Student-body mixing drives cross-group attitudes, not school type

Evidence

We found, first, that children attending integrated schools generally had more contact and warmer outgroup attitudes than children in Protestant and Catholic schools. In addition, children attending Protestant schools scored higher on measures of contact and attitude than children attending Catholic schools. In exploring possible reasons for these results, we found that the mix of the student body seems to be the most important factor in promoting more positive cross-group relations, rather than the specific type of school attended. — Miles Hewstone and Joanne Hughes, Reconciliation in Northern Ireland, 20

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to reader’s interest in whether positive contact de-escalates the dissenter/core dialectic — student-body mix is essentially accidental contact opportunity rather than designed desegregation. — connects to: Cross-group friendship shapes positive intergroup attitudes more than casual contact does. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 556; Mingling across classes in shared pursuits dissolves prejudice between groups — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 51; Cooperative classroom structures reduce prejudice across diverse national settings — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 14 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Cross-group friendship shapes positive intergroup attitudes more than casual contact does. #corroborates (0.85) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 556
• Cross-group friendship and empathy reduce the threat behind intergroup bias. #expands (0.85) — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 165
• Mingling across classes in shared pursuits dissolves prejudice between groups #corroborates (0.82) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 51
• Social identity complexity mediates how intergroup contact shapes out-group attitudes #qualifies (0.78) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 589
• Cooperative classroom structures reduce prejudice across diverse national settings #qualifies (0.75) — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 14