Whites for racial justice: How contact with Black Americans predicts support for collective action among White Americans

Advantaged group members have an important role to play in creating social change, and intergroup contact has tremendous implications in shaping intergroup relations. However, little research has examined how intergroup contact predicts advantaged group members’ inclinations toward collective action to support the interests of disadvantaged groups. The present research investigates how contact with Black Americans shapes White Americans’ willingness to engage in collective action for racial justice and support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Three studies of White Americans (total N = 821) consistently reveal that positive contact with Black Americans predicts greater support for collective action through a sequential process of fostering greater feelings of empathy for Black Americans and anger over injustice. These findings hold even when taking into account other relevant psychological factors (i.e., White guilt and identification, negative contact, group efficacy, and moral convictions). The present research contributes to our understanding of how advantaged group members come to engage in social change efforts.

Are they for us or against us? How intergroup metaperceptions shape foreign policy attitudes

We identify public opinion polls from other countries as an important form of indirect exposure to outgroups, and an important source of intergroup metaperceptions, outgroup perceptions, and support for group-level behavior towards outgroups. Three experiments demonstrate a two-step process through which such exposure affects support for ingroup behaviors that facilitate peaceful or violent intergroup relations. When indirectly exposed to national outgroups, Americans inferred intergroup metaperceptions (Step 1), which, in turn, shaped outgroup perceptions (Step 2). This effect and its underlying process occurred in relation to both fictitious (Experiment 2) and real outgroups (Iran, Experiment 1; Germany, Saudi Arabia, Experiment 3), as well as those similar (Germany) and dissimilar (Saudi Arabia) to the ingroup (Experiment 3). Further, this effect occurred beyond ingroup perceptions (Experiments 1–3), perceived intergroup threat (Experiments 2–3), and intergroup similarity (Experiment 3). Contributions to the literatures on cross-group contact, intergroup perceptions and attitudes, and image theory are discussed.

Being Seen As Individuals Versus As Group Members: Extending Research on Metaperception to Intergroup Contexts

Recent research has begun to examine people's expectations for how they are viewed in intergroup contexts, yet little work has considered how these metaperceptions relate to those that emerge in interpersonal contexts. As we extend research on metaperceptions into the intergroup realm, we must address several important conceptual issues. In this article, we provide a general overview of research on interpersonal metaperceptions, along with many factors that are likely to affect whether people think they are viewed as individuals or as group members. We also consider how metaperceptions are likely to be formed differently in interpersonal and intergroup contexts, and depending on the group membership of the perceiver We then explore the consequences of different kinds of metaperceptions for intergroup relations, and how they relate to strategies we might use to improve intergroup relations, to suggest future directions for research on metaperceptions in intergroup contexts.

The Psychological Impact of Prejudice: Implications for Intergroup Contact

This research concerns the effects of prejudice on how members of devalued groups feel toward intergroup contact. With members of laboratory-generated groups (Study 1) and devalued ethnic groups (Study 2), two experimental studies tested the impact of exposure to prejudice on emotional states and feelings toward cross-group interactions. Results suggest that exposure to prejudice can negatively affect group members' emotional states in intergroup contexts, and can lead them to feel more negatively toward interactions with both a single, prejudiced outgroup member, and with outgroup members in general. Implications of the findings and suggested directions for future research are discussed.

What Benefits the Group Can Also Benefit the Individual: Group-Enhancing and Individual-Enhancing Motives for Collective Action

Most collective action research focuses on how concerns for the welfare of one's group can motivate support for collective action. By contrast, little research has examined how motivations for enhancing oneself as an individual may also predict support for collective action, and how these motivations relate to feelings of identification with one's group. This research tests whether motivations for individual enhancement can predict support for collective action, beyond what can be predicted by motivations for group enhancement. With an undergraduate sample, Study 1 shows that individual enhancement significantly predicts interest and involvement in collective action beyond what can be predicted by concerns for group enhancement. Study 2 replicates these findings in a community sample of women, while also demonstrating that the motivation for individual enhancement mediates the relationship between group identification and collective action. Implications of these findings for future research on collective action are discussed.

Ingroup Identification as the Inclusion of Ingroup in the Self

This article presents a basic conceptualization of ingroup identification as the degree to which the ingroup is included in the self and introduces the Inclusion of Ingroup in the Self (IIS) measure to reflect this conceptualization. Using responses from samples of women and ethnic minority groups, four studies demonstrate the utility of this conceptualization of ingroup identification and provide support for the IIS. Results from these studies establish construct validity, concurrent and discriminant validity, and high degrees of test-retest reliability for the IIS. Reaction time evidence also is provided, supporting the use of the IIS as a measure of ingroup identification. Particular strengths of this conceptualization of ingroup identification and potential uses for the IIS are discussed.

Differential Relationships Between Intergroup Contact and Affective and Cognitive Dimensions of Prejudice

Research on affective dimensions of intergroup relationships suggests that positive effects of intergroup contact can generalize through establishing affective ties with outgroup members. However, research on cognitive dimensions emphasizes that it is often difficult to generalize positive contact outcomes. In this research, the authors examine whether affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice bear different relationships to intergroup contact. Using data from a larger meta-analysis of contact effects, Study 1 demonstrates that affective indicators of prejudice typically yield stronger, inverse contact-prejudice relationships than such cognitive indicators as stereotypes. Study 2 replicates these trends in a survey study using multiple indicators of affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice. Study 2 also shows significant, inverse relationships between contact and affective prejudice when contact is assessed either as number of outgroup friends or intergroup closeness. Together, these results suggest that affective dimensions of intergroup relationships are especially critical for understanding the nature of contact-prejudice effects.

Perceived Discrimination and Interracial Contact: Predicting Interracial Closeness among Black and White Americans

This research examines whether perceptions of discrimination moderate relationships between interracial contact and feelings of interracial closeness among black and white Americans, using survey responses gathered by the National Conference for Community and Justice (2000). Results indicate that the general association between contact and interracial closeness is significantly weaker among black respondents than among white respondents. Moreover, while contact relates consistently to greater interracial closeness among white respondents, perceived discrimination moderates this relationship among black respondents, such that significant contact effects are not observed for those who perceive considerable discrimination against their racial group. At the same time, other results suggest that contact in the form of interracial friendships may help to augment black Americans' reports of interracial closeness, and diminish the role of perceived discrimination. Implications of these findings for future studies of contact between members of racial minority and majority groups are discussed.

Learning orientation as a predictor of positive intergroup contact

Adapting the goal orientation framework from the achievement motivation literature, the present research tests whether learning orientation, as compared to performance orientation, predicts greater comfort and interest in intergroup contact. These links are examined in a cross-sectional survey of European American and African American middle school students (Study 1), and in a longitudinal survey with European American high school students (Study 2). Both studies yielded converging evidence that while performance orientation generally had a negative association with comfort and interest, a stronger orientation toward learning predicted greater comfort and interest in intergroup contact. The links between the learning orientation and comfort and interest in intergroup contact were consistent across both racial groups in Study 1, and in longitudinal analyses in Study 2. Together, these findings point to learning orientation as a potentially important means for promoting positive intergroup contact.

Ethnic identification in response to perceived discrimination protects well-being and promotes activism: A longitudinal study of Latino college students

Using structural equation modeling and cross-lagged analyses, this longitudinal study investigates ethnic identification, a group-based coping strategy, as a mediator of the influence of perceived discrimination on psychological well-being and willingness to engage in activism on behalf of one’s ethnic group among Latino students in both their first and fourth years of college. We found cross-sectional evidence for the rejection–identification model (RIM) during both years of college. Further, multiple step bootstrapping analyses of the longitudinal data showed that the relationships between perceived discrimination during Year 1 and both well-being and activism during Year 4 were sequentially mediated by activism during Year 1 predicting ethnic identification during Year 4. These data extend the RIM by including activism as an additional outcome variable that has important implications for Latino students across time.

Cross-group friendships and intergroup attitudes: a meta-analytic review

This work identifies how cross-group friendships are conceptualized and measured in intergroup research, investigates which operationalizations yield the strongest effects on intergroup attitudes, explores potential moderators, and discusses the theoretical importance of the findings. Prior meta-analyses have provided initial evidence that cross-group friendships are especially powerful forms of intergroup contact. Although studies of cross-group friendship have grown considerably in recent years, varied assessments leave us without a clear understanding of how different operationalizations affect relationships between friendship and attitudes. With a greatly expanded database of relevant studies, the authors compared friendship-attitude associations across a wide range of specific conceptualizations. Time spent and self-disclosure with outgroup friends yielded significantly greater associations with attitudes than other friendship measures, suggesting that attitudes are most likely to improve when cross-group friendships involve behavioral engagement. Processes underlying cross-group friendships are discussed, as are implications for future research and application.

When extended contact opens the door to future contact

The present research tests whether extended contact can predict positive intergroup expectancies, as well as positive intergroup attitudes, among majority and minority group members. Our results replicate and extend prior work by showing that extended contact predicts both positive intergroup attitudes and intergroup expectancies among both majority (Spanish) and minority (immigrant) participants, even when controlling for direct friendship and the quantity and quality of prior intergroup contact. These effects are partially mediated by intergroup anxiety, perceived ingroup norms, and perceived outgroup norms, and the positive effects of extended contact on intergroup attitudes were also partially mediated by the inclusion of ingroup in the self. Additionally, the mediating role of outgroup norms was stronger among immigrant participants than among Spanish participants. Implications of these findings and the value of extended contact for promoting positive intergroup expectancies and preparing people for future contact are discussed.