Institutional authority endorsement makes intergroup contact more accepted and more effective

Evidence

With explicit social sanction, intergroup contact is more readily accepted and has more positive effects. Authority support establishes norms of acceptance. Field research underscores its importance in military (Landis et al 1984), business (Morrison & Herlihy 1992), and religious (Parker 1968) institutions. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 15

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: why contact programs fail without institutional blessing — the top-down half of a supposedly interpersonal theory.
• XREF: Echoes the reader’s interest in sumptuary/moral-panic material: authority designates what contact and dress are legitimate. — connects to: Intergroup contact benefits high-power groups more than low-power groups — Johanna Ray Vollhardt and Michelle Sinayobye Twali, Emotion-Based Reconciliation Requires…, 48