Alberto Voci
Biographic Data
| ID | 286714 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alberto Voci |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alberto |
| FAMILY NAME | Voci |
| SIGNATURE | VOCI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Padua |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9893-7656 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 724 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Self-Categorizations in Terms of Religiosity and Spirituality: Associations with Religious Experiences, Spiritual Dimensions, and Motives in Life
This study investigates different types of self-identification in terms of religiosity and/or spirituality and some psychosocial correlates of these categorizations. An Italian adult sample (N = 594) was divided into four groups: Religious and Spiritual (RS), Spiritual but not Religious (SnR), Religious but not Spiritual (RnS), and neither Religious nor Spiritual (nRnS). Participants completed measures assessing centrality of religion, spiritual …
How mindfulness, decentering, nonattachment and rumination interact with the temporal associations between emotions and thoughts: An experience sampling study
The way emotions and thoughts affect each other in daily life deeply impacts an individual's well‐being. This experience sampling study ( N = 132, 24 random‐schedule signals in 6 days) aimed to (a) test the bidirectionality of within‐person concurrent (simultaneous) and prospective (from time t ‐1 to time t ) associations between real‐life emotions and thoughts; (b) explore the moderator roles of dispositions involving the ability to take an awar…
Open your eyes, open your mind: The profile of cognitive liberalization and intergroup contact experiences
According to the cognitive liberalization hypothesis, exposure to intergroup contact improves cognitive outcomes related to open‐mindedness and out‐of‐the‐box thinking. In a sample of Italian adults ( N = 708), we: (a) investigated the profile of cognitive liberalization through a latent profile analysis including cognitive (i.e., cognitive flexibility, socio‐cognitive mindfulness, curiosity and low need for structure) and socio‐cultural (i.e., d…
The intra‐individual power of contact: Investigating when, how and why intergroup contact and intergroup outcomes fluctuate together
Intergroup contact research has rarely considered the intra‐individual (within‐person) variability of contact. Using a three‐wave longitudinal dataset ( N = 565), this research aimed to (a) test the within‐person simultaneous associations between positive and negative contacts and several intergroup outcomes (i.e. attitudes, prejudice, perceived variability, anxiety, empathy and deprovincialization), while controlling for between‐person associati…
The nature of deprovincialism: Assessment, nomological network, and comparison of cultural and group deprovincialization
This study ( N = 770) explores in depth the construct of deprovincialization by both uniting and comparing two scales that assess its two facets: the Group Deprovincialization Scale (GDS; Martinovic & Verkuyten, 2013) and the Cultural Deprovincialization Scale (CDS, Boin et al., 2020). First, we tested the factorial structure of the construct through confirmatory factor analyses. Second, we compared the mean scores of the GDS and the CDS and a li…
Deprovincialization: Its Importance for Plural Societies
Deprovincialization is a set of attitudes characterized by two sides: a nuanced and fresh perspective on the in‐group culture and an open and accepting attitude toward other groups. After reviewing early research and indirect tests of the construct, we focused our attention on research investigating these two sides of deprovincialization. Studies conducted in various countries demonstrate that deprovincialization as in‐group cultural nuance is a …
Dealing with the Ups and Downs of Life: Positive Dispositions in Coping with Negative and Positive Events and Their Relationships with Well-Being Indicators
In a four-wave, longitudinal study (N = 323), we tested the relationships between five positive dispositions—mindfulness, self-compassion, gratitude, hedonism, and eudaimonism—and time-varying negative affect, positive affect, life satisfaction, and meaning in life. These relationships were tested while controlling for the ups and downs in life across three months, operationalized as the effects, for a respondent, of having experienced more frequ…
Affective generalization from intergroup contact: Associations between contact-related and outgroup-related empathy, anxiety, and trust
This paper studied affective generalization from intergroup contact, namely when and how affective empathy, anxiety, and trust-related feelings towards specific outgroup members (contact-related affective variables) generalize to the whole outgroup (outgroup-related affective variables). We analysed affective generalization using multilevel models, with items of each affective variable nested within the individual, to avoid aggregation bias due t…
Close to me: The importance of closeness versus superficiality in explaining the positive‐negative contact asymmetry
The evidence for differential effects of positive and negative intergroup contact on prejudice is mixed. We propose that the closeness of the relationships respondents have with contact partners can explain inconsistencies in previous findings. In three studies (total N = 953), we tested the associations between positive intimate, negative intimate, positive superficial, and negative superficial contact and attitudes toward different outgroups (i…
Is negative mass media news always associated with outgroup prejudice? The buffering role of direct contact
We examined the association of the combination of direct intergroup contact and mass media news with attitudes toward immigrants and gay people in Italy, hypothesizing that direct intergroup contact would buffer the negative association between media news and attitudes, but only when contact was intimate or positive. Measuring contact variables and attitudes toward immigrants (Study 1, N = 428; Study 2, N = 426) and gay men and women (Study 3, N …
Exploring the social side of self‐compassion: Relations with empathy and outgroup attitudes
Self‐compassion is a disposition involving compassionate attitudes toward the self when facing difficulties. We argued that specific self‐compassion components might influence indicators of openness to others, such as empathy and outgroup attitudes. We also hypothesized that the mindfulness versus over‐identification component, i.e., having a balanced view of one's situation avoiding exaggerations, would be associated with lowered personal distre…
Depersonalized extended contact and injunctive norms about cross-group friendship impact intergroup orientations
Impact of pre-war and post-war intergroup contact on intergroup relations and mental health: Evidence from a Bosnian sample
Using a sample of Bosnian adults (N = 381) we investigated the association between intergroup contact, measures of intergroup relations, and mental health. Structural equation models with latent variables showed that postwar contact had beneficial effects, being positively related to outgroup trust and intergroup forgiveness, and negatively associated with social distance. Moreover, postwar contact had indirect effects on reduced morbidity and po…
Building Trust in a Postconflict Society: An Integrative Model of Cross-group Friendship and Intergroup Emotions
Across one longitudinal and two cross-sectional surveys in Northern Ireland, we tested a model of intergroup relations in which out-group attitudes and behavioral tendencies are predicted by cross-group friendship and positive intergroup appraisals, mediated by intergroup emotions and out-group trust. In study 1, out-group friendship at time 1 predicted out-group trust at time 2 (one year later), controlling for prior out-group trust. In study 2,…
Implicit and Explicit Sexual Attitudes Across Genders and Sexual Orientations
This article investigates implicit and explicit sexual attitudes held by individuals of different gender and sexual orientation. The authors found implicit and explicit in-group bias in heterosexual individuals and lesbian women, and explicit but not implicit in-group bias in gay men. Bisexual men implicitly preferred heterosexuals to homosexuals, though bisexual women explicitly preferred homosexuals to heterosexuals. On the whole, bias in favor…
Refining the association between intergroup contact and intergroup forgiveness in Northern Ireland: Type of contact, prior conflict experience, and group identification
We conducted a secondary analysis of a general sample of the population in Northern Ireland, including a significant proportion of respondents with “personal experience” of the sectarian conflict, to provide a refined test of whether contact was associated with more forgiveness and less prejudice. We tested the association between two measures of intergroup contact (outgroup friendship and generic contact) and both intergroup forgiveness and prej…
Making and Unmaking Prejudice: Religious Affiliation Mitigates the Impact of Mortality Salience on Out-Group Attitudes
Research inspired by terror management theory has established that being reminded of the inevitability of death (i.e., 'mortality salience') leads people to express more negative attitudes toward out-groups. We examined the hypothesis that being affiliated with a religion may buffer individuals against this negative impact of mortality salience. Two studies, conducted in two cultures that differ in their emphasis on religiosity (the United Kingdo…
Intergroup contact and intergroup conflict
Intergroup contact theory is enjoying a renaissance; positive contact does reduce intergroup prejudice, but intergroup contact has generally been studied in relatively benign settings. With a number of countries either still experiencing or having just emerged from periods of pervasive intergroup animosity, contact theory is, nowadays, being put to its most stringent test as contact theorists try to uncover ways in which intergroup conflict can b…
It's never too late for 'us' to meet 'them: Prior intergroup friendships moderate the impact of later intergroup friendships in educational settings
Background. In this paper, we focused on mixing in educational settings between members of Catholic and Protestant ethnoreligious groups in Northern Ireland.Aims. In Study 1, we examined whether opportunities for contact at home and at university were associated with greater actual out-group friendships, and whether this friendship was associated with a reduction in prejudice. We also assessed whether the impact of out-group friendships at univer…
Imagined intergroup contact promotes cooperation through outgroup trust
The present research aims to investigate whether salience of memberships during imagined contact is necessary for producing generalized positive attitudes toward the outgroup and promoting intergroup cooperation. After a warm-up task that involved reciprocal self-disclosure during the imagined interaction with an outgroup member, we manipulated interpersonal versus intergroup features of imagined contact. Results indicated that participants who i…
An evaluation of the impact of the European Association of Social Psychology: A response to Schruijer (2012)
Sandra Schruijer’s wrote a commendable and fascinating attempt to evaluate the impact of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology: ‘Whatever happened to the ‘‘European’’ in European social psychology? A study of the ambitions in founding the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology’. We submit that, notwithstanding the merits of her article, she has of necessity used a limited research design, but has aggravated th…
Individual difference variables as moderators of the effect of extended cross-group friendship on prejudice: Testing the effects of public self-consciousness and social comparison
A correlational study investigated whether individual difference variables (public self-consciousness and social comparison) moderate the impact of extended cross-group friendship on attitudes towards two outgroups (Asians and gay men). Social comparison moderated the impact of extended cross-group friendships on attitudes to both Asians (significantly) and gay men (marginally). There were no reliable effects of public self-consciousness. These r…
Affective mediators of intergroup contact: A three-wave longitudinal study in South Africa
Intergroup contact (especially cross-group friendship) is firmly established as a powerful strategy for combating group-based prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Great advances have been made in understanding how contact reduces prejudice (Brown & Hewstone, 2005), highlighting the importance of affective mediators (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008). The present study, a 3-wave longitudinal study undertaken among minority-status Colored high school childr…
Direct Contact as a Moderator of Extended Contact Effects: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Impact on Outgroup Attitudes, Behavioral Intentions, and Attitude Certainty
Cross-group friendships (the most effective form of direct contact) and extended contact (i.e., knowing ingroup members who have outgroup friends) constitute two of the most important means of improving outgroup attitudes. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from different intergroup contexts, this research demonstrates that extended contact is most effective when individuals live in segregated neighborhoods having only few, or no, dir…
The effectiveness of intergroup contact at work: Mediators and moderators of hospital workers' prejudice towards immigrants
The present research examines the effectiveness of intergroup contact between 167 Italian hospital workers and foreign patients in reducing prejudice towards immigrants in general. The outcomes of contact at work were analysed controlling for the influence of contact outside the workplace and through mass media, and taking into account the role of empathy, anxiety and group membership salience. Results indicate that the beneficial effects of cont…
Intergroup Contact and Prejudice Toward Immigrants in Italy: The Mediational Role of Anxiety and the Moderational Role of Group Salience
Two studies investigated intergroup contact with immigrants in Italy. In Study 1 ( N = 310 students) contact had direct positive effects on perceived out-group variability and out-group attitude, and a direct negative effect on subtle prejudice; the last two effects were mediated by intergroup anxiety. Contact also had a greater effect on reduced anxiety and improved out-group perception and evaluation when group salience was high. In Study 2 ( N…
Reducing explicit and implicit outgroup prejudice via direct and extended contact: The mediating role of self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety
In 4 studies, the authors investigated mediators of the effect of cross-group friendship. In Study 1, cross-group friendship among White elementary school children predicted more positive explicit outgroup attitude toward South Asians, mediated by self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. In Study 2, cross-group friendship and extended contact among White and South Asian high school students positively predicted explicit outgroup attitude, mediated…
Affective mediators of intergroup contact: A three-wave longitudinal study in South Africa
Intergroup contact (especially cross-group friendship) is firmly established as a powerful strategy for combating group-based prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Great advances have been made in understanding how contact reduces prejudice (Brown & Hewstone, 2005), highlighting the importance of affective mediators (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008). The present study, a 3-wave longitudinal study undertaken among minority-status Colored high school childr…
Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and Experience of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland
Two studies used random sample surveys to test the “contact hypothesis” on intergroup attitudes of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. In Study 1, archival data from two different surveys in 1989 ( N = 310 Catholics, 422 Protestants) and 1991 ( N = 319 Catholics, 478 Protestants) showed that contact was positively related to attitudes toward denominational mixing. Study 2 ( N = 391 Catholics, 647 Protestants) explored predictors of int…
A test of the extended intergroup contact hypothesis: The mediating role of intergroup anxiety, perceived ingroup and outgroup norms, and inclusion of the outgroup in the self
S. C. Wright, A. Aron, T. McLaughlin-Volpe, and S. A. Ropp (1997) proposed that the benefits associated with cross-group friendship might also stem from vicarious experiences of friendship. Extended contact was proposed to reduce prejudice by reducing intergroup anxiety, by generating perceptions of positive ingroup and outgroup norms regarding the other group, and through inclusion of the outgroup in the self. This article documents the first te…
Intergroup contact and intergroup conflict
Intergroup contact theory is enjoying a renaissance; positive contact does reduce intergroup prejudice, but intergroup contact has generally been studied in relatively benign settings. With a number of countries either still experiencing or having just emerged from periods of pervasive intergroup animosity, contact theory is, nowadays, being put to its most stringent test as contact theorists try to uncover ways in which intergroup conflict can b…
Intergroup Contact and Grandparent–Grandchild Communication: The Effects of Self-Disclosure on Implicit and Explicit Biases Against Older People
This study investigated contact and ageism on both the implicit and the explicit level. We examined the role of grandparent–grandchild communication (in terms of self-disclosure) and its relations to anxiety and empathy in improving intergenerational attitudes. Analyses revealed that: (1) quantity and quality of contact with older people (other than grandparents) predict higher levels of self-disclosure (to one's grandparent); (2) quantity (but n…
Contact with out-group friends as a predictor of meta-attitudinal strength and accessibility of attitudes toward gay men
Two studies examined the effects of cross-group friendships on heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men. In Study 1, the authors tested the effects of cross-group friendships with gay men on out-group attitudes, meta-attitudinal strength, and attitude accessibility. The authors simultaneously explored mediational effects of intergroup anxiety. Path analysis showed that cross-group friendships were associated with meta-attitudinally stronger and mo…
Building Trust in a Postconflict Society: An Integrative Model of Cross-group Friendship and Intergroup Emotions
Across one longitudinal and two cross-sectional surveys in Northern Ireland, we tested a model of intergroup relations in which out-group attitudes and behavioral tendencies are predicted by cross-group friendship and positive intergroup appraisals, mediated by intergroup emotions and out-group trust. In study 1, out-group friendship at time 1 predicted out-group trust at time 2 (one year later), controlling for prior out-group trust. In study 2,…
Imagined intergroup contact promotes cooperation through outgroup trust
The present research aims to investigate whether salience of memberships during imagined contact is necessary for producing generalized positive attitudes toward the outgroup and promoting intergroup cooperation. After a warm-up task that involved reciprocal self-disclosure during the imagined interaction with an outgroup member, we manipulated interpersonal versus intergroup features of imagined contact. Results indicated that participants who i…
Depersonalized extended contact and injunctive norms about cross-group friendship impact intergroup orientations
Impact of pre-war and post-war intergroup contact on intergroup relations and mental health: Evidence from a Bosnian sample
Using a sample of Bosnian adults (N = 381) we investigated the association between intergroup contact, measures of intergroup relations, and mental health. Structural equation models with latent variables showed that postwar contact had beneficial effects, being positively related to outgroup trust and intergroup forgiveness, and negatively associated with social distance. Moreover, postwar contact had indirect effects on reduced morbidity and po…
The Impact of Crossgroup Friendships in South Africa: Affective Mediators and Multigroup Comparisons
Two cross-sectional survey studies among majority-status White and minority-status Coloured high school students in South Africa explored the effects of crossgroup friendships on prejudice, and the affective processes (intergroup anxiety in Study 1, and intergroup anxiety and affective empathy in Study 2) underlying these effects with respect to two target groups for each sample. Crossgroup friendships were negatively associated with negative act…
Is negative mass media news always associated with outgroup prejudice? The buffering role of direct contact
We examined the association of the combination of direct intergroup contact and mass media news with attitudes toward immigrants and gay people in Italy, hypothesizing that direct intergroup contact would buffer the negative association between media news and attitudes, but only when contact was intimate or positive. Measuring contact variables and attitudes toward immigrants (Study 1, N = 428; Study 2, N = 426) and gay men and women (Study 3, N …
The effectiveness of intergroup contact at work: Mediators and moderators of hospital workers' prejudice towards immigrants
The present research examines the effectiveness of intergroup contact between 167 Italian hospital workers and foreign patients in reducing prejudice towards immigrants in general. The outcomes of contact at work were analysed controlling for the influence of contact outside the workplace and through mass media, and taking into account the role of empathy, anxiety and group membership salience. Results indicate that the beneficial effects of cont…
Close to me: The importance of closeness versus superficiality in explaining the positive‐negative contact asymmetry
The evidence for differential effects of positive and negative intergroup contact on prejudice is mixed. We propose that the closeness of the relationships respondents have with contact partners can explain inconsistencies in previous findings. In three studies (total N = 953), we tested the associations between positive intimate, negative intimate, positive superficial, and negative superficial contact and attitudes toward different outgroups (i…
Refining the association between intergroup contact and intergroup forgiveness in Northern Ireland: Type of contact, prior conflict experience, and group identification
We conducted a secondary analysis of a general sample of the population in Northern Ireland, including a significant proportion of respondents with “personal experience” of the sectarian conflict, to provide a refined test of whether contact was associated with more forgiveness and less prejudice. We tested the association between two measures of intergroup contact (outgroup friendship and generic contact) and both intergroup forgiveness and prej…
It's never too late for 'us' to meet 'them: Prior intergroup friendships moderate the impact of later intergroup friendships in educational settings
Background. In this paper, we focused on mixing in educational settings between members of Catholic and Protestant ethnoreligious groups in Northern Ireland.Aims. In Study 1, we examined whether opportunities for contact at home and at university were associated with greater actual out-group friendships, and whether this friendship was associated with a reduction in prejudice. We also assessed whether the impact of out-group friendships at univer…
Implicit and Explicit Sexual Attitudes Across Genders and Sexual Orientations
This article investigates implicit and explicit sexual attitudes held by individuals of different gender and sexual orientation. The authors found implicit and explicit in-group bias in heterosexual individuals and lesbian women, and explicit but not implicit in-group bias in gay men. Bisexual men implicitly preferred heterosexuals to homosexuals, though bisexual women explicitly preferred homosexuals to heterosexuals. On the whole, bias in favor…
Affective generalization from intergroup contact: Associations between contact-related and outgroup-related empathy, anxiety, and trust
This paper studied affective generalization from intergroup contact, namely when and how affective empathy, anxiety, and trust-related feelings towards specific outgroup members (contact-related affective variables) generalize to the whole outgroup (outgroup-related affective variables). We analysed affective generalization using multilevel models, with items of each affective variable nested within the individual, to avoid aggregation bias due t…
Relevance of social categories, depersonalization and group processes: Two field tests of self‐categorization theory
Two field studies investigated whether, as predicted by self‐categorization theory (Turner, 1987 ), the relationship between comparative fit of an ingroup‐outgroup categorization and group phenomena is mediated by depersonalization of self‐perception, and moderated by category accessibility. In the first study participants were football fans, and in the second they were employees in an organization. In each study, two experimental conditions were…
Stretching the boundaries: Strategic perceptions of intragroup variability
We hypothesised that people would strategically alter their perceived intragroup variability on ingroup‐threatening traits in order to maintain positive perceptions of their self and their ingroup. Specifically, we predicted that people would perceive (1) greater relative outgroup homogeneity and (2) greater general intragroup variability on ingroup negative and outgroup positive traits. We confirmed the outgroup homogeneity prediction in a minim…
Deprovincialization: Its Importance for Plural Societies
Deprovincialization is a set of attitudes characterized by two sides: a nuanced and fresh perspective on the in‐group culture and an open and accepting attitude toward other groups. After reviewing early research and indirect tests of the construct, we focused our attention on research investigating these two sides of deprovincialization. Studies conducted in various countries demonstrate that deprovincialization as in‐group cultural nuance is a …
The nature of deprovincialism: Assessment, nomological network, and comparison of cultural and group deprovincialization
This study ( N = 770) explores in depth the construct of deprovincialization by both uniting and comparing two scales that assess its two facets: the Group Deprovincialization Scale (GDS; Martinovic & Verkuyten, 2013) and the Cultural Deprovincialization Scale (CDS, Boin et al., 2020). First, we tested the factorial structure of the construct through confirmatory factor analyses. Second, we compared the mean scores of the GDS and the CDS and a li…
Respect for persons in the intergroup context: Self—other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the impact of respect on action tendencies
Two studies examined self—other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the effects of respect for persons on action tendencies towards outgroup members. In contexts of both mild (Study 1) and more severe (Study 2) intergroup conflict, respect for persons predicted action tendencies towards outgroup members: those who value the intrinsic worth of others (high respect for persons) expressed less negative and more positive action tendencies…
Individualism, Collectivism and Social Identity Theory
The studies presented in this chapter concern social identity theory and the model proposed by Hinkle and Brown (1990). To test the model, the hypothesis that the relation between identification and ingroup bias is valid only for allocentrics with relational orientation was translated into the hypothesis of an interaction, namely a multiplicative relationship, between the three determinants of favouritism: collectivism, identification, relational…
Perceived Group Variability and the Salience of Personal and Social Identity
In this chapter the relation between personal and social identity salience and perceived group variability is analysed. The hypothesis is proposed that the out-group homogeneity effect occurs mainly when personal identity is salient. The studies concerning perceived variability present in the literature are divided using three orthogonal criteria: (a) the level of individuation within the context; (b) the types of group, natural or non-natural; (…
Stretching the boundaries: Strategic perceptions of intragroup variability
We hypothesised that people would strategically alter their perceived intragroup variability on ingroup‐threatening traits in order to maintain positive perceptions of their self and their ingroup. Specifically, we predicted that people would perceive (1) greater relative outgroup homogeneity and (2) greater general intragroup variability on ingroup negative and outgroup positive traits. We confirmed the outgroup homogeneity prediction in a minim…
Intergroup Contact and Prejudice Toward Immigrants in Italy: The Mediational Role of Anxiety and the Moderational Role of Group Salience
Two studies investigated intergroup contact with immigrants in Italy. In Study 1 ( N = 310 students) contact had direct positive effects on perceived out-group variability and out-group attitude, and a direct negative effect on subtle prejudice; the last two effects were mediated by intergroup anxiety. Contact also had a greater effect on reduced anxiety and improved out-group perception and evaluation when group salience was high. In Study 2 ( N…
The Psychology of Group Perception
Effects of Direct and Indirect Cross-Group Friendships on Judgments of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland: The Mediating Role of an Anxiety-Reduction Mechanism
Recent evidence suggests that both direct and indirect friendship with outgroup members (knowledge of ingroup members’ friendship with outgroup members) can reduce prejudice toward the outgroup. Two surveys of cross-community relationships in Northern Ireland, using a student sample (N = 341) and a representative sample of the general population (N = 735), tested whether (a) direct and indirect friendships had generalized effects on both prejudic…
Grandparent-Grandchild Contact and Attitudes Toward Older Adults: Moderator and Mediator Effects
Two studies tested the intergroup contact hypothesis in the context of the grandparent-grandchild relationship. The hypothesis suggests that contact with an out-group member has more influence on attitudes toward the out-group when group memberships are salient. In Study 1, the predicted link was found but only for grandparents with whom the grandchild had more frequent contact. The second study examined only the most frequent grandparent relatio…
The link between identification and in‐group favouritism: Effects of threat to social identity and trust‐related emotions
The relation between identification and in‐group favouritism was analysed across two studies, in which the relevance of three intervening factors was demonstrated: (a) the moderating role of social identity threat, (b) the mediating role of trust‐related emotions experienced towards in‐group and out‐group members, and (c) the importance of the distinction between in‐group and out‐group evaluations. When the in‐group was not threatened, the link b…
Intergroup Contact and Grandparent–Grandchild Communication: The Effects of Self-Disclosure on Implicit and Explicit Biases Against Older People
This study investigated contact and ageism on both the implicit and the explicit level. We examined the role of grandparent–grandchild communication (in terms of self-disclosure) and its relations to anxiety and empathy in improving intergenerational attitudes. Analyses revealed that: (1) quantity and quality of contact with older people (other than grandparents) predict higher levels of self-disclosure (to one's grandparent); (2) quantity (but n…
Tokens in the Tower: Perceptual Processes and Interaction Dynamics in Academic Settings with ‘Skewed’, ‘Tilted’ and ‘Balanced’ Sex Ratios
We tested Kanter’s (1977a, 1977b) theory concerning the effects of group proportions (sex ratios) on visibility, polarization and assimilation, using natural groups of women and men in academia. Study 1 compared male-skewed and male-tilted settings and found evidence of greater polarization by minority women than majority men. The only effect of group proportions occurred for perceived dispersion as a measure of assimilation; replicating Brown an…
Relevance of social categories, depersonalization and group processes: Two field tests of self‐categorization theory
Two field studies investigated whether, as predicted by self‐categorization theory (Turner, 1987 ), the relationship between comparative fit of an ingroup‐outgroup categorization and group phenomena is mediated by depersonalization of self‐perception, and moderated by category accessibility. In the first study participants were football fans, and in the second they were employees in an organization. In each study, two experimental conditions were…
Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and Experience of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland
Two studies used random sample surveys to test the “contact hypothesis” on intergroup attitudes of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. In Study 1, archival data from two different surveys in 1989 ( N = 310 Catholics, 422 Protestants) and 1991 ( N = 319 Catholics, 478 Protestants) showed that contact was positively related to attitudes toward denominational mixing. Study 2 ( N = 391 Catholics, 647 Protestants) explored predictors of int…
Reducing prejudice via direct and extended cross-group friendship
One of the most exciting developments in intergroup contact theory is the idea that a certain type of contact, cross-group friendship, might be particularly effective at reducing prejudice. In this chapter we review research on two types of cross-group friendship. Direct cross-group friendship refers to friendships that develop between members of different groups. Extended cross-group friendship, on the other hand, refers to vicarious experience …
Contact with out-group friends as a predictor of meta-attitudinal strength and accessibility of attitudes toward gay men
Two studies examined the effects of cross-group friendships on heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men. In Study 1, the authors tested the effects of cross-group friendships with gay men on out-group attitudes, meta-attitudinal strength, and attitude accessibility. The authors simultaneously explored mediational effects of intergroup anxiety. Path analysis showed that cross-group friendships were associated with meta-attitudinally stronger and mo…
Reducing explicit and implicit outgroup prejudice via direct and extended contact: The mediating role of self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety
In 4 studies, the authors investigated mediators of the effect of cross-group friendship. In Study 1, cross-group friendship among White elementary school children predicted more positive explicit outgroup attitude toward South Asians, mediated by self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. In Study 2, cross-group friendship and extended contact among White and South Asian high school students positively predicted explicit outgroup attitude, mediated…
Explaining the Breakdown of Ethnic Relations: Why Neighbors Kill
Majority, Minority, and Parity: Effects of Gender and Group Size on Perceived Group Variability
We investigated the effects of gender and group size on perceptions of group variability, using groups of students taking different majors that varied in the proportion of men and women (female-majority, parity, and male-majority). We found that both group size and gender had consistent effects on perceived out-group variability, even when potentially confounded alternative explanations were assessed. Men showed a stronger out-group homogeneity e…
A test of the extended intergroup contact hypothesis: The mediating role of intergroup anxiety, perceived ingroup and outgroup norms, and inclusion of the outgroup in the self
S. C. Wright, A. Aron, T. McLaughlin-Volpe, and S. A. Ropp (1997) proposed that the benefits associated with cross-group friendship might also stem from vicarious experiences of friendship. Extended contact was proposed to reduce prejudice by reducing intergroup anxiety, by generating perceptions of positive ingroup and outgroup norms regarding the other group, and through inclusion of the outgroup in the self. This article documents the first te…
Respect for persons in the intergroup context: Self—other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the impact of respect on action tendencies
Two studies examined self—other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the effects of respect for persons on action tendencies towards outgroup members. In contexts of both mild (Study 1) and more severe (Study 2) intergroup conflict, respect for persons predicted action tendencies towards outgroup members: those who value the intrinsic worth of others (high respect for persons) expressed less negative and more positive action tendencies…
Direct Contact as a Moderator of Extended Contact Effects: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Impact on Outgroup Attitudes, Behavioral Intentions, and Attitude Certainty
Cross-group friendships (the most effective form of direct contact) and extended contact (i.e., knowing ingroup members who have outgroup friends) constitute two of the most important means of improving outgroup attitudes. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from different intergroup contexts, this research demonstrates that extended contact is most effective when individuals live in segregated neighborhoods having only few, or no, dir…
The effectiveness of intergroup contact at work: Mediators and moderators of hospital workers' prejudice towards immigrants
The present research examines the effectiveness of intergroup contact between 167 Italian hospital workers and foreign patients in reducing prejudice towards immigrants in general. The outcomes of contact at work were analysed controlling for the influence of contact outside the workplace and through mass media, and taking into account the role of empathy, anxiety and group membership salience. Results indicate that the beneficial effects of cont…
The Impact of Crossgroup Friendships in South Africa: Affective Mediators and Multigroup Comparisons
Two cross-sectional survey studies among majority-status White and minority-status Coloured high school students in South Africa explored the effects of crossgroup friendships on prejudice, and the affective processes (intergroup anxiety in Study 1, and intergroup anxiety and affective empathy in Study 2) underlying these effects with respect to two target groups for each sample. Crossgroup friendships were negatively associated with negative act…
Individual difference variables as moderators of the effect of extended cross-group friendship on prejudice: Testing the effects of public self-consciousness and social comparison
A correlational study investigated whether individual difference variables (public self-consciousness and social comparison) moderate the impact of extended cross-group friendship on attitudes towards two outgroups (Asians and gay men). Social comparison moderated the impact of extended cross-group friendships on attitudes to both Asians (significantly) and gay men (marginally). There were no reliable effects of public self-consciousness. These r…
Affective mediators of intergroup contact: A three-wave longitudinal study in South Africa
Intergroup contact (especially cross-group friendship) is firmly established as a powerful strategy for combating group-based prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Great advances have been made in understanding how contact reduces prejudice (Brown & Hewstone, 2005), highlighting the importance of affective mediators (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008). The present study, a 3-wave longitudinal study undertaken among minority-status Colored high school childr…
Imagined intergroup contact promotes cooperation through outgroup trust
The present research aims to investigate whether salience of memberships during imagined contact is necessary for producing generalized positive attitudes toward the outgroup and promoting intergroup cooperation. After a warm-up task that involved reciprocal self-disclosure during the imagined interaction with an outgroup member, we manipulated interpersonal versus intergroup features of imagined contact. Results indicated that participants who i…
Psychology (43 works) · Social Psychology (41 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (35 works) · Developmental psychology (26 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (25 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Ingroups and outgroups (17 works) · Outgroup (17 works) · Anxiety (12 works) · Friendship (10 works)