Intergroup Contact Theory: An Intervention for Prejudice Reduction

Gordon Allport proposed that intergroup contact – high quality, meaningful contact, between members of two different – serves as a means to reduce outgroup prejudice (Allport, 1954). Allport and decades of researchers that followed identified that contact featuring equal status in efforts of cooperation toward shared goals, supported by institutional laws and norms of equality leads to more positive attitudes and behaviour between two distinct groups. With these requirements met, contact reduces prejudice via a reduction of intergroup anxiety commonly evoked by intergroup relations. Anxiety serves as a powerful mediator between intergroup contact and prejudice reduction. Intergroup contact effectively reduces prejudice for a variety of social groups, from ability to religion to race, though the strength of its effect depends on not only the quality of the contact, but also the type of groups included. Intergroup contact exists as a powerful intervention to ameliorate negative group relations.