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Past research has shown that intergroup contact can be a promising intervention to improve intergroup relations and that contact-based interventions might be most effective during adolescence. In postconflict Northern Ireland, widespread residential segregation and a largely separate school system limit opportunities for intergroup contact between adolescents from the Catholic and Protestant communities. We evaluated whether a large-scale intervention to facilitate intergroup contact between students attending separate schools (the 'Shared Education' program) improves a range of outcomes relevant for intergroup relations in Northern Ireland. We conducted a 5-wave longitudinal, quasi-experimental study that followed a large sample of school students (N = 5,159, Mage = 12.4, age range: 10-14 years; 2,988 girls, 2,044 boys) from 56 predominantly Catholic or Protestant schools from sixth to tenth grade. We compared the developmental trajectories of students who, in 9th (14-15 years) and 10th (15-16 years) grade, shared some classes with students from the other community, as part of the program, to students who did not. We found that participating in shared classes had a medium-size, positive effect on the amount of intergroup contact students had outside of class, and small, positive effects on students' outgroup attitudes, outgroup trust, and intergroup empathy (but not on their intergroup anxiety, future contact intentions, deprovincialization, or multicultural beliefs). Our findings show that a school-based program of shared education can provide a viable and effective intervention to facilitate intergroup contact, improve intergroup relations, and foster social integration among adolescents at a large scale in a postconflict society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

We examined how people construct their social identities from multiple group memberships—and whether intergroup contact can reduce prejudice by fostering more inclusive social identities. South Indian participants ( N = 351) from diverse caste backgrounds viewed 24 identity cards, each representing a person with whom participants shared none, one, two, or all of three group memberships (caste, religion, nationality). Participants judged each person as “us” or “not us,” showing whom they included in their ingroup, and whom they excluded. Participants tended to exclude caste and religious minorities, replicating persistent social divides. Bridging these divides, cross-group friendship was associated with more inclusive identities which, in turn, were associated with more positive relations between an advantaged, an intermediate, and a disadvantaged caste group. Negative contact was associated with less inclusive identities. Contact and identity processes, however, did not affect entrenched opposition to (or undermine support for) affirmative action in advantaged and disadvantaged groups.

Past research has found intergroup contact to be a promising intervention to reduce prejudice and has identified adolescence as the developmental period during which intergroup contact is most effective. Few studies, however, have tested whether contact-based interventions can be scaled up to improve intergroup relations at a large scale. The present research evaluated whether and when the National Citizen Service, a large-scale contact-based intervention reaching one in six 15- to 17-year-olds in England and Northern Ireland, builds social cohesion among adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds. In a diverse sample of adolescents (N = 2099; Mage = 16.37, age range: 15-17 years; 58% female), this study used a pretest-posttest design with a double pretest to assess the intervention's effectiveness. Controlling for test-retest effects, this study found evidence that the intervention decreased intergroup anxiety and increased outgroup perspective-taking-but not that it affected intergroup attitudes, intergroup trust, or perceptions of relative (dis-)advantage. These (small) effects were greater for adolescents who had experienced less positive contact before participating and who talked more about group differences while participating. These findings suggest that the intervention might not immediately improve intergroup relations-but that it has the potential to prepare adolescents, especially those with less positive contact experiences before the intervention, for more positive intergroup interactions in the future.

This longitudinal, quasi-experimental field study investigated affective forecasting as a moderator of positive intergroup contact effects among adolescents. We also examined a novel mediating mechanism that underlies this effect, namely accuracy of perceived outgroup willingness for intergroup contact. Three annual waves of survey data were used from 1,169 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 13.88 at Wave 1; 50% girls; 66% White British, 44% Asian British) whose schools were merged, in a unique intervention that resulted in one school where ethnic groups were evenly mixed (i.e., "balanced school") and two White British majority schools (i.e., "majority skewed schools"). Results showed that positive intergroup contact and attitudes improved more in the balanced school than in the majority skewed schools. In all schools, change in adolescents' positive intergroup contact predicted change in positive intergroup attitudes indirectly via (a) increased accuracy of perceived outgroup willingness for contact and (b) reduced intergroup anxiety. Indirect effects via accuracy of perceived contact willingness were stronger for adolescents who made more negative affective forecasts than for other adolescents. These moderated mediation effects were stronger in the balanced school than in the majority skewed schools. Thus, more balanced ethnic mixing in schools seemed to directly enhance positive intergroup relations and attitudes for all adolescents, but to particularly benefit adolescents who made more negative affective forecasts about positive contact before the school merger.

More and more research is considering the effects of both positive and negative intergroup contact on intergroup attitudes. To date, little is known about what factors may differentially influence these effects. We propose that differentiating not only between positive and negative contact (i.e., its valence), but also considering the intensity (i.e., low or high positivity/negativity) of contact valence is critical to understanding contact effects. We predicted that intensifying positivity in the realm of positive contact would have a stronger effect on outgroup attitudes than intensifying negativity. We report evidence supporting this hypothesis from three experiments which manipulated the quality of feedback given during a cooperation task by a confederate who acted as a member of a student outgroup (two online: N = 87, N = 169; one in person: N = 78), summarized in an internal meta-analysis and a large survey of White British majority and Asian British minority members (N = 2,994). Our results suggest that intensity of valenced intergroup contact may be a key factor for resolving inconsistencies in the current literature on valenced intergroup contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on two cross-sectional probability samples (Study 1: N = 1,382, Study 2: N = 1,587), we studied the interplay between positive and negative intergroup contact, different types of intergroup emotions (i.e., episodic intergroup emotions encountered during contact and more general chronic intergroup emotions), and outgroup behavior in the context of intergroup relations between non-immigrant Germans and foreigners living in Germany. In Study 1, we showed that positive and negative contact are related to specific episodic intergroup emotions (i.e., anger, fear and happiness). Results of Study 2 indicate an indirect effect of episodic intergroup emotions encountered during contact experiences on specific behavioral tendencies directed at outgroup members via more chronic situation-independent intergroup emotions. As expected, anger predicted approaching (discriminatory) behavioral tendencies (i.e., aggression) while fear predicted avoidance. The results extend the existing literature on intergroup contact and emotions by addressing positive and negative contact simultaneously and differentiating between situation-specific episodic and chronic intergroup emotions in predicting discriminatory behavioral tendencies.

Although literature provides strong evidence for the beneficial role of outgroup contact, longitudinal knowledge regarding the formation and change of outgroup contact remains improvable. Using a longitudinal, large-scale data set including 6,726 majority and minority participants (M[subscript age] = 14.98 years at Wave 1; 55% female) from 4 western European countries that were followed in 3 waves over 2 years, we systematically examined the development of outgroup contact during adolescence and tested the role of hypothesized predictors (i.e., intergroup attitudes and social identity) for explaining this development. In the majority, growth curve models revealed consistent patterns of ethnic homophily characterized by a continuous decline of outgroup contact, whereas this negative growth was buffered by a positive change of intergroup attitudes and a negative change of national identity during adolescence. In contrast, in the minority, outgroup contact was characterized by higher mean levels and a nonlinear development (i.e., no systematic decline or increase) of outgroup contact. Findings highlight the developmental importance of adolescence for promoting positive intergroup relations, especially for the majority, and emphasize the usefulness of contact interventions with adolescent students in school.

We report findings from three longitudinal studies investigating the extent, quality and consequences of intergroup contact in schools between young Asian-British and White-British secondary (high-school) students. Results provide robust support for Allport's 'contact hypothesis' in this setting. Specifically, mixing (vs segregation) in high schools does actually promote intergroup contact (although there is still resegregation), and contact improves attitudes and trust towards the outgroup. We conclude that faith schools, to the extent that they are segregated, deprive young people of the opportunity to mix across ethnic and religious lines during the school day; in the absence of positive contact in a safe setting, intergroup contact and especially cross-group friendships are restricted, and positive outgroup attitudes are thwarted.