Understanding the conditions and processes necessary for intergroup contact to reduce prejudice

The goal of this chapter is to provide a snapshot of what social psychologists have learned about the conditions and processes that are responsible for a reduction in prejudice and hostility following intergroup contact. The literature in this area is enormous and the authors make no attempt to provide a comprehensive summary of that literature. First, the authors present the original formulation of the contact hypothesis and the critical conditions that G. W. Allport (1954) specified. Second, the authors present more recent models of the process by which contact may reduce stereotypes and prejudice. Third, the authors review recent theory and research that has more generally examined the cognitive processes underlying stereotype maintenance and change. The authors then return to the contact hypothesis to demonstrate how a unique integration of our understanding of these underlying, cognitive processes and of the models of intergroup contact may best enable us to make effective use of contact in peace education. The chapter concludes with a concrete example of a program of intergroup contact in the Arab-Israeli conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)