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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2155285
AutoresThomas C Wilson (0000-0001-5045-1270, Florida Atlantic University, autor correspondente)
Ano1996
Volume16
Fascículo1
Páginas43-60
Data de publicação1996-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociological Spectrum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0273-2173 • E-ISSN: 1521-0707
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02732173.1996.9982119
OpenAlexW2039805509
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas30
Referências 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