Positive contact with hated out-groups can transform radicals

Evidence

Former extremists described strategic exposure to positive experiences with ethnic minorities or others whom radicals were taught to hate, creating sometimes transformative effect. However, there are conditions under which contact tends to lead to better outcomes and increasing recognition that cross-group friendship is especially important. — 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

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for what changed adversarial identity in this reader’s lived-testimony test; parallels Allport’s optimal contact conditions referenced in earlier material. — connects to: Accepting relationships with out-group members model new identity structures for exiting extremists. — Amy Fisher-Smith, Charles R. Sullivan, John D. Macready, and Geoffrey Manzi, Identity Reconfiguration and the Core…, 475; Common external threats can reduce prejudice among ordinary outgroups — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 24; Direct contact with outgroup members can override learned prejudices toward them — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1003 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Direct contact with outgroup members can override learned prejudices toward them #expands (0.90) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1003
• Accepting relationships with out-group members model new identity structures for exiting extremists. #expands (0.85) — Amy Fisher-Smith, Charles R. Sullivan, John D. Macready, and Geoffrey Manzi, Identity Reconfiguration and the Core…, 475
• Positive contact effects fail to generalize when outgroup members are treated as exceptions #qualifies (0.85)
• Contact with one out-group improves attitudes toward unrelated out-groups #expands (0.82) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 570
• Positive contact reduces prejudice most when group membership stays salient #qualifies (0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1844
• Superficial intergroup contact can actually worsen rather than reduce prejudice #complicates (0.78) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1795
• Common external threats can reduce prejudice among ordinary outgroups #expands (0.75) — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 24
• Outgroup friendship may predict forgiveness toward that outgroup #expands (0.75) — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 73