Bringing People Together: Improving Intergroup Relations via Group Identity Cues

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-127
Author(s):  
Valerie Martinez-Ebers ◽  
Brian Robert Calfano ◽  
Regina Branton
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Relative Effect ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Common Ingroup Identity

Many U.S. cities pursue a “human relations” strategy in response to racial and ethnic group conflict. Reflective of Common Ingroup Identity theory, human relations practitioners emphasize a superordinate community identity among residents from different groups for the purpose of “bringing people together” in an effort to improve intergroup relations. Practitioners also encourage intergroup contact to promote positive change in attitudes. Herein, we test the influence of group identity cues and intergroup contact as predictors of perceived intergroup commonality. The findings suggest emphasizing a superordinate community identity increases feelings of commonality in the attitudes of Anglos and Latinos toward one another and toward African-Americans and Asians, while intergroup contact has no significant influence on intergroup attitudes. These findings contribute to the extant literature by simultaneously testing the relative effect of salient group identities on intergroup attitudes and expanding the focus beyond the binary comparison found in most studies of racial–ethnic relations.

scholarly journals Contact Capacity and Its Effect on Intergroup Relations

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-15
Author(s):  
Miriam Pfister ◽  
Ralf Wölfer ◽  
Miles Hewstone
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Network Data ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Social Network Data ◽  
Robustness Check

Although intergroup contact is an effective means to improve intergroup attitudes, it does not always have a positive impact on them. This study introduces contact capacity as a factor that may impede intergroup contact. Longitudinal social network data ( N = 6,600; M age = 14.87 years) was collected in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden and used to accurately calculate participants’ out-group, in-group, and total contact. Multilevel models (L1: students, L2: school classes) showed that the total amount of contact at Wave 1 negatively predicts individuals’ out-group friends at Wave 2 while controlling for out-group attitudes, existing out-group friendships and sociodemographic variables. An additional robustness check showed that this effect holds true for future in-group friendships. The study highlights the importance of contact capacity for whether people engage in intergroup contact and the contribution of social network analysis to contact research.

Attributional processes underlying imagined contact effects

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Crisp ◽  
Shenel Husnu
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Intergroup Encounters ◽  
Imagined Contact ◽  
Third Person Perspective ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Attributional Processes

Recent research has demonstrated that mentally simulating positive intergroup encounters can promote tolerance and more positive intergroup attitudes. We explored the attributional processes underlying these effects. In our study participants who imagined intergroup contact subsequently reported greater intentions to engage in future contact, a relationship that was mediated by participants’ attribution, to themselves, of a more positive attitudinal orientation towards outgroup contact. Consistent with this attributional account, the perspective taken when imagining the encounter qualified this effect. Participants who imagined the encounter from a third-person perspective reported heightened intentions to engage in future contact relative to control participants, while this was not the case when the encounter was imagined from a first-person perspective. These findings suggest that attributional processes are key to observing the benefits that accrue from imagining intergroup contact. We speculate that these attributions may distinguish the approach from extended and actual forms of contact and help researchers to further capitalize on the benefits of mental imagery for improving intergroup relations.

From Ecological Constraints To Cultural Identities: Pre-Columbian Attitudes toward Food

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Chevalier
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Ecological Constraints ◽  
Plant Exploitation ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Anthropology Of Food

In archaeology, differences of plant remains between contexts, regions or periods are usually interpreted in terms of social inequality (Bender 1978; van der Veen 2003), political power (Hastorf 1993; Quilter and Stocker 1983), territory exploitation (Rosenberg 1990) and, lately, feasting activities (Dietler and Hayden 2001; Duncan et al. 2009; Hastorf 2003), but rarely in terms of group identification, despite the fact that anthropology has highlighted more than once that food expresses one’s identity better than any material culture (Counihan and Kaplan 1998; Fischler 1985; MacClancy 2004; Montanari 2000; Scholliers 2001). In a comparable way to the faunal exploitation strategies discussed by Fiore et al. in the previous chapter, we propose here that plant exploitation strategies relate not only to factors such as optimality or expediency but also to group identity. Based on models drawn from the anthropology of food (Counihan and Van Esterik 1997; Douglas 1971; Fischler 1988; Goody 1982; Lévi-Strauss 1964, 1997; Mead 1997; Mennell et al. 1992; Mintz 1996) and social psychology of intergroup relations (Tajfel and Turner 1979, 1986), as well as on ethnobotanical examples (Pieroni and Price 2006a), we argue that cultural groups produce, select, and eat different food, and therefore exploit different territories, in order to differentiate themselves from other groups and to build strong group identities. In addition to economic rationality, ecological constraints, or technical limitations, social group alimentary choices may also reflect the need to express positive differentiation from an external group and similarity with those from the same group. Appealing to psychological theories of social identification that explain how individuals’ behaviours are affected by their relationships within their groups, we seek to explain how food choices as an expression of group identity may have shaped environments, created long-distance trade, and in some cases led to environmental overexploitation. In this way social identity concepts (Tajfel and Turner 1979, 1986) can help us to understand the link between trade, exotic products, prestige, and identity and the pivotal role plants may have played in the creation of group identity and in defining intergroup relations.

Reducing Prejudice Through Narratives

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Moyer-Gusé ◽  
Katherine R. Dale ◽  
Michelle Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Contact Hypothesis ◽  
Muslim Americans ◽  
Intergroup Anxiety ◽  
Intergroup Interactions

Abstract. Recent extensions to the contact hypothesis reveal that different forms of contact, such as mediated intergroup contact, can reduce intergroup anxiety and improve attitudes toward the outgroup. This study draws on existing research to further consider the role of identification with an ingroup character within a narrative depicting intergroup contact between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans. Results reveal that identification with the non-Muslim (ingroup) model facilitated liking the Muslim (outgroup) model, which reduced prejudice toward Muslims more generally. Identification with the ingroup model also increased conversational self-efficacy and reduced anxiety about future intergroup interactions – both important aspects of improving intergroup relations.

Why do children essentialize social groups?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Diesendruck
Keyword(s):  
Group Identity ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Young Age ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Need To Belong ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Cognitive Foundations

The tendency to essentialize social groups is universal, and arises early in development. This tendency is associated with negative intergroup attitudes and behaviors, and has thus encouraged the search for remedies for the emergence of essentialism. In this vein, great attention has been devoted to uncovering the cognitive foundations of essentialism. In this chapter, I suggest that attention should also be turned towards the motivational foundations of essentialism. I propose that considerations of power and group identity, but especially a “need to belong”, may encourage children’s essentialization of social groups. Namely, from a young age, children are keen to feel members of a group, and that their membership is secure and exclusive. Essentialism is the conceptual gadget that satisfies these feelings. And to the extent that groups are defined by what they do, this motivated essentialism also impels children to be adamant about the maintenance of unique group behaviors.

scholarly journals Does negative contact undermine attempts to improve intergroup relations? Deepening the understanding of negative contact and its consequences for intergroup contact research and interventions

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarina J. Schäfer ◽  
Mathias Kauff ◽  
Francesca Prati ◽  
Mathijs Kros ◽  
Timothy Lang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Intergroup Contact

scholarly journals Virtual Reality and Political Outgroup Contact: Can Avatar Customization and Common Ingroup Identity Reduce Social Distance?

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630512199376
Author(s):  
Jorge Peña ◽  
Grace Wolff ◽  
Magdalena Wojcieszak
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Identity Salience ◽  
Physical Identity ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Issue Involvement ◽  
Boomerang Effects ◽  
Common Ingroup Identity ◽  
Ingroup Identity

This study ( N = 217) explores the potential for virtual reality to decrease social distance toward outgroup members among women. Raising the salience of individuals’ real physical identity through avatar customization and common ingroup identity manipulations was theorized to influence social distance. Participants who customized an avatar to resemble their real selves showed increased social distance. However, avatar customization also increased user identifiability, which was linked to reduced social distance. Priming a common ingroup identity increased identity salience but did not influence social distance. In examining heterogeneous effects by prior levels of issue involvement, participants with high and moderate involvement with immigration showed increased social distance after customizing an avatar to resemble their real selves, thus implying boomerang effects. The study discusses how avatar customization, identifiability, and common ingroup primes in virtual encounters may influence outgroup attitudes and intergroup relations.

Languages of borderlands, borders of languages: Native and foreign language use in intergroup contact between Czechs and their neighbours

Human Affairs ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Petrjánošová ◽  
Alicja Leix
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
International Project ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Central European

AbstractIn this article we present a qualitative analysis of empirical findings from an international project on intergroup attitudes and contact in five Central European countries specifically concerning language use. The project concentrated on the interplay of intergroup contact and perception between the members of national groups in the borderlands between the Czech Republic and Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia. The open statements analysed here about the contact situations and the ensuing evaluation of the Others were collected as part of an online questionnaire (N=1959). After a short theoretical introduction we reveal the intertwined nature of construing language use: first in each specific borderland, then in the triads speaking together either in the native language of one of the groups (Czechs with Austrians and Germans) or with each speaking their own native languages (Czechs with Poles and Slovaks). Finally we highlight several effects we have observed as a result of being able to compare the situation in more than one neighbourhood, for instance, the effect of the different statuses of the languages involved, or the connection between the language used in contact and a feeling of proximity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document