Ignoring group membership during contact does not improve intergroup attitudes

Evidence

The research presented here thus suggests that ignoring or overlooking group membership during contact may not necessarily result in better intergroup attitudes and relations. Even if eliminating category salience can seem theoretically advantageous, group memberships are frequently both subjectively and collectively meaningful and emotionally significant, and in such cases group members are reluctant to surrender their identity and distinctiveness (Brewer, 1991). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1817

Categorization

• QUESTION: This inverts the early Allport color-blind ideal and begs follow-up: what practical desegregation designs actually work when identity can’t be set aside?
• XREF: connects to: Intergroup contact most strongly and reliably predicts willingness to mix with the outgroup — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 43; Unprepared intergroup contact can backfire and worsen polarization.