Seeking and avoiding intergroup contact: Future frontiers of research on building social integration

• DOI: 10.1111/spc3.12422
• Publication Date: 2018-11-05T05:03:27Z
• Authors: Stefania Paolini; Jake Harwood; Miles Hewstone; David L. Neumann
• Keywords: Prejudice (legal term); Situational ethics; Contact hypothesis; Contact Theory; Social contact

Abstract Over 60 years of research and comprehensive reviews now support Gordon Allport's contact hypothesis that face‐to‐face interactions between members opposing groups should be promoted to lessen prejudice improve intergroup relations. Society however does not yet enjoy the full prejudice‐reducing benefits because opportunities for are often taken up, segregation persists in face diversity. In this article, we review recent investigations on social psychology individuals' seeking avoiding set stage new area. We call a generation addresses novel critical question: What personal, situational, wider factors move individuals towards or away from engaging contact? This can help us design intervention strategies ensure for, of, fully enjoyed by increasingly diverse societies.