Socialpsykologer forfægter den såkaldte kontakthypotese, hvis påstand er, at majoritetsmedlemmer bliver mere imødekommende over for etniske minoritetsmedlemmer, når de kommer i personlig kontakt med dem. Denne hypotese efterprøves på baggrund af den mest omfattende danske spørgeskemaundersøgelse nogensinde vedrørende dette emne (N = 1.928). I modsætning til tidligere internationale undersøgelser, hvori betydningen af venskaber mellem etniske grupper understreges, fremhæver denne artikel betydningen af kontakt mellem majoritetsmedlemmer og minoritetsmedlemmer i nabolaget og på arbejdspladsen. Disse to typer kontakt tilvejebringer en mere overbevisende test af kontakthypotesen, eftersom de rummer mindre selvselektion. Naboskab og kontakt på arbejdspladsen dækker samtidig langt flere sociale relationer end venskaber, som primært vedrører en snæver privatsfære. Artiklen bidrager til den socialpsykologiske litteratur om kontakteffekter med tre hovedkonklusioner. For det første rummer kontakt i nabolaget og på arbejdspladsen mere meningsfuld samtale, end fagfolk hidtil har antaget. For det andet øger begge former for kontakt den etniske tolerance. For det tredje er det samtale og meningsudvekslinger, som delvis forklarer, hvorfor kontakt gør majoritetsmedlemmer mere tolerante over for minoritetsmedlemmer.
ENGELSK ABSTRACT:
Arzoo Rafiqi and Jens Peter Frølund Thomsen: When the Ethnic Majority Meets Ethnic Minority Members
This paper examines the so-called intergroup contact hypothesis by redirecting focus away from the friendship measure preferred by social psychologists. Although theoretically important, the friendship measure is infected by self-selection biases, and its social coverage is too limited, at least in a European context. Instead, this paper focuses on workplace contact and residential contact. It examines how these relate to ethnic tolerance, as reflected in support for various rights of ethnic minority members. These two types of intergroup contact provide a stronger test of the key hypothesis (contact has a positive influence on tolerance) as they do not meet all the ideal conditions. The analysis shows that although residential contact and workplace contact are more superficial (in terms of self-disclosure), they are both positively related to ethnic tolerance. In fact, both types of contact are as strongly related to ethnic tolerance as intimate cross-group friendship. We conclude that intergroup contact effects are robust as they are capable of occurring in unfavorable circumstances. The analyses are performed on the basis of a Danish national probability sample from 2009.
Keywords: intergroup contact, ethnic tolerance, cross-group friendship, residential contact, workplace contact.
Sexual Orientation Identity, Race/Ethnicity, and Lifetime HIV Testing in a National Probability Sample of U.S. Women and Men: An Intersectional Approach
