for mediation via attitude generalization (i.e., a change in attitude towards the primary out-group) rather than via reduced identification with the in-group. Their studies, however, focused only on single in-group categories, and it is likely that Pettigrew’s notion of deprovincialization more readily speaks to multiple categorization processes, especially the concept of social identity complexity (see also Brewer, 2008). In a subsequent study, we examined the relationship between cross-group friendship and various out-group attitudes, including not only the primary ethnopolitical out-group but also attitudes toward immigrants and homosexuals, and what mediated these generalization effects across out-groups (Schmid, Hewstone, Tausch, Cairns, & Hughes, 2011). We found that social identity complexity positively mediated the effects of cross-group friendship with members of the primary out-group on attitudes toward the secondary out-groups. In other words, cross-group friendships were indirectly associated with more positive attitudes toward the other secondary out-groups, via higher social identity complexity. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 570

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the Allport contact-hypothesis reassessment thread: secondary transfer effects extend contact theory’s reach beyond the primary out-group, and the empirical mediation result distinguishes generalization from deprovincialization mechanisms. — connects to: Halo effect is implicit attitude diffusion from one attribute to unrelated judgments. — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 97
• QUESTION: If social identity complexity (rather than reduced in-group identification) carries the generalization effect, this resembles a distinct cognitive route from the usual deprovincialization story worth chasing.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 570