Intergroup contact typically reduces prejudice; equal status, common goals, cooperation and institutional support strengthen the effect rather than being required for it.
Allport set out the conditions in 1954. Later meta-analysis found contact reduced prejudice across the great majority of studies, with the conditions strengthening the effect rather than gating it.
In practice
- A merged team seats two former rivals together on a shared deliverable with joint credit, and the animosity fades within a quarter.
- Contact without the conditions can entrench the divide: seating the same two people together on a competitive scorecard makes it worse.
- Standing
- Meta-analysis supports the general effect; Allport's conditions enhance it rather than being necessary conditions.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Theories of the mind, from the lab to the bookshop