Racially desegregated housing produces more favorable intergroup attitudes than segregated housing.

Evidence

Studies of public housing provided robust evidence. Deutsch & Collins (1951) compared racially desegregated housing projects in New York City with similar but segregated projects in Newark. Sharp differences emerged. Desegregated white housewives held their black neighbors in higher esteem and favored interracial housing more (75% to 25%). When asked to name black faults, they listed such personal issues as feelings of inferiority. Segregated white women voiced stereotypes such as “rowdy” and “dangerous.” — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 18

Categorization

• XREF: The 75% to 25% split is the kind of clean comparative figure that pairs well with the Allport contact-conditions framework later in the chapter.