Direct contact with outgroup members can override learned prejudices toward them

Evidence

We can be treated unfairly by authorities and know it; we can learn firsthand, from the back of a hand, that physical punishment often does not “work”; experiences with unconventional people can crash through our preconceptions. A good example of the last was provided in a September 1985 study of the origin of students’ attitudes toward homosexuals (EOF, pp. 166-170; see also p. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1003

Categorization

• XREF: Direct empirical counterpart to intergroup contact theory in the vault’s prejudice literature. — connects to: Positive contact with hated out-groups can transform radicals — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 71