Indirect and Mediated Intergroup Contact

Abstract

People may encounter members of other groups in many ways other than face‐to‐face contact. Contact‐like experiences can occur through mass or interpersonal media, through imagined encounters, or through knowing about or observing contact between others. This entry addresses such experiences, noting where they have similar effects to direct contact, and in some circumstances the advantages of indirect forms of contact over more direct contact. Mediators and moderators of indirect contact overlap with those for direct contact, but some unique processes by which contact influences attitudes toward outgroups are also discussed here.

The generalization of intergroup contact effects: Emerging research, policy relevance, and future directions

“…There is compelling evidence for the primary transfer effects of positive direct (face‐to‐face contact) and indirect intergroup contact (contact that is not face‐to‐face, such as knowing that an ingroup member has contact with an outgroup member or being exposed to information about outgroup members through mass media). The research on primary transfer effects has been undertaken across a wide range of samples and contexts, using both correlational and experimental designs, and considering various attitudinal and behavioral outcomes (for meta‐analyses on direct contact, see Paluck et al., 2019; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; for a review on different types of indirect contact see, Harwood, 2017; Miles & Crisp, 2014; Zhou et al., 2019). Yet, contact with outgroup members is not always positive.…”

Pliable Prejudice: The Case of Welfare

“…Indirect or mediated contact does not involve direct, personal, face‐to‐face interaction between an individual and outgroup members. Instead, mediated contact occurs when whites see blacks interacting with other whites or when whites get information about blacks via online news, television shows, and/or other modes of communication (Harwood 2017; Ortiz and Harwood 2007; Park 2012).…”

Tertiary transfer effect (TTE) of contact with sexual minorities in a sample of Colombian heterosexual and gay participants

“…Although the principle of contact was initially formulated in response to racial segregation, several studies demonstrate that attitude change following contact situations also occur in relation to other stigmatized group members, including LGBT people, the elderly, and people with disabilities (McIntyre et al, 2016; Paluck et al, 2019; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2008). Since Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis, an extensive body of research has broadened the explicative framework regarding the effects derived from intergroup contact in its direct form (Brown & Hewstone, 2005; Paluck et al, 2019; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006), but also through media presentation, extended, and imagined contact (Harwood, 2017; Miles & Crisp, 2014; Zhou et al, 2019).…”