Improving Intergroup Relations

“While attachment to one’s own group does not necessarily translate to hostility towards other groups (Allport, 1954), threat often does motivate in-group bias, and sets up a tendency to discriminate against others (Brewer, 1999; Stephan and Stephan, 2001).”

“In fact, threat perception is considered by most scholars as the single best predictor of hostile attitudes within the domain of inter-group relations (Stephan & Stephan, 2001; Sullivan, Piereson, & Marcus, 1982).”

“There is also a need for more theoretical understanding and empirical research in response to program growth and increased offerings across K-12 and community, as well as higher education settings (Bowman, 2011; Dessel & Rogge, 2008; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“…knowledge generated by all of this scholarly and practitioner activity, I follow Gavriel Salomon, a peace psychologist who focused on the causal impact of peace education (e.g., Salomon, 2006), and I add to literature reviews previously assembled by Oskamp (2000), and Stephan and Stephan (2001).”

“Maoz (2011) differentiates between four contact models: the Coexistence Model focuses on interpersonal contact aimed at promoting understanding and tolerance and at reducing prejudice, with emphasis on what is similar and shared (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew, 1998; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“Substantial resources are currently being devoted to programs designed to reduce intergroup prejudice and discrimination (Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“…in which the negative and beneficial aspects of confrontations have been systematically investigated in experimental studies, there have been few attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of existing diversity training programs (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016; Pendry et al., 2007; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“…conflict management workshops; change processes in groups The small group serves as the main vehicle for interventions to reduceintergroup tensions and to develop positive attitudes and behavior toward others who differ from one’s self in terms of ethnicity or race (Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“2000 ; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006 ; Simpson & Yinger 1985 ; Stephan & Stephan, 2001 ).”

“Affective responses, such as empathy and respect (Isaacs, 1999; Stephan & Stephan, 2001; Yeakley, 1998) and “voicing,” attentive listening, and inquiry behaviors (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005; Ellinor & Gerard, 1998; Isaacs, 1999; Nagda & Zúñiga, 2003) also have been associated with dialogue.”

“…of these conditions led to many waves of research on intergroup relations, it is still widely used as a basis for designing and improving programs (see Association for the Study and Development of Community, 1999; National Conference for Community and Justice, 1998; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“…each group member reads over his or her assigned material, breaks away from the jigsaw group, and joins an “expert group,” where he or she meets up with all the other students in the class that have been assigned the same portion of the material (Aronson & Patnoe, 1997; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“…and an increased likelihood of living and working in integrated environments upon reaching adulthood (Braddock, Crain, & McPartland, 1984; Braddock & Dawkins, 1993; Kahlenberg, 2001; Kurleander & Yun, 2001; Patchen, 1982; Schofield, 1989, 1995, 2001; Stephen & Stephen, 2001; Wells & Crain, 1994).”

“…programs that currently exist do not explicitly incorporate the teaching of psychological and communication processes that enhance conflict resolution (see Stephan & Stephan, 2001, for a review of these programs), but there is no reason that these processes could not be included in such programs.”

“Research by Finlay and Stephan (2000) supports this view indicating that through eliciting empathy using emotional content, biases against ethnoracial groups can be decreased (also see Pedersen, Walker, Paradies, & Guerin, 2011, on this point).”

“Prejudice occurs when negative attitudes concerning a social group are extended toward an individual based upon that individual’s perceived membership in the group (Stephan, 1985; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“Among the successful school-based strategies employed by proponents of the contact approach are: integrated schooling (Banks, 2009; Stephan & Stephan, 2001), integrated structured social activities (Berger, Benatov, Abu-Raiya, & Tadmor, 2016), unstructured social contact and friendships (Schachner,…”

“There is experience of foreign (Bennett, 1995; Berry et al., 2002; Stephan & Stephan, 2001; Ting-Toomey, 1999; Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001) and Russian (Ageev, 1983; Lebedeva, 1999; Lebedeva, Luneva, Stefanenko, & Martynova, 2003; Soldatova, 1998; Stefanenko, 2009; Huhlaev, 2007) researchers.”

“It is through open, honest and sustained communication that "people come to value the opinions and welfare of people who differ from them and they learn about the common values that are shared among groups" (Stephan & Stephan, 2001, p. 104).”

“Tais resultados, mais uma vez, corroboram a hipótese original e os estudos internacionais sobre o contato interpessoal e sua relação com gênero e julgamento negativo (Herek & Capitanio, 1996; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“Furthermore, as indicated by the small group literature, there are potential interaction effects on teamwork efficiency owing to perceived cultural diversity, leadership, and group size (Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“Research in social cognition has shown interest in developing strategies that allow the reduction of stereotyping and prejudice through the induction of certain constructs (Crisp & Hewstone, 2007; Devine, 1989; Hewstone, 2000; Paluck & Greeen, 2009; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“This has also prevented theory development and hypothesis testing of variables that could progressively lead to more rigorous and higherlevel outcome assessments (Stephan & Stephan, 2001; Weithoff, 2004).”

“Over recent decades, policy-makers, educators and social scientists have been developing, testing and implementing educational strategies that might help reconciliatory processes (for a review see Stephan and Stephan 2001).”

“to change negative intergroup attitudes through direct education and persuasion (Stephan and Stephan, 2001), intergroup contact (Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006) or re-categorisation, that is, the construction of super-ordinate identities (Dovidio et al.”

“Stephan & Stephan (2001: 25–27) identified four types of threat that can explain attitudes and prejudice toward out-groups in general, and immigrants in particular: realistic threats, symbolic threats, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes.”

“Stephan & Stephan (2001) agree that confrontations may be problematic, particularly when used with younger children.”

“And many organizations have adopted “diversity training” that is heavily predicated on the importance of being unprejudiced (Paluck, 2006; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“Finally, inclusive practices such as dialogue engagement foster positive approaches to conflict and provide shifts and opportunity for new and complex ways of thinking that may pave the way for social change (Andersen & Collins, 2007; Dessel & Rogge, 2008; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“…(Bogardus, 1933) have suggested that the more groups are perceived as distant the greater the risk of attitudes of prejudice and discrimination towards them (e.g. Fontanella, Villano, & Di Donato, 2016; Norcini Pala, Villano, & Clinton, 2017; Passini & Villano, 2013; Stephan & Stephan, 2001).”

“Codes and categories therefore emerge from the data, from the insider perspective, depending on how often something is mentioned by the participant (Spradley, 1979).”

“Given that most Americans no longer consider it appropriate to express prejudice openly (Stephan & Stephan, 2001, p. 11), people are likely to express prejudice in covert, or subtle ways (Buttny, 1999; Buttny & Williams 2000; Kantor, 1998; Miller, 1997; Speer & Potter, 2000; van Dijk, 1984).”

“According to Salomon (2002), peace education is for some people and in some places a matter of changing mindsets—to promote understanding, respect, and tolerance toward yesterday’s enemies.”

“Despite these concerns, contact theory is accepted as social psychology’s most positive and promising contribution to improving race relations, and is the basis for many anti-racism interventions (Stephan and Stephan 2001).”

“The influence of economic status on intergroup relations has received limited empirical attention, though its importance in theoretical work has been noted (Althen, 1994; Stephan and Stephan, 2001).”

“Theoretical models developed by Crocker and Luhtanen (1990), Stephan and Stephan (2001) and Branscombe and Wann (1994) show that withdrawal into self-designated ethnic groups is a predictable response to a threatened collective self-esteem, to a fear of discrimination.”

“This subtle distinction that is not about others being less, but about your group–the “in-group”–being a little bit better, is what efforts to change prejudicial attitudes must keep at the forefront of their programming decisions (Stephan and Stephan, 2001).”

“In our experience, people’s anxiety over discussing prejudice (Stephan & Stephan, 2001) extends to the classroom, so that students are reluctant to talk about their ethnic and gender stereotypes.”

“Many of them share the strategy of minimizing intergroup anxiety, i.e., anticipated negative reactions or consequences of an intergroup encounter (Stephan and Stephan, 1985, 2001).”

“Following from this, the endorsement of a belief system is sometimes viewed as an individual difference, or stable personality type.”

“This form of practice, based in a structured curriculum and facilitative pedagogy, engages undergraduate students in faceto-face sustained dialogic communication about issues of diversity, social justice, and identity at the personal and intergroup levels [8-13].”

“1 For further discussion of the link between intergroup contact and the formation of intergroup attitudes see Allport, 1954; Dovidio, Kawakami, and Gaertner, 2000; Johnson and Johnson, 2000; Pettigrew, 1998; Stephan and Stephan, 2001.”

“…for mitigating intergroup conflict using indirect and implicit methods, which could complement existing methods for reducing prejudice (Amodio and Swencionis, 2018; Berger et al., 2018; Kawakami et al., 2007; Kteily and Landry, 2022; Paluck, 2009; Stephan and Stephan, 2001; Vezzali et al., 2022).”