Contact effects depend on personality traits, societal norms, and timing.

Evidence

Both individual differences and societal norms shape intergroup contact effects. The deeply prejudiced both avoid intergroup contact and resist positive effects from it. Societies suffering intergroup conflict both restrict and undercut intergroup contact. From these considerations, the chapter advances a longitudinal reformulation of the intergroup contact hypothesis. Within the contexts of the participants’ characteristics and the situation’s societal setting, the chapter outlines a meso-level theory with two key features. It distinguishes between essential and facilitating situational factors. And it emphasizes the time dimension with different outcomes predicted for different stages of intergroup contact. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 111

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the meso-level reformulation and its two pillars: essential vs facilitating factors, plus a temporal stage model.
• XREF: Connects to Allport’s original contact conditions and to any prior reading on intergroup contact’s facilitating conditions.