Meeting a nice asylum seeker: Intergroup contact changes stereotype content perceptions and associated emotional prejudices, and encourages solidarity‐based collective action intentions

Abstract

Intergroup contact can improve majority members' perception of minorities. Integrating the intergroup contact hypothesis with the stereotype content model and BIAS-Map, we hypothesized that positive intergroup contact improves German majority members' evaluations of asylum seekers on the warmth and competence dimensions. Using crosssectional survey data and structural equation modelling, we found support for this hypothesis (Study 1a, N = 182). Warmth and competence perceptions, in turn, predicted specific intergroup emotions (Study 1b, N = 255). A causal effect of intergroup contact on changes in stereotype content, emotions, and solidarity-based collective action intentions as an important facilitative behavioural intention debated in the intergroup contact literature is established with experimental data (Study 2, N = 74). Participants interacting with an asylum seeker rated asylum seekers higher on warmth and specific intergroup emotions and were more supportive of solidarity-based collective actions in favour of asylum seekers. Our study demonstrates that contact has differential effects on cognitive, affective, and behavioural components of prejudice towards asylum seekers that are systematically linked.

‘Society thinks they are cold and/or incompetent, but I do not’: Stereotype content ratings depend on instructions and the social group's location in the stereotype content space

“…In the personal view condition, the instruction read: 'Responding to the questions we are interested in your personal opinion how you would rate various social groups'. 1 Thereafter, we asked participants on a scale from 1 = not at all to 5 = completely how warm, friendly, and well-intentioned for warmth, and competent, independent, and competitive for competence 2 (Asbrock, 2010;Eckes, 2002;Kotzur et al, 2017;Kotzur, Friehs, et al, 2019;Kotzur, Sch€ afer, & Wagner, 2019) either society (society's perspective condition) or themselves (personal perspective condition) rated six social groups from different quadrants in the SCM space (Asbrock, 2010): athletes and students (high warmth/high competence), elderly (high warmth/low competence), Muslims (midwarmth/mid-competence), the rich (low warmth/high competence), and the homeless (low warmth/low competence). 3 After providing demographical data, participants were thanked and had the opportunity to get compensated for their participation with partial course credit.…”

Welcoming the Unwelcome: How Contact Shapes Contexts of Reception for New Immigrants in Germany and the United States

“…Indeed, studies from North America, Europe, and beyond indicate that receiving society members’ contact with immigrants can yield positive attitudes toward immigrant populations (Binder et al., ; Ellison, Shin, & Leal, ; Fetzer, ). For instance, in one lab‐based experiment conducted in Germany, participants were asked to engage in a structured conversation with either “Abdelrahim,” a confederate who supposedly immigrated to Germany as a refugee, or “Frank,” a confederate who supposedly did not have a migration background (Kotzur, Schäfer, & Wagner, ). After an evaluation of the conversation that appeared to mark the end of the study, participants were invited to participate in a second, and ostensibly unrelated, study in which they were asked to provide their evaluations of refugees in general, among other things.…”

“…Moreover, parallel surveys of first‐generation Mexican and Indian immigrants indicated that the more contact they had with White and Black Americans, the more they felt welcomed by these groups; both the effects of contact on welcoming and feeling welcomed were enhanced to the extent that respondents rated their contact as friendly in nature. Relatedly, studies indicate that positive intergroup contact can lead receiving society members to show less opposition to supportive immigration policies (McLaren, ) and even to participate in protests to promote the interests of immigrant outgroups (Kotzur, Schäfer, et al., ).…”

“…Whether intergroup encounters are perceived positively or negatively may also depend on preexisting levels of prejudice (Kotzur & Wagner, ). While many studies show that contact can affect levels of prejudice (e.g., Kotzur, Schäfer, et al., ; Lemmer & Wagner, ; Pettigrew & Tropp, ), both experimental and longitudinal studies also show that levels of prejudice predict reports of future contact (e.g., Binder et al., ; Sidanius, Levin, Van Laar, & Sears, ). That is, highly prejudiced people typically report engaging less frequently in intergroup contact than less prejudiced people.…”

Classical and Modern Prejudice toward Asylum Seekers: The Mediating Role of Intergroup Anxiety in a Sample of Italians

“…Southern Italy, therefore, is one of the chief destinations for this international migration. Although each country that accepts asylum seekers tries to offer social support for the newcomers, asylum seekers continue to face widespread rejection as demonstrated by the number of hate crimes committed against them, often with the support of nationalist movements and parties (Kotzur et al 2019).…”