Economic contact in service encounters between groups in protracted conflict

Abstract

The study examines whether qualitative and quantitative characteristics of intercultural service encounters (ISEs) between majority customers and ethnic minority service providers are associated with better attitudes toward the entire minority group. The study was conducted in Israel through an online survey of 402 respondents. The study revealed that the customers derived pleasure from high perceived value of services and from taking advantage of a good deal. This pleasure, in turn, was positively related to attitudes toward the outgroup. High perceived value of service was associated with higher frequency of ISE that may be interpreted as repurchasing behavior. Overall, the total effect of perceived value of services between majority population and ethnic minority on attitudes toward this minority was significant and positive. Thus, economic beneficiality, which is a very important component of ISE, may contribute to improving relationships between groups in deep conflict.

Validation of the General Evaluation Scale for Measuring Ethnic and Religious Prejudice in an Indonesian Sample

“…These studies (Yustisia 2016;Yustisia and Hudijana 2021) exhibited a good consistency of GES's α between 0.80 to 0.89 (Kottner et al 2011;Saliasi et al 2021). Other studies have employed the GES with a 5-point scale, demonstrating a satisfactory reliability (Kushnirovich and Lissitsa 2022;Mazziotta et al 2015). In another study, the GES was utilized with an 11-point scale, yielding an α value of 0.96 (Healy et al 2017).…”

“…In Wright et al (1997) study the six items of the GES were unidimensional constructs and had a reliability alpha Cronbach of 0.90. Other researchers also found that the GES has very good internal consistency reliability estimates (Kushnirovich and Lissitsa 2022;Vezzali et al 2023).…”

“…In intergroup relations research, social scholars have extensively employed the GES to assess attitudes toward diverse outgroups based on social identities such as race and ethnicity (Zhang et al 2023), religion (Stathi et al 2020), immigrants (Jolley et al 2023), asylum seekers and refugees (Vezzali et al 2022), foreign people (Lissitsa et al 2022), lesbian, gay, or LGBTI individuals (Vezzali et al 2023), individuals with disabilities (Lindau et al 2018), obese people (Vezzali et al 2023), people with schizophrenia (Stathi et al 2020), elderly people (Drury et al 2017), other student-faculty in the university (Yetkili et al 2018). Thus far, the GES has been used with various ingroup samples, including: elementary school (Kushnirovich and Lissitsa 2022), high school (Bayram Özdemir and Özdemir 2020), university (Stathi et al 2020), adults (Drury et al 2017), retired adults (Crisp and Abrams 2008), and citizens (Visintin et al 2017). In addition, the GES has been utilized across a range of research designs encompassing cross-sectional (Vezzali et al 2023), longitudinal (Meleady et al 2021), and experimental (Tassinari et al 2023) designs.…”

“…Furthermore, the GES has been widely employed in multiple countries, including China (Wang et al 2019), Cyprus (McKeown andPsaltis 2017), Estonia (Jasinskaja-Lahti et al 2021), England (Jolley et al 2023), Finland (Tassinari et al 2023), France (Adam-Troian et al 2020, Germany (Royal 2022), India (Reimer et al 2020), Indonesia (Yustisia 2016;Yustisia and Hudijana 2021), Israel (Kushnirovich and Lissitsa 2022), Italy (Vezzali et al 2022), Ireland (McKeown andPsaltis 2017), the Netherlands (Vedder et al 2017), Nigeria , South Africa (Jolley et al 2023), Spain (Eller et al 2017), Sweden (Bayram Özdemir and Özdemir 2020), Turkey (Adam-Troian et al 2020, United Arab Emirates (Lalljee et al 2009), the UK (Jolley et al 2023), and the USA (Stark 2020). In conclusion, the GES has demonstrated its versatility and widespread utility in diverse research settings across age groups, designs, and countries, offering valuable insights into intergroup attitudes, including religion and ethnicity, which are the focus of this study.…”

Carry‐over effect of single media exposure and mass‐mediated contact with remote outgroups: From asylum seekers in Europe to an Israeli local outgroup

“…As such, this hypothesis which was developed into intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; Pettigrew, 1998) is considered as one of the most effective psychological strategies for improving intergroup relations (Dovidio et al, 2003, p. 5). Often, however, the problem is how to implement direct contact, for example in segregated areas where the chances of such contact are rare, or when a specific outgroup is perceived as especially threatening (Hewstone et al, 2008; Kushnirovich & Lissitsa, 2022). Evidence from multiple sources indicates that in such cases the character of intergroup relations may be predicted by indirect contact of the type that does not require real intergroup encounters but still manages to transmit information about outgroup members (Dovidio et al, 2011; Vezzali et al, 2014; White et al, 2020).…”