Prejudice and Minority Proportion: Contact Instead of Threat Effects

Research on the relationship between the percentage of an ethnic minority population in a geographically defined area and majority members' prejudice typically reveals a positive covariation. This result supports threat theory. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated significant exceptions....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychology quarterly 2006-12, Vol.69 (4), p.380-390
Main Authors: Wagner, Ulrich, Christ, Oliver, Pettigrew, Thomas F., Stellmacher, Jost, Wolf, Carina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
African American Students
American minorities
Analytical estimating
Biological and medical sciences
Black students
Districts
Ethnic minorities
Ethnic Relations
Ethnicity
Exceptions
Foreign Countries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
German language
Germany
High School Students
Intergroup contact
Intergroup Relations
Majority Attitudes
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority group students
Minority Groups
Modeling
Moderators
Multilevel models
Neighborhoods
Political attitudes
Politics
Population growth
Prejudice
Prejudices
Probability
Proportions
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Race relations
Racial Attitudes
Racial Relations
Social Bias
Social Contact
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social psychology
Telephone Surveys
Theory
Threats
White Students
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Research on the relationship between the percentage of an ethnic minority population in a geographically defined area and majority members' prejudice typically reveals a positive covariation. This result supports threat theory. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated significant exceptions. Based on intergroup contact theory, the present study demonstrates with a German probability sample that an increase in the percentage of ethnic minority members affords the majority greater opportunity for intergroup contact and thus reduces the majority's prejudice. These results also falsify frequent political claims that an increase in the minority population above a particular threshold necessarily worsens intergroup relations. The data are discussed in the context of the divergence of our results from those of other studies. Whether threat or contact effects occur may depend on an array of moderators that require further testing.
ISSN:0190-2725
1939-8999
DOI:10.1177/019027250606900406