Positive contact reduces prejudice most when group membership stays salient

Evidence

Voci and Hewstone (2003) examined group salience and intergroup anxiety, a moderator variable and a mediator variable respectively, while looking at the effect of contact on Italians’ attitudes towards immigrants in their country. Using Structural Equation Modeling procedures, they found that intergroup anxiety mediated the impact of combined quality and quantity of contact in reducing subtle prejudice and improving outgroup attitudes. They then tested the effect of group membership salience as a moderator for each path in the model. They found that between contact and anxiety, positive frequent contact reduced anxiety more when group membership was salient than when it was not. The direct path from contact to attitudes was also stronger when group salience was high compared to when it was low. Thus, a combination of positive contact and group salience during that contact resulted in the most positive evaluations of the outgroup. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1844

Following this reasoning, Hewstone & Brown (1986) theorized that contact effects generalize to the outgroup only when group membership is salient. When group saliency is low, the situation is interpersonal and no intergroup effects should result. Only when the interactants view one another as group representatives does the contact become an intergroup event. Research that supports this salient categorization strategy shows stereotype change generalizes best to the intergroup level when the individuals involved are typical group members (Johnston & Hewstone 1992, Vivian et al 1995, Weber & Crocker 1983, Wilder 1984). As typical members, their group memberships were more salient. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 65

Categorization

• XREF: Directly qualifies Allport’s decategorization logic in Brown & Hewstone’s integration debate — connects to the vault’s contact-theory reassessment thread. — connects to: Deliberation reduces polarization by meeting Allport’s contact conditions and fostering common ingroup identity. — Didier Caluwaerts et al., Deliberation and Polarization: A…, 131; Observing warm interactions between political rivals reduces outgroup animosity — Rachel Hartman et al., Interventions to Reduce Partisan…, 57; Positive contact with hated out-groups can transform radicals — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 71
• DEEPTHINKING: Inverts the colorblind intuition: making group identity prominent, not dissolving it, is what allows positive contact to generalize to the group.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1844; Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 65