Even knowing a friend’s out-group contact reduces prejudice

Evidence

Using both questionnaire and experimental methods, they show that even knowledge of an ingroup member’s friendship with an outgroup member relates to more positive attitudes toward the outgroup (Wright et al 1997). Such an “extended contact effect” does not require intergroup friendship for the perceiver. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 73

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names and defines the ‘extended contact effect’ as a distinct mechanism not requiring direct friendship.
• XREF: Connects to social-network/contagion research on how attitudes spread through secondhand ties. — connects to: Cross-group friendships reduce prejudice partly by lowering intergroup anxiety. — Miles Hewstone and Joanne Hughes, Reconciliation in Northern Ireland: the…, 11
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 73