Linda R Tropp
Biographic Data
| ID | 83554 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Linda R Tropp |
| GIVEN NAMES | Linda R |
| FAMILY NAME | Tropp |
| SIGNATURE | TROPP L R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0203-7846 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 93 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3127 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 90 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Reformulating and Reassessing Solidarity’s Downstream Effects: New Panel Evidence on People of Color During the 2024 Presidential Campaign
Mounting evidence shows that shared identity among people of color (PoC) heightens inter-minority solidarity, which yields downstream support for pro-Black (affirmative action), pro-Latino (undocumented immigration), and pro-Asian (high-skill immigration) policies. Previous research detects this mediation pattern in one-shot experiments. This paper evaluates solidarity’s downstream consequences in real-life politics by leveraging longitudinal dat…
Beyond prejudice reduction: Personal and civic effects of intergroup contact among marginalized youth in Northern Ireland
Intergroup contact reduces prejudice, but its potential to foster broader personal and societal change remains understudied. We address these gaps by examining a large‐scale peacebuilding intervention (PEACE4Youth) among marginalized youth in post‐conflict Northern Ireland. Using latent growth curve modeling across three waves, we demonstrate that increased intergroup contact is associated with improvements not only in youth's outgroup attitudes …
Solidarity Between People of Color Has Dynamic, Partisan Roots: Panel Evidence During and After the 2024 Presidential Contest
Solidarity between people of color (PoC) is known to mute divisions between racially stigmatized groups. Yet solidarity’s political origins remain highly unclear. We consider whether PoC solidarity responds to partisan dynamics that unfold before, during, and after presidential elections. A racially diverse Democratic Party requires cross-racial alliances to effectively coordinate during presidential campaigns. This implies that relations between…
Ethnic discrimination in the Hungarian rental housing market
This paper explores the degree of discrimination faced by Roma home-seekers, who are members of the largest ethnic minority group in Europe. We first measure the extent of ethnic discrimination of Roma people in a Central-Eastern European country with weak norms against discrimination and second, test whether providing relevant information about applicants can reduce discrimination. We conducted two field experiments examining real-world behavior…
Follow the Fox? Elite Influence and White Support for the Great Replacement Theory
Recent years have witnessed an increase in white Americans’ support for the Great Replacement Theory (GRT), the xenophobic conspiracy theory that posits that political elites are embracing permissive immigration policies to bring in “obedient” voters who will vote for them and who will eventually replace native white citizens. This conspiracy theory has been publicly endorsed by several conservative political figures and prominently featured in c…
Testing the stability and temporal order of People of Color Identity and People of Color Solidarity: New evidence from a survey panel of Asian, Black, Latino, and multiracial adults
Two crucial variables in the study of people of color (PoC) are identity and solidarity . Existing work construes identity as more stable than solidarity , with identity shifting solidarity between PoC. However, this view rests on cross‐sectional evidence, limiting researchers’ ability to formally appraise these key variables’ stability and sequence. We report the first longitudinal evidence on these matters by leveraging a unique two‐wave survey…
A Renaissance of Social Relevance: Maximizing Insights and the Impact of Psychological Research
Within each generation of academics, perennial, soul‐searching questions emerge regarding whether and how psychological research can have meaningful impact, and calls for the broader applicability and significance of our work have only grown in recent years. Yet, oftentimes, the social relevance of our research is construed as being at odds with the scientific enterprise, as if we must choose between conducting rigorous tests of psychological the…
Examining How White Teachers’ Interracial Contact Experiences Shape Their Self-Efficacy and School Choices
Racial inequalities in education may be exacerbated by teachers’ lack of confidence about working with students from racial and ethnic backgrounds different to their own. Although intergroup contact experiences typically enhance people’s self-efficacy about navigating cross-group interactions, very little work has explored such trends among teachers. Across two cross-sectional studies and one preregistered repeated measures experiment (N = 1,608)…
Friendship With Immigrants and Inclusive Policies Correspond to More Positive Perceptions of Immigrants: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis Across North America and Europe
Relational and societal exclusion of immigrants in Western countries fuels negative perceptions of immigrants among non‐migrants. We investigated how relational and societal inclusion in the form of friendship and immigrant integration policies jointly relate to perceptions of immigrants. We conducted a longitudinal multilevel analysis drawing on probability samples of non‐migrants from the Transatlantic Trends Survey ( N = 27,513) in nine North …
Ambivalence about social relevance? How we can reframe academic research and reaffirm our commitment to the public good
Although psychologists are well positioned to address social problems, our public impact has remained relatively limited. Collectively, we might wonder why psychology, as a discipline, has not had the level of public impact we would ideally like it to have. I believe many of us struggle with some degree of ambivalence about the nature and value of research oriented towards public import and impact, perceiving incompatibility between scientific pu…
The Role of Intergroup Contact, Injustice Talk and Perceived Injustice in the Demobilisation of LGBTIQ+ People and Ethnic Minorities
We aimed to identify conditions when positive contact with advantaged groups leads and does not lead to the demobilisation of disadvantaged group members (i.e., lower collective action for social change). In a pre‐registered, multinational survey study, we tested the moderating role of the content of intergroup contact experiences, such as talking about injustice (i.e., injustice talk), and indicators of perceived injustice, such as perceived ine…
Intergroup contact buffers influence of objective and perceived peer norms on prejudice among adolescents
Are solidarity and identification as people of color distinct? Validating new measures across Asian, Black, Latino, and Multiracial Americans
Mounting U.S. research suggests many non-White individuals feel solidarity with, and identify as, people of color (PoC). Yet measurement limitations prevent scholars from testing whether these constructs are empirically different. We explain why these concepts diverge and evaluate our claims with an expanded battery of measures across U.S. Asian, Black, Latino, and Multiracial adults (N = 3402). Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we …
Through the eyes of my peers: Sharing perceptions of unequal treatment in ethno–racially diverse classrooms
We found consistent evidence of sharing minority perceptions, so that both majority and minority youth would see inequality through their minority peers' eyes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Examining beliefs about reconciliation and social integration in Kosovo: Testing effects of interethnic contact and differences in perspective among ethnic Albanians and Serbs
Across two studies, this research examined belief that reconciliation is necessary, belief that reconciliation is possible and belief in the value of social integration and willingness to integrate socially among Kosovar Albanians and Kosovar Serbs. Study 1 assessed these beliefs through a general population survey distributed via social media, whereas Study 2 assessed them before and after Kosovar youth participated in a program encouraging cros…
Cultivating Contact: A Guide to Building Bridges and Meaningful Connections Between Groups
In this guide, we describe how to set the stage for people from different backgrounds to engage with each other in ways that foster trust and belonging, while also drawing on their similarities and differences to solve community problems. We review a number of strategies that encourage people from different groups to work together as equals, so that they can share ideas and perspectives, and co-create new initiatives in collaboration and across g…
Escalation effects in teacher perceptions of classroom behavior in a U.S. context: The intersecting roles of student race, gender, and behavior severity
How implicit racial bias and concern about appearing racist shape K-12 teachers’ race talk with students
How intergroup contact shapes intergroup attitudes and construals of relations between ethnic groups: Evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Coming together after genocide: How openness to communication about conflict experiences shapes willingness for social integration in post genocide Rwanda
Does witnessing gender discrimination predict women's collective action intentions for gender justice? Examining the moderating role of perceived female support
Previous research has indicated that witnessing gender discrimination may instigate women's participation in collective action for gender justice. However, relatively little is known about the role of perceived female support in motivating collective action among women who witness gender discrimination in public life. This study aims to analyse whether and when perceived support from feminist‐minded women moderates the association between women's…
The interplay of positive and negative intergroup contact: Experiences of Latino/a Youth in the U.S
Skin Tone and Mexicans’ Perceptions of Discrimination in New Immigrant Destinations
Colorism literature examines how skin tone—alongside prototypical group features and hairstyles—correlates with socioeconomic, health, and political outcomes. Yet few studies have explicitly operationalized how skin tone shapes Latinos’ experiences of racialization in “new” U.S. destinations. Here, we draw on a large, representative sample of Mexican immigrants (N = 500) living in two large metropolitan areas (Atlanta and Philadelphia) to investi…
Need satisfaction in intergroup contact: A multinational study of pathways toward social change
What role does intergroup contact play in promoting support for social change toward greater social equality? Drawing on the needs-based model of reconciliation, we theorized that when inequality between groups is perceived as illegitimate, disadvantaged group members will experience a need for empowerment and advantaged group members a need for acceptance. When intergroup contact satisfies each group's needs, it should result in more mutual supp…
When White Americans see “non-Whites” as a group: Belief in minority collusion and support for White identity politics
White Americans may find diversity threatening in part because they construe non-White Americans as a coherent social and political force. We argue that this perception manifests in a belief that minority groups collude against White people and that White people should act as a political bloc to defend ingroup interests. In a 3-year longitudinal study, the belief in minority collusion and support for White identity politics increased significantl…
A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory
The present article presents a meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. With 713 independent samples from 515 studies, the meta-analysis finds that intergroup contact typically reduces intergroup prejudice. Multiple tests indicate that this finding appears not to result from either participant selection or publication biases, and the more rigorous studies yield larger mean effects. These contact effects typically generalize to the entire …
Recent advances in intergroup contact theory
How does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Meta‐analytic tests of three mediators
Recent years have witnessed a renewal of interest in intergroup contact theory. A meta‐analysis of more than 500 studies established the theory's basic contention that intergroup contact typically reduces prejudices of many types. This paper addresses the issue of process: just how does contact diminish prejudice? We test meta‐analytically the three most studied mediators: contact reduces prejudice by (1) enhancing knowledge about the outgroup, (…
With a little help from my cross-group friend: Reducing anxiety in intergroup contexts through cross-group friendship
The authors induced cross-group friendship between Latinos/as and Whites to test the effects of cross-group friendship on anxiety in intergroup contexts. Cross-group friendship led to decreases in cortisol reactivity (a hormonal correlate of stress; W. R. Lovallo & T. L. Thomas, 2000) over 3 friendship meetings among participants high in race-based rejection sensitivity (R. Mendoza-Denton, G. Downey, V. J. Purdie, A. Davis, & J. Pietrzak, 2002) a…
Ethnic identification in response to perceived discrimination protects well-being and promotes activism: A longitudinal study of Latino college students
Using structural equation modeling and cross-lagged analyses, this longitudinal study investigates ethnic identification, a group-based coping strategy, as a mediator of the influence of perceived discrimination on psychological well-being and willingness to engage in activism on behalf of one’s ethnic group among Latino students in both their first and fourth years of college. We found cross-sectional evidence for the rejection–identification mo…
Perceived Discrimination and Interracial Contact: Predicting Interracial Closeness among Black and White Americans
This research examines whether perceptions of discrimination moderate relationships between interracial contact and feelings of interracial closeness among black and white Americans, using survey responses gathered by the National Conference for Community and Justice (2000). Results indicate that the general association between contact and interracial closeness is significantly weaker among black respondents than among white respondents. Moreover…
The Psychological Impact of Prejudice: Implications for Intergroup Contact
This research concerns the effects of prejudice on how members of devalued groups feel toward intergroup contact. With members of laboratory-generated groups (Study 1) and devalued ethnic groups (Study 2), two experimental studies tested the impact of exposure to prejudice on emotional states and feelings toward cross-group interactions. Results suggest that exposure to prejudice can negatively affect group members' emotional states in intergroup…
Cross‐ethnic friendships, perceived discrimination, and their effects on ethnic activism over time: A longitudinal investigation of three ethnic minority groups
This research examines cross-ethnic friendships as a predictor of perceived discrimination and support for ethnic activism over time among African American, Latino American, and Asian American undergraduate participants from a multi-year, longitudinal study conducted in the United States. Our research builds on prior cross-sectional research by testing effects longitudinally and examining how relationships among these variables may differ across …
A Paradox of Integration? Interracial Contact, Prejudice Reduction, and Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A Paradox of Integration
A random digit dialing survey (N = 596) investigated the relationship between quantity and quality of interracial contact and Black South Africans’ perceptions of racial discrimination in postapartheid society. Results showed that harmonious contact was associated with lower levels of perceived collective discrimination, an effect that was mediated by racial attitudes and personal experiences of racial discrimination. The implications of the surv…
When extended contact opens the door to future contact: Testing the effects of extended contact on attitudes and intergroup expectancies in majority and minority groups
The present research tests whether extended contact can predict positive intergroup expectancies, as well as positive intergroup attitudes, among majority and minority group members. Our results replicate and extend prior work by showing that extended contact predicts both positive intergroup attitudes and intergroup expectancies among both majority (Spanish) and minority (immigrant) participants, even when controlling for direct friendship and t…
Whites for racial justice: How contact with Black Americans predicts support for collective action among White Americans
Advantaged group members have an important role to play in creating social change, and intergroup contact has tremendous implications in shaping intergroup relations. However, little research has examined how intergroup contact predicts advantaged group members’ inclinations toward collective action to support the interests of disadvantaged groups. The present research investigates how contact with Black Americans shapes White Americans’ willingn…
Attributions of responsibility and perceived harm in the aftermath of mass violence
Two studies shed light on construals (i.e., attributions of responsibility and perceived severity of harm) of extreme intergroup violence and the relationship between in-group identification and these construals. An investigation of Turkish construals of Armenian massacres at the beginning of the 20th century (Study 1) and Hutus’ and Tutsis’ construals of the ethnic conflict in Burundi (Study 2) showed that each group attributed less responsibili…
Challenging the Stubborn Core of Opposition to Equality: Racial Contact and Policy Attitudes
A Random Digit Dialing survey (n = 794) examined the interracial contact experiences and racial attitudes of White South Africans. The survey measured racial attitudes not only in terms of individuals' prejudice, but also in terms of their perceptions of group threat, perceived injustice, and support for various government policies designed to rectify the legacy of apartheid. The results indicated that the frequency and quality of interracial con…
Valuing Diversity and Interest in Intergroup Contact
The present research examines ways in which valuing diversity relates to interest in intergroup contact among members of minority and majority status groups. Using open‐ended responses, Study 1 reveals that ethnic minority group members are less likely to perceive that diversity is valued than ethnic majority group members, yet those who perceive that diversity is valued tend to express greater interest in intergroup contact. Surveys of Black and…
Intergroup contact research in the 21st century: Lessons learned and forward progress if we remain open
This article presents the 2021 JSI special issue on intergroup contact, which we designed to offer a fresh outlook on a rapidly expanding literature on the antecedents, dynamics, and consequences of interactions between members of opposing groups in society—or intergroup contact. We start by discussing the results of a bibliographic search of intergroup contact research between 1937 and 2021 and organizing our analysis around two distinct phases …
Language and Intergroup Contact: Investigating the Impact of Bilingual Instruction on Children’s Intergroup Attitudes
This study examined the impact of bilingual versus English-only instruction on the intergroup attitudes of White, English-speaking children in kindergarten through second grade. Replicating prior research, White children generally showed a clear preference toward the ingroup in terms of positive evaluations, friendship preference, and perceived similarity to the self. However, all three effects were significantly smaller among children who were i…
How Contact Experiences Shape Welcoming: Perspectives from U.S.-Born and Immigrant Groups
This research examines how intergroup contact experiences—including both their frequency and their qualities (friendly, discriminatory)—predict indicators of welcoming among U.S.-born and immigrant groups. Analyzing a new survey of U.S.-born groups (whites and blacks) and immigrant groups (Mexicans and Indians) from the Atlanta and Philadelphia metropolitan areas (total N = 2,006), we examine welcoming as a key dimension of social integration. Al…
Intergroup contact and the potential for post-conflict reconciliation: Studies in Northern Ireland and South Africa
With surveys of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, and Whites and Blacks in South Africa, this research examines how both contact quality and exposure to intergroup conflict predict attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors relevant to intergroup reconciliation. Across both studies, contact of higher quality predicted more positive intergroup attitudes, trust, more positive perceptions of outgroup intentions in working toward peace, and great…
Do they want contact with us? The role of intergroup contact meta‐perceptions on positive contact and attitudes
This research examined the role of contact meta‐perceptions on positive intergroup contact and outgroup attitudes. Specifically, perceptions of the ingroup's and outgroup's desire for intergroup contact were simultaneously tested as predictors of intergroup contact and outgroup attitudes. Three correlational studies were conducted in three distinct contexts, international students' view of British students, general public views of people with sch…
A large-scale test of the link between intergroup contact and support for social change
Beyond dislike: Blatant dehumanization predicts teacher discrimination
School teachers have been shown to favor ethnic majority over minority students. However, it is unclear what psychological processes motivate ethnicity-based discrimination. Of the studies that have examined the psychological roots of teacher discrimination, most have focused on implicit or explicit prejudice. We propose an alternate predictor: dehumanization. Using a within-subject paradigm with a small-scale experiment ( N = 29) and a larger sc…
Depersonalized extended contact and injunctive norms about cross-group friendship impact intergroup orientations
Are they for us or against us? How intergroup metaperceptions shape foreign policy attitudes
We identify public opinion polls from other countries as an important form of indirect exposure to outgroups, and an important source of intergroup metaperceptions, outgroup perceptions, and support for group-level behavior towards outgroups. Three experiments demonstrate a two-step process through which such exposure affects support for ingroup behaviors that facilitate peaceful or violent intergroup relations. When indirectly exposed to nationa…
Improving Intergroup Relations: Building on the Legacy of Thomas F. Pettigrew
Table of Contents. 1. Editor's Introduction: Ulrich Wagner (Philipps-University Marburg), Linda R. Tropp (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Gillian Finchilescu (University of the Witwatersrand), and Colin Tredoux (University of Cape Town). 2. Thomas F. Pettigrew: Building on the Scholar-Activist Tradition in Social Psychology: Frances Cherry (Carleton University). Part I: Exploring the Causes of Prejudice and Discrimination:. 3. From Lewin a…
Welcoming the Unwelcome: How Contact Shapes Contexts of Reception for New Immigrants in Germany and the United States
How receiving society members perceive and respond to immigration are crucial factors that shape the context of reception for immigrants coming to a new country. In this paper, we examine these processes through the lens of intergroup contact research, with a focus on relations between immigrants and members of receiving societies, to discern ways in which receiving societies are or are not welcoming toward immigrants. Reviewing recent theorizing…
Psychological Acculturation: Development of A New Measure for Puerto Ricans on the U.S. Mainland
Most instruments designed to measure acculturation have relied on specific cultural behaviors and preferences as primary indicators of acculturation. In contrast, feelings of belonging and emotional attachment to cultural communities have not been widely used. The Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS) was developed to assess acculturation from a phenomenological perspective, with items pertaining to the individual’s sense of psychological attac…
Ingroup identification and relative deprivation: An examination across multiple social comparisons
Most research on social identity and relative deprivation has focused on the salience of social identity in social comparisons. In contrast, little research has studied relative deprivation in relation to one's identification with the ingroup, and across a variety of comparison targets. Using samples of Latino and African–American respondents, the present study investigated ingroup identification and relative deprivation in comparisons with Ingro…
Ingroup identification and relative deprivation: An examination across multiple social comparisons
The Dual-Focus Approach to Creating Bilingual Measures
The dual-focus approach to creating bilingual research protocols requires a bilingual/bicultural research team, including indigenous researchers from the cultures being studied. The presence of indigenous researchers as full and equal members of the research team can guard against an unexamined exportation of ideas and methods developed in one culture to other cultural/linguistic communities. The team develops the research plan and a research pro…
Ingroup Identification as the Inclusion of Ingroup in the Self
This article presents a basic conceptualization of ingroup identification as the degree to which the ingroup is included in the self and introduces the Inclusion of Ingroup in the Self (IIS) measure to reflect this conceptualization. Using responses from samples of women and ethnic minority groups, four studies demonstrate the utility of this conceptualization of ingroup identification and provide support for the IIS. Results from these studies e…
Evaluations and Perceptions of Self, Ingroup, and Outgroup: Comparisons Between Mexican-American and European-American Children
The present research examined evaluations of self, ingroup members, and outgroup members among young Mexican-American and European-American children. European-American children showed a greater discrepancy between evaluations of themselves and other ingroup members, and perceived fewer ingroup members as like themselves, relative to Mexican-American children. European-American children also evaluated ingroup targets more positively than outgroup …
The Psychological Impact of Prejudice: Implications for Intergroup Contact
This research concerns the effects of prejudice on how members of devalued groups feel toward intergroup contact. With members of laboratory-generated groups (Study 1) and devalued ethnic groups (Study 2), two experimental studies tested the impact of exposure to prejudice on emotional states and feelings toward cross-group interactions. Results suggest that exposure to prejudice can negatively affect group members' emotional states in intergroup…
What Benefits the Group Can Also Benefit the Individual: Group-Enhancing and Individual-Enhancing Motives for Collective Action
Most collective action research focuses on how concerns for the welfare of one's group can motivate support for collective action. By contrast, little research has examined how motivations for enhancing oneself as an individual may also predict support for collective action, and how these motivations relate to feelings of identification with one's group. This research tests whether motivations for individual enhancement can predict support for co…
Differential Relationships Between Intergroup Contact and Affective and Cognitive Dimensions of Prejudice
Research on affective dimensions of intergroup relationships suggests that positive effects of intergroup contact can generalize through establishing affective ties with outgroup members. However, research on cognitive dimensions emphasizes that it is often difficult to generalize positive contact outcomes. In this research, the authors examine whether affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice bear different relationships to intergroup cont…
Allport's Intergroup Contact Hypothesis: Its History and Influence
This chapter contains section titled: Allport's Views: The Seeds of Intergroup Contact Theory Developments Since Allport A Meta-Analysis of Intergroup Contact Effects Has Allport Been Supported? Future Directions in Intergroup Contact Theory
Relationships Between Intergroup Contact and Prejudice Among Minority and Majority Status Groups
Considerable research has shown that greater intergroup contact corresponds with lower intergroup prejudice, yet little is known regarding how the relationships between contact and prejudice may vary for members of minority and majority status groups. The present research examined differences in contact-prejudice relationships among members of minority and majority status groups, using data from a larger meta-analytic study of the effects of inte…
Language and Intergroup Contact: Investigating the Impact of Bilingual Instruction on Children’s Intergroup Attitudes
This study examined the impact of bilingual versus English-only instruction on the intergroup attitudes of White, English-speaking children in kindergarten through second grade. Replicating prior research, White children generally showed a clear preference toward the ingroup in terms of positive evaluations, friendship preference, and perceived similarity to the self. However, all three effects were significantly smaller among children who were i…
Being Seen As Individuals Versus As Group Members: Extending Research on Metaperception to Intergroup Contexts
Recent research has begun to examine people's expectations for how they are viewed in intergroup contexts, yet little work has considered how these metaperceptions relate to those that emerge in interpersonal contexts. As we extend research on metaperceptions into the intergroup realm, we must address several important conceptual issues. In this article, we provide a general overview of research on interpersonal metaperceptions, along with many f…
Looking Back as We Look Ahead: Integrating Research, Theory, and Practice on Intergroup Relations
This article looks back at the origins of intergroup relations in social psychology just over 50 years ago. Pioneers in the field—Robin Williams, Gordon Allport, and Kurt Lewin—were all deeply concerned with integrating social science and social action. We seek to re‐center this mutuality of research and practice, and to expand the focus of intergroup relations from prejudice reduction to social inclusion. The articles in this issue document cutt…
Valuing Diversity and Interest in Intergroup Contact
The present research examines ways in which valuing diversity relates to interest in intergroup contact among members of minority and majority status groups. Using open‐ended responses, Study 1 reveals that ethnic minority group members are less likely to perceive that diversity is valued than ethnic majority group members, yet those who perceive that diversity is valued tend to express greater interest in intergroup contact. Surveys of Black and…
A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory
The present article presents a meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. With 713 independent samples from 515 studies, the meta-analysis finds that intergroup contact typically reduces intergroup prejudice. Multiple tests indicate that this finding appears not to result from either participant selection or publication biases, and the more rigorous studies yield larger mean effects. These contact effects typically generalize to the entire …
Perceived Discrimination and Interracial Contact: Predicting Interracial Closeness among Black and White Americans
This research examines whether perceptions of discrimination moderate relationships between interracial contact and feelings of interracial closeness among black and white Americans, using survey responses gathered by the National Conference for Community and Justice (2000). Results indicate that the general association between contact and interracial closeness is significantly weaker among black respondents than among white respondents. Moreover…
Interpreting references to group membership in context: Feelings about intergroup contact depending on who says what to whom
Contact research often manipulates the salience of group membership, with little consideration of how such manipulations affect feelings toward intergroup contact, and how contextual features may moderate its effects. We propose that feelings toward intergroup contact may not depend solely on the degree to which group membership appears to be salient, but on how references to group membership are interpreted in the intergroup context. Two experim…
The Role of Intergroup Contact in Predicting Children’s Interethnic Attitudes Evidence From Meta-Analytic and Field Studies
Research on the effects of intergroup contact among children expanded greatly following the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which declared that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional (see Pettigrew, 1973, 2004; Schofield & Hausmann, 2004; St. John, 1975). Over the last half century, a considerable number of studies have shown how social relations and the social environment of the school can affect children’s intergr…
Improving Intergroup Relations: Building on the Legacy of Thomas F. Pettigrew
Table of Contents. 1. Editor's Introduction: Ulrich Wagner (Philipps-University Marburg), Linda R. Tropp (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Gillian Finchilescu (University of the Witwatersrand), and Colin Tredoux (University of Cape Town). 2. Thomas F. Pettigrew: Building on the Scholar-Activist Tradition in Social Psychology: Frances Cherry (Carleton University). Part I: Exploring the Causes of Prejudice and Discrimination:. 3. From Lewin a…
How does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Meta‐analytic tests of three mediators
Recent years have witnessed a renewal of interest in intergroup contact theory. A meta‐analysis of more than 500 studies established the theory's basic contention that intergroup contact typically reduces prejudices of many types. This paper addresses the issue of process: just how does contact diminish prejudice? We test meta‐analytically the three most studied mediators: contact reduces prejudice by (1) enhancing knowledge about the outgroup, (…
With a little help from my cross-group friend: Reducing anxiety in intergroup contexts through cross-group friendship
The authors induced cross-group friendship between Latinos/as and Whites to test the effects of cross-group friendship on anxiety in intergroup contexts. Cross-group friendship led to decreases in cortisol reactivity (a hormonal correlate of stress; W. R. Lovallo & T. L. Thomas, 2000) over 3 friendship meetings among participants high in race-based rejection sensitivity (R. Mendoza-Denton, G. Downey, V. J. Purdie, A. Davis, & J. Pietrzak, 2002) a…
“Let Them Eat Harmony”: Prejudice-Reduction Strategies and Attitudes of Historically Disadvantaged Groups
Research on intergroup prejudice has generally adopted a model of social change that is based around the psychological rehabilitation of members of advantaged groups in order to foster intergroup harmony. Recent studies of prejudice-reduction interventions among members of disadvantaged groups, however, have complicated psychologists’ understanding of the consequences of inducing harmonious relations in historically unequal societies. Interventio…
A Paradox of Integration? Interracial Contact, Prejudice Reduction, and Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A Paradox of Integration
A random digit dialing survey (N = 596) investigated the relationship between quantity and quality of interracial contact and Black South Africans’ perceptions of racial discrimination in postapartheid society. Results showed that harmonious contact was associated with lower levels of perceived collective discrimination, an effect that was mediated by racial attitudes and personal experiences of racial discrimination. The implications of the surv…
Challenging the Stubborn Core of Opposition to Equality: Racial Contact and Policy Attitudes
A Random Digit Dialing survey (n = 794) examined the interracial contact experiences and racial attitudes of White South Africans. The survey measured racial attitudes not only in terms of individuals' prejudice, but also in terms of their perceptions of group threat, perceived injustice, and support for various government policies designed to rectify the legacy of apartheid. The results indicated that the frequency and quality of interracial con…
Psychology (77 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (72 works) · Social Psychology (72 works) · Sociology (42 works) · Social Psychology (41 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (39 works) · Political science (36 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (28 works) · Developmental psychology (27 works) · Ethnic group (26 works)