Positive and negative intergroup contact predict Black and White Americans' judgments about police violence against Black Americans

Abstract

We examined whether past positive and negative interracial contact predict people's views of interracial police violence. White (N 5 207) and Black (N 5 116) Americans reported on their past intergroup experiences before viewing information about one of two true events involving the death of a Black man at the hands of a White police officer. For White Americans, negative contact predicted a reluctance to blame the officer and a willingness to believe that people's responses to the events involved "playing the race card." For Black Americans, positive contact predicted marginally less officer blame and lower beliefs that the victim was racially profiled. This suggests the potential for a vicious cycle, whereby past contact experiences color perceptions of intergroup conflict in the present.

Implicit racism, colour blindness, and narrow definitions of discrimination: Why some White people prefer ‘All Lives Matter’ to ‘Black Lives Matter’

“…Regardless of the predictability of the results, we must note the curious disinterest shown by empirical research to date concerning the relationship between racism and support for the All Lives Matter movement. While research looking at contact and the media as predictors of ALM support are valuable (Hayward et al., 2017; Holt & Sweitzer, 2020; Kilgo & Mourão, 2019), the total lack of research on racism as an explanation for All Lives Matter support seems itself to be an example of collective colour blindness: avoiding the direct consideration of racism as an explanation for behaviour, even when it seems to be the most evident and parsimonious explanation.…”

It’s security, stupid! Voters’ perceptions of immigrants as a security risk predicted support for Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election

“…Mturk samples allow for valid measurement of constructs, which are generally lacking among nationally representative samples (e.g., Strother, Piston, & Ogorzalek, 2017). Mturk offers diverse samples (Buhrmester, Kwang, & Gosling, 2011;Huff & Tingley, 2015), is a valid recruitment tool for political research (Clifford, Jewell, & Waggoner, 2015), and has been widely used for political research (e.g., Choma & Hanoch, 2017, Hayward, Hornsey, Tropp, & Barlow, 2017, including research on support for Donald Trump specifically (Blankenship, Savas, Frederick, & Stewart, 2018;Choma & Hanoch, 2017;. It provides far greater heterogeneity for testing political hypotheses regarding support for Donald Trump than student samples (e.g., Cohen, Solomon, & Kaplin, 2017) or other nonrepresentative sampling methods (Crowson & Brandes, 2017).…”

Competitive victimhood as a lens to reconciliation: An analysis of the black lives matter and blue lives matter movements

“…Therefore, we examine ways that the two movements might also conform to previous theories about the resolution of victimhood competitions. Similar to recent work on intergroup contact between blacks and whites determining attitudes surrounding police shootings of black people (Hayward et al, 2017) and the inequality of power and privilege between these groups (Dixon, Tropp, Durrheim, & Tredoux, 2010), competitive identity theory includes recognition of a possible way out of the cycle of conflict.…”

“…This work builds upon group level psychology literature addressing contact and race relations (Page‐Gould, Mendoza‐Denton, & Tropp, ; Tropp & Barlow, ; Tropp & Pettigrew, ), particularly the nature of past intergroup contact between blacks and whites determining attitudes surrounding police shootings of blacks (Hayward, Hornsey, Tropp, & Barlow, ). While racial contact work focuses on the lack of exposure to members of another group as a driver of negative intergroup dynamics, competitive victimhood focuses on one outcome of negative intergroup dynamics, perceptions of victimhood.…”

“…Using the public discourse of the movement-countermovement set of "Black Lives Matter" and "Blue Lives Matter," we map collective (Schori-Eyal, Halperin, & Bar-Tal, 2014) and specifically competitive victimhood to understand the psychological, identity based aspects of this dynamic and to its implications for conflict management. This work builds upon group level psychology literature addressing contact and race relations (Page-Gould, Mendoza-Denton, & Tropp, 2008;Tropp & Barlow, 2018;Tropp & Pettigrew, 2005), particularly the nature of past intergroup contact between blacks and whites determining attitudes surrounding police shootings of blacks (Hayward, Hornsey, Tropp, & Barlow, 2017). While racial contact work focuses on the lack of exposure to members of another group as a driver of negative intergroup dynamics, competitive victimhood focuses on one outcome of negative intergroup dynamics, perceptions of victimhood.…”