Intergroup contact reduces prejudice across outgroups, and Allport’s conditions are helpful but not essential.

Evidence

The present article presents a meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. With 713 independent samples from 515 studies, the meta-analysis finds that intergroup contact typically reduces intergroup prejudice. Multiple tests indicate that this finding appears not to result from either participant selection or publication biases, and the more rigorous studies yield larger mean effects. These contact effects typically generalize to the entire outgroup, and they emerge across a broad range of outgroup targets and contact settings. Similar patterns also emerge for samples with racial or ethnic targets and samples with other targets. This result suggests that contact theory, devised originally for racial and ethnic encounters, can be extended to other groups. A global indicator of Allport’s optimal contact conditions demonstrates that contact under these conditions typically leads to even greater reduction in prejudice. Closer examination demonstrates that these conditions are best conceptualized as an interrelated bundle rather than as independent factors. Further, the meta-analytic findings indicate that these conditions are not essential for prejudice reduction. Hence, future work should focus on negative factors that prevent intergroup contact from diminishing prejudice as well as the development of a more comprehensive theory of intergroup contact. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup…, 3

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in social dynamics and group psychology; echoes themes in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Home Boy about cross-group tension. — connects to: Intergroup contact reduces prejudice only under four specific optimal conditions. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup…, 17; Mere exposure to outgroup members reduces prejudice even without optimal conditions. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup…, 32; Intergroup contact is an established general mechanism for reducing prejudice across group types. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup…, 239
• QUESTION: What specifically are the negative factors that block contact from reducing prejudice? Worth chasing down in the full paper’s discussion.
• recurring: this claim recurs 4 times within its source