Differential relations between two types of contact and implicit and explicit racial attitudes

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Intergroup Relations

Background:

• Intergroup contact typically improves explicit attitudes, often through reduced intergroup anxiety.
• Emerging evidence links contact to implicit attitudes, but underlying mechanisms require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how contact quantity and quality influence both explicit and implicit attitudes toward out-groups.
• To examine the mediating role of intergroup anxiety in the contact-attitude relationship.

Main Methods:

• Assessed explicit and implicit attitudes, intergroup anxiety, and contact quantity/quality regarding Asians in White participants (N=105).

Main Results:

• Higher contact quality correlated with more positive explicit attitudes.
• Greater contact quantity was associated with more positive implicit attitudes.
• Reduced intergroup anxiety mediated both the quality-explicit and quantity-implicit attitude relationships.

Conclusions:

• Both the quantity and quality of intergroup contact are significant factors in shaping attitudes.
• Intergroup anxiety reduction is a key mechanism linking contact to improved explicit and implicit attitudes.