Prejudice reduction or self-selection? A test of the contact hypothesis

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2155285
AutoresThomas C Wilson (0000-0001-5045-1270, Florida Atlantic University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1996
Volumen16
Número1
Páginas43-60
Fecha de publicación1996-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociological Spectrum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0273-2173 • E-ISSN: 1521-0707
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02732173.1996.9982119
OpenAlexW2039805509
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas30
Referencias citadas35

In this study of interracial contact's impact on Whites’ attitudes toward Blacks, an inference drawn from contact theory is explicitly addressed: that contact actually reduces prejudice, independent of any tendency for favorable racial attitudes to promote contact. Results show that contact is related both to reduced social distance and to reduced stereotypes. Results also show that diffuse prejudice toward other minorities, a proxy implying the tendency to avoid contact, is unable to explain contact's association with reduced anti‐Black prejudice, provided that contact is varied and not restricted to an isolated circumstance. These findings imply that, although prejudiced people tend to avoid interracial contact more than unprejudiced people do, contact itself has an independent tendency to reduce prejudice

Contact hypothesis · Contact theory · Epistemology · Inference · Social contact · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology