Improving intergroup relations with extended and vicarious forms of indirect contact

By Loris Vezzali, Miles Hewstone, D. Capozza, D. Giovannini, Ralf Wölfer. 2014

249 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Research in social psychology has provided impressive evidence that intergroup contact reduces prejudice. However, to the extent that strategies based on direct contact are sometimes difficult to implement, scholars have more recently focused on indirect contact. An effective form of indirect contact is extended contact. According to the extended contact hypothesis, simply knowing that ingroup members have outgroup friends (extended contact), or observing these friendships vicariously (vicarious contact), can improve intergroup relations. Since its initial formulation a large body of studies has supported the validity of the extended contact hypothesis. In reviewing the available literature on two forms of indirect contact (extended and vicarious), we outline a model that identifies their antecedents and consequences, spanning from cognitive to affective to behavioural outcomes. In addition to identifying the main moderators of indirect contact, we also distinguish two different routes, one cognitive and one affective, that underlie what processes mediate their effects. Finally, we indicate some possible avenues for future research and we consider how direct and indirect contact strategies can be used in combination to improve intergroup relations.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d4ed97933e830a2fa44285d7342559500ab9d9eb

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Direct, extended, and mass-mediated contact with immigrants in Italy: their associations with emotions, prejudice, and humanity perceptions (2017, background): “Research has widely demonstrated the beneficial effects of extended contact in ameliorating intergroup relations (Turner et al. 2007b; Vezzali et al., 2014, for a meta-analysis, see Zhou, Page-Gould, Aron, Moyer, & Hewstone, 2016), especially in segregated contexts (e.g., Andrighetto, Mari,…”
Reducing intergroup bias through intergroup contact: Twenty years of progress and future directions (2017, background): “Anxiety similarly mediates the effects of other forms of contact (see Vezzali et al., 2014).”
Can Exposure to Celebrities Reduce Prejudice? The Effect of Mohamed Salah on Islamophobic Behaviors and Attitudes (2019, background): “In addition to out-group identity salience, other possible mechanisms at play include undermining negative stereotypes (Fujioka 1999; Ramasubramanian 2013) and demonstrating vicarious contact with ingroup members (Ortiz and Harwood 2007; Vezzali et al. 2014; Wright et al. 1997).”
Confidence in Contact: A New Perspective on Promoting Cross-Group Friendship Among Children and Adolescents (2016, unknown): ““Indirect contactˮ refers to measures or interventions based on the principles of intergroup contact (Allport, 1954), but which do not involve a face-to-face intergroup interaction (see Lemmer & Wagner, 2015; Miles & Crisp, 2014; Turner et al., 2007c; Vezzali et al., 2014).”