Outgroup friendship contact correlates with forgiveness, trust, and perspective-taking across both religious groups

Evidence

As in the first study, we report results separately for each religious group, given their differences in history, status, and size. Pearson product-moment correlations between all variables, computed separately for Catholics and Protestants, are shown in Table 5; notably, there were significant positive correlations between contact with outgroup friends and forgiveness, trust, and perspective-taking (but a negative correlation with neighborhood violence). … We first computed t-tests to compare Catholic and Protestant respondents on all measures. Catholics showed greater outgroup forgiveness, more positive outgroup attitudes, greater outgroup perspective-taking and outgroup trust than Protestants, but they also showed higher ingroup identification. — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 83

Categorization

• QUESTION: Higher ingroup identification alongside greater outgroup forgiveness, trust and perspective-taking in Catholics is puzzling — does secure attachment coexist with high identification, in contrast to Protestants whose identification negatively predicts forgiveness?
• XREF: connects to: Cross-group friendship is the most effective intergroup contact form for reconciliation. — Miles Hewstone and Joanne Hughes, Reconciliation in Northern Ireland: the…, 5; Intergroup contact predicts forgiveness-related attitudes even in those who suffered sectarian conflict. — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 2; Outgroup friendship may predict forgiveness toward that outgroup — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 73 (+7 more)

Related

• Intergroup contact predicts forgiveness-related attitudes even in those who suffered sectarian conflict. (similarity 0.93)
• Outgroup friendship may predict forgiveness toward that outgroup (similarity 0.91)
• Contact predicts forgiveness only for Catholics, while ingroup identification inhibits it only for Protestants (similarity 0.91)
• Cross-group friendship is the most effective intergroup contact form for reconciliation. (similarity 0.87)
• Direct suffering within conflict suppresses forgiveness, but friendship contact still promotes it (similarity 0.87)
• Intergroup contact most strongly and reliably predicts willingness to mix with the outgroup (similarity 0.86)
• Mere knowledge that ingroup peers befriend outgroup members improves intergroup attitudes (similarity 0.84)
• Cross-group friendships reduce prejudice partly by lowering intergroup anxiety. (similarity 0.84)
• Observing ingroup friends interact with outgroups reduces one’s future intergroup anxiety (similarity 0.83)
• Cross-group friendships cause later intergroup trust, not the reverse. (similarity 0.83)
• Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens — Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and Experience of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland (similarity 0.81)
• Ingroup identification predicts less forgiveness only among the higher-status group (similarity 0.81)
• Intergroup contact research has expanded beyond prejudice to test trust, forgiveness, and ingroup perception. (similarity 0.81)
• Contact with one out-group improves attitudes toward unrelated out-groups (similarity 0.81)
• Cross-group friendship shapes positive intergroup attitudes more than casual contact does. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Contact effects on prejudice are strongest when the contact measure is friendship #expands (0.88) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1695
• Cross-group friendship shapes positive intergroup attitudes more than casual contact does. #expands (0.85) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 556
• Cross-group friendships cause later intergroup trust, not the reverse. #expands (0.85) — Miles Hewstone and Joanne Hughes, Reconciliation in Northern Ireland, 10
• Direct suffering within conflict suppresses forgiveness, but friendship contact still promotes it #expands (0.82) — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 109
• Observing ingroup friends interact with outgroups reduces one’s future intergroup anxiety #expands (0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1834
• Mere knowledge that ingroup peers befriend outgroup members improves intergroup attitudes #expands (0.78) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1816