Download Contact Hypothesis

Contact
Hyopothesis
Basic definition

The more personal contact disparate groups
have with each other, the less bias they’ll have
about each other
History of Hypothesis
Started after World War II
Red Ball Express
Red Tails
nd
442
Infantry Regiment

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Attempts to understand shift in attitudes
between groups that fought together during the
war started in 1946
Contact Hypothesis credited to Gordon Allport
First posited in 1954
 Reduce prejudice by learning more

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Rothbert and John

belief change through contact is "an example of the
general cognitive process by which attributes of
category members modify category attributes"
 In other words, knowing more about actual
individuals in a stereotyped group changes the
stereotypes of the entire group

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Anxiety during contact reduces the likelihood of
reducing prejudice
The contact situation needs to meet certain
criteria if it’s going to work
Equal Status

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Neither group has greater social or economic
status
More likely in informal situations than in formal
situations
Common Goals

If everyone is working to achieve the same end,
differences that have nothing to do with that
achievement are minimized
Intergroup Cooperation

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Both groups must work together toward their
common goals without internal competition.
This can be more difficult for men than for
women
Support of authorities, law or
customs

Effectiveness of contact reducing prejudice
more likely if it’s backed by authority or law
Personal Interaction

Members of different groups must mingle and
talk
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Allport’s criteria are intellectual
People are also emotional, and emotions don’t
respond to intellect
Contact hypothesis
and the media
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Previous research focused on direct contact
between groups
New research looks at the effects of indirect
contact
Media are a major source of indirect contact
Beulah
Dick van Dyke Show
I Spy
The Bill Cosby Show
Julia
The Jeffersons
The Defiant Ones
Lilies of the Field
In the Heat of the Night
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Possible reasons why it works

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Actual behavior completely unlike expected
behavior based on stereotypes
That unstereotypical behavior is seen often and
in many situations
The people interacted with are perceived as
typical members of the outgroup