Challenging the Stubborn Core of Opposition to Equality: Racial Contact and Policy Attitudes

Political Psychology

Volumn 31, Issue 6, 2010, Pages 831-855

  Dixon, John ^a   Durrheim, Kevin ^b   Tredoux, Colin G ^c   Tropp, Linda R ^d   Clack, Beverley ^a   Eaton, Liberty ^c   Quayle, Michael ^b  

^a LANCASTER UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL   (South Africa)

^c UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

^d UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS   (United States)

Author keywords

Contact hypothesis; Policy attitudes; Prejudice; South Africa

Indexed keywords

EID: 78449233435     PISSN: 0162895X     EISSN: 14679221     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2010.00792.x     Document Type: Article

References (66)

1. Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
2. Amir, Y. (1969). Contact hypothesis in ethnic relations. Psychological Bulletin, 71, 319-342.
3. Binder, J., Zagefka, H., Brown, R., Funke, F., Kessler, T., Mummendey, A., Maquil, A., Demoulin, S., & Leyens, J.-P. (2009). Does contact reduce prejudice or does prejudice reduce contact? A longitudinal test of the contact hypothesis amongst majority and minority groups in three European countries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 843-856.
4. Blumer, H. (1958). Race prejudice as a sense of group position. Pacific Sociological Review, 1, 3-7.
5. Bobo, L., & Hutchings, V. L. (1996). Perceptions of racial group competition: Extending Blumer's theory of group position to a multiracial social context. American Sociological Review, 51, 950-962.
6. Bobo, L. (1983). Whites' opposition to busing: Symbolic racism or realistic group conflict? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1196-1210.
7. Bobo, L. (1988). Group conflict, prejudice and the paradox of contemporary racial attitudes. In P. A. Katz and D. A. Taylor (Eds.), Eliminating racism: Profiles in controversy (pp. 85-114). New York: Plenum.
8. Bobo, L. (1999). Prejudice as group position: Microfoundations of a sociological approach to racism and race relations. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 445-472.
9. Bobo, L., & Kluegel, J. R. (1993). Opposition to race-targeting: Self-interest, stratification ideology or racial attitudes? American Sociological Review, 58, 443-64.
10. Bobo, L., Kleugel, J. R., & Smith, R. A. (1997). Laissez-Faire racism: The crystallization of a kinder, gentler, antiblack ideology. In S. A. Tuch and J. K. Martin (Eds.), Racial attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and change (pp. 15-42). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
11. Brigham, J. C. (1993). College students' racial attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 1933-1967.
12. Christopher, A. J. (2005). The slow pace of desegregation in South African cities, 1996-2001. Urban Studies, 42, 2303-2320.
13. Connolly, P. (2000). What now for the contact hypothesis? Towards a new research agenda. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 3, 169-193.
14. Dixon, J., Durrheim, K., & Tredoux, C. (2007). Intergroup contact and attitudes towards the principle and practice of racial equality. Psychological Science, 18, 867 - 872
15. Dixon, J., Tredoux, C. & Clack, B. (2005). On the micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation. South African Journal of Psychology, 35, 395-411
16. Dixon, J. A., Durrheim, K., & Tredoux, C. (2005). Beyond the optimal contact strategy: A "reality check" for the contact hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60, 697-711.
17. Dovidio, J., Gaertner, S., & Kawakami, K. (2003). Intergroup contact: The past, present and the future. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 6, 5-20.
18. Durrheim, K. (2003). White opposition to racial transformation: Is it racism? South African Journal of Psychology, 33, 241-249.
19. Eller, A. D., & Abrams, W. D. J. (2004). Longitudinal comparisons of Pettigrew's reformulated intergroup contact model and the Common Identity Model in Anglo-French and Mexican-American contexts. European Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 229-256.
20. Finchilescu, G., & Tredoux, C. (2008). Intergroup contact, social context and racial ecology in South Africa. In U. Wagner, L. Tropp, G. Finchilescu, & C. Tredoux (Eds.), Improving intergroup relations: Building on the legacy of Thomas F. Pettigrew (pp. 179-194). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
21. Gaertner, S. L., and J. F. Dovidio (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination and racism: Theory and research ( pp. 61-8). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
22. Gibson, J. L. (2004). Does truth lead to reconciliation? Testing the causal assumptions of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process. American Journal of Political Science, 48, 201-217.
23. Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102, 4-27.
24. Hewstone, M., & Brown, R. (1986). Contact is not enough: An intergroup perspective on the "contact hypothesis." In M. Hewstone & R. Brown (Eds.), Contact and conflict in intergroup encounters(pp. 1-44). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
25. Hewstone, M., Cairns, M., Voci, A., Hamberger, J., & Niens, U. (2006). Intergroup contact, forgiveness, and experience of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. Journal of Social Issues, 62, 99-120.
26. Hewstone, M., Cairns, Voci, A., Paolini, S., McLernon, F., Crisp, R., & Niens, U. (2005). Intergroup contact in a divided society: Challenging segregation in Northern Ireland. In D. Abrams, J. M. Marques, & M. A. Hogg (Eds.), The social psychology of inclusion and exclusion (pp. 265-292). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
27. Holtman, Z., Louw, J., Tredoux, C., & Carney, T. (2005). Prejudice and social contact in South Africa: A study of integrated schools ten years after apartheid. South African Journal of Psychology, 35, 473-493.
28. Islam, M. R., & Hewstone, M. (1993). Dimensions of contact as predictors of intergroup anxiety, perceived out-group variability and out-group attitude: An integrative model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 700-710.
29. Jackman, M. R. (1994). The velvet glove: Paternalism and conflict in gender, class and race relations. Berkeley: University of California Press.
30. Jackman, M. R., & Crane, M. (1986). "Some of my best friends are black...": Interracial friendship and whites' racial attitudes. Public Opinion Quarterly, 50, 459-486.
31. Kinder, D. R., & Sears, D. O. (1981). Prejudice and politics: Symbolic racism versus racial threats to the good life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 414-431.
32. Kluegel, J. R., & Smith, E. R. (1986). Beliefs about inequality: Americans' views of what is and what ought to be. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
33. Krysan, M. (2000). Prejuduce, politics, and public opinion: Understanding the sources of racial policy attitudes. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 135-168.
34. Levin, S., Van Laar, C., & Sidanius, J. (2003). The effects of ingroup and outgroup friendships on ethnic attitude in college: A longitudinal study. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 6, 76-92.
35. Lopez, G. E. (2004). Interethnic contact, curriculum, and attitudes in the first year of college. Journal of Social Issues, 60(1), 75-94.
36. Luiz, D., & Krige, P. (1981). The effects of social contact between South African white and coloured adolescent girls. Journal of Social Psychology, 407-408.
37. Luiz, D., & Krige, P. (1985). The effects of social contact between South African white and coloured adolescent girls: A follow up study. Journal of Social Psychology, 113, 153-158.
38. McClaren, L. M. (2003). Anti-immigrant prejudice in Europe: Contact, threat perception, and preferences for the exclusion of migrants. Social Forces, 81, 909-936.
39. Mynardt, J. C. (1982). Etniese houdings in 'n kontaksituasie. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of South Africa, Pretoria.
40. Mynardt, J., & Du Toit, A. (1991). Contact and change. In D. Foster & J. Louw-Potgieter (Eds.), Social psychology in South Africa (pp. 271-314). Johannesburg, South Africa: Lexicon.
41. Pettigrew, T. F. (1979). Racial change and social policy. Annals of the American Academy of Political Social Science, 441, 114-131.
42. Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65-85.
43. Pettigrew, T. F., & Meertens, R. W. (1995). Subtle and blatant prejudice in Western Europe. European Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 57-75.
44. Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 751-783.
45. Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2008). How does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Meta-analytic tests of three mediators. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 922-934.
46. Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879-891.
47. Quillian, L. (2005). Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: Population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe. American Sociological Review, 60, 586-611.
48. Reicher, S. (1986). Contact, action and racialization: Some British evidence. In M. Hewstone & R. Brown (Eds.), Contact and conflict in intergroup encounters (pp. 1-44). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
49. Reicher, S. (2007). Rethinking the paradigm of prejudice. South African Journal of Psychology, 37, 820-834.
50. Renfro, C. L., Duran, A., Stephan, W. G., & Clason, D. L. (2006). The role of threat in attitudes toward affirmative action and its beneficiaries. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, 41-74.
51. Schuman, H., Steeh, C., Bobo, L., & Krysan, M. (1997). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations (revised edition). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
52. Sears, D. O., Van Laar, C., Carrillo, M., & Kosterman, R. (1997). Is it really racism? The origins of White Americans' opposition to race targeted policies. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61, 16-53.
53. Smith, A. W. (1981). Racial tolerance as a function of group position. American Sociological Review, 46, 558-572.
54. Smith, T. W., & Dempsey, G. R. (1983). The polls: Ethnic and social distance and prejudice. Public Opinion Quarterly, 47, 584-600.
55. Sniderman, P. M., & Tetlock, P. E. (1986). Symbolic racism: Problems of motive attribution in political debate. Journal of Social Issues, 42, 129-50.
56. South African Advertising Research Foundation (2007).
57. Stephan, W. G. (1978). School desegregation: An evaluation of predictions made in Brown v Board of Education. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 217-238.
58. Stephan, W. G., & Stephan, C. W. (2000). An integrated threat theory of prejudice. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 23-45). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
59. Stephan, W. G., Boniecki, K. A., Ybarra, O., Bettencourt, A., Ervin, K., Jackson, L. A., McNatt, & P. S., Renfro, C. L. (2002). The role of threats in the racial attitudes of Blacks and Whites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1242-1254.
60. Surace, S. J., & Seeman, M. (1967). Some correlates of civil rights activism. Social Forces, 46, 197-207.
61. Tausch, N., Hewstone, M., Kenworthy, J., Cairns, E., & Christ, O. (2007). Cross-community contact, perceived status differences, and intergroup attitudes in Northern Ireland: The mediating role of individual-level versus group-level threats and the moderating role of social identification. Political Psychology, 28, 53-68.
62. Tropp, L., & Pettigrew, T. F. (2005a). Relationships between intergroup contact and prejudice among minority and majority status groups. Psychological Science, 16, 951-95.
63. Tropp, L. R., & Pettigrew, T. F. (2005b). Differential relationships between intergroup contact and affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31 (8), 1145-1158.
64. Tuch, S. A., & Hughes, M. (1996). Whites' racial policy attitudes. Social Science Quarterly, 77, 723-741.
65. Wagner, U., Christ, O., Pettigrew, T. F., Stellmacher, J., & Wolf, C. (2006). Prejudice and proportion minority. Social Psychology Quarterly, 69, 380-390.
66. Wright, S., & Lubensky, M. (2008). The struggle for social equality: Collective action vs. prejudice reduction. In S. Demoulin, J. P. Leyens, & J. F. Dovidio (Eds.), Intergroup misunderstandings: Impact of divergent social realities (pp. 21-38). New York: Psychology Press.