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Three studies investigated the effect of intergroup contact and social identification on social change among three advantaged groups in Cyprus, Romania, and Israel. In Study 1 (n = 340, Turkish Cypriots), intergroup contact with disadvantaged immigrant Turks positively predicted endorsement of their social change motivations directly, and via intergroup trust and perspective-taking indirectly. In Study 2 (n = 200, Romanians), contact with the ethnic minority Hungarians positively predicted endorsement of their social change motivations via intergroup trust, perspective-taking, and intergroup anxiety, while ingroup identification negatively predicted endorsement of Hungarian ethnic minority's collective action tendencies via perspective-taking and anxiety. In Study 3 (n = 240, Israeli Jews), intergroup contact positively predicted, while ingroup identification negatively predicted, endorsement of disadvantaged Israeli Palestinian citizens' social change motivations via perspective-taking, anxiety, and trust. Across three studies, results show that intergroup contact led the advantaged groups to attitudinally support social change motivations of the disadvantaged outgroups through increased trust, perspective-taking, and reduced anxiety, whereas ingroup identification weakened their intention to support social change motivations via perspective-taking and intergroup anxiety in Study 2, and via intergroup trust, perspective-taking, and intergroup anxiety in Study 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people are aware that an ingroup member has an outgroup friend, they tend to improve their intergroup attitudes, which is known as the extended contact hypothesis. Thus far, no research has tested how the perceived degree of normativity of the intergroup interaction affects the evaluation of the ingroup member through which extended contact is experienced. Results of three studies showed that when contact was normative (i.e., positive contact with a liked outgroup, or negative contact with a disliked outgroup), the ingroup member was evaluated positively, while when the contact was counternormative (i.e., negative contact with a liked outgroup or positive contact with a disliked outgroup) the ingroup member was evaluated negatively. This effect was mediated by perceived threat posed by the ingroup member who experiences the intergroup contact and perceived similarity of the participant with the ingroup member (Experiments 2–3). In summary, the perceived normativity of the extended contact affects the perception of the ingroup member who experiences the contact, turning him/her into a “white” or a “black” sheep in the eyes of the ingroup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extended contact theory proposes that knowledge of ingroup-outgroup friendships leads to reductions of intergroup bias by reducing ignorance about the outgroup and intergroup anxiety, and by increasing awareness of positive outgroup exemplars (e.g., observation of friendly behavior towards an ingroup member), and inclusion of other in the self. Over a one-year period we examined extended contact among home country friends of international students who had direct contact with British people through their study period in Britain. This provides a stringent test of extended contact theory, both due to the longitudinal design, and the inclusion of both actual and perceived naturally arising extended contact. As predicted by extended contact theory, increases in extended contact over time predicted all variables but intergroup anxiety. There was also some evidence for (weaker) reversed causal influence between prejudice and other variables. Importantly, the quality of contact experienced by the direct contact sample (international students) predicted all dependent measures in the matched extended contact sample in their home countries. Results are discussed in terms of the promise of extended contact theory for intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of direct, personal contact with members of another group are well established empirically. This Special Issue complements that body of work by demonstrating the effects of various forms of indirect contact on intergroup attitudes and relations. Indirect contact includes (a) extended contact: learning that an ingroup member is friends with an outgroup member, (b) vicarious contact: observing an ingroup member interact with an outgroup member, and (c) imagined contact: imagining oneself interacting with an outgroup member. The effects of indirect contact not only occur independently of direct contact, they often involve distinct psychological mechanisms. The present article briefly reviews work on direct intergroup contact and then discusses recent theoretical and empirical developments in the study of extended contact, vicarious contact, and imagined contact. We consider the similarities and distinctions in the dynamics of these forms of indirect contact and conclude by identifying promising directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crossed-categorisation and extended contact are two different bases for improving intergroup relations. Crossed-categorisation refers to the crossing of two dichotomous social dimensions, resulting in four groups (double ingroup, double outgroup, and two mixed groups). The extended contact hypothesis proposes that knowledge about ingroup-outgroup friendships can lead to more positive intergroup attitudes. The present research combined extended contact and crossed-categorisation to test whether black and white university students' view of the police, perceived racism of police, desired closeness to police, and willingness to join police were improved through extended contact with a black (or white) police officer via a black (or white) acquaintance (four possibilities). Doubleoutgroup extended contact for both white and black participants, and mixed-group extended contact for whites (showing a social exclusion pattern), were associated with worse public-police relations. In contrast, double-ingroup extended contact for whites, and mixed-group extended contact for blacks (showing a social inclusion pattern) were associated with improved relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A longitudinal field study examined Pettigrew's (1998) intergroup contact theory and Gaertner et al.'s (2000) Common Ingroup Identity Model (CIIM). In Pettigrew's model, the contact-prejudice relation is mediated by changing behavior, ingroup reappraisal, generating affective ties, and learning about the outgroup. Pettigrew's integration of the three chief models of contact generalization into a time-sequence holds that contact first elicits decategorization, then salient categorization, and finally recategorization. In CIIM, these three levels of categorization--plus a fourth, dual identity--are thought to be mediators in the contact-prejudice relation. Results underline the crucial mediating role of behavior modification in Pettigrew's model and interpersonal and superordinate levels in CIIM. An attempt to partially integrate the two models is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]