Optimal intergroup contact requires equal status, shared goals, and community sanction
Evidence
To be maximally effective, contact … should lead to a sense of equality in social status, should occur in ordinary purposeful pursuits … and enjoy the sanction of the community in which they occur. While it may help somewhat to place members of different ethnic groups side by side on a job, the Categorization, Recategorization, and Intergroup Bias 73 gain is greater if these members regard themselves as part of a team. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 540
Prejudice … may be reduced by equal status contact between majority and minority groups in the pursuit of common goals. The effect is greatly enhanced if this contact is sanctioned by institutional supports (i.e., by law, custom, or local atmosphere), and provided it is of the sort that leads to the perception of common interests and common humanity between members of the two groups. (p. 281) Pettigrew and Tropp’s contribution to the present volume, chapter 16, “Allport’s Intergroup Contact Hypothesis: Its History and Influence,” attests to the profound influence and enduring wisdom of Allport’s proposal. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 131
Allport’s hypothesis specified four conditions for optimal contact. The situation must allow equal group status within the situation, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and authority support. Recent research adds another: The contact situation must have “friendship potential.” — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 107
Categorization
- XREF: The canonical statement of the Contact Hypothesis the vault’s Islamophobia and antisemitism clusters already lean on — worth holding verbatim as the anchor against which subsequent chapters’ amendments are compared. — 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; Protocol for entering others’ territory is to wait at the edge and ask permission — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 760; Intrachurch interaction was governed by status-unequal decorum protocols — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 250 (+2 more)
- DEFINE: The canonical codification of Allport’s four conditions plus the added fifth, useful as the baseline framework for any contact discussion.
- corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 540; John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 131; Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 107