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The contact hypothesis has proven to be highly effective in alleviating prejudice directed toward homosexuals. [24] Applying the contact hypothesis to heterosexuals and homosexuals, Herek (1987) found that college students who had pleasant interactions with a homosexual tend to generalize from that experience and accept homosexuals as a group. [25]
The basic premise of the Contact Hypothesis (also called Intergroup Contact Theory) formulated by Gordon Allport is that prejudice often stems from ignorance and stereotyping, and interpersonal contact under appropriate circumstances can break down such stereotypes and reduce prejudice. [3]
The imagined contact hypothesis is derived from Gordon Allport's contact hypothesis, which states that contact between groups is an effective means of reducing prejudice and intergroup conflict. [8] In Allport's seminal work The Nature of Prejudice he suggested that contact at the "fantasy level" [9] may also be an effective means of reducing ...
The common ingroup identity model, first outlined in 1993, describes how recategorization can mitigate bias; intergroup contact theory, introduced five years later, describes how recategorization can be achieved. [4] [5] Under the contact hypothesis, intergroup contact under certain conditions will reduce intergroup prejudice.
Intergroup approaches to prejudice reduction have been studied a great deal in laboratory settings, as well as outside of the laboratory, particularly in schools. [1] Many intergroup prejudice reduction approaches are grounded in one of 3 main theoretical perspectives: interdependence, [2] intergroup contact, [3] and social identity. [4]
A large body of research in meaningful 'real-world' contexts lends support to the applicability of the common ingroup identity model. In a diverse range of intergroup situations, it has been demonstrated that the conditions specified by the contact hypothesis (i.e. cooperative interaction) reduce intergroup bias through transforming members' representations of separate group memberships to one ...
Contact Information: We thank the USDA Economic Research Service and the Center for Behavioral Decision Research at Carnegie Mellon University for financial support, and Howard Seltman, Jay Variyam, and Roberto Weber for numerous helpful suggestions on the design and analysis of our results.
There are three psychological processes underlying the contact hypothesis: learning about the outgroup through direct contact, fear and anxiety reduction when interacting with the outgroup, and increased ability to perspective take and empathize with the outgroup which results in reduced negative evaluation.