ABSTRACT
Although mixed social environments can provoke confl ict, such diversity can also promote positive intergroup contact and the reduction of prejudice. At the psychological level, increasing proximity to, and therefore salience of, social ‘outgroups’ has been associated with numerous negative psychological effects (e.g. intergroup anxiety, see Stephan and Stephan 1985; ingroup favouritism, see Mullen et al. 1992; prejudice, see Allport 1954). Concomitant to this, however, diversity provides opportunities for resolution of confl ict through contact between opposing groups; contact which, under the right circumstances, can have a signifi cant and lasting positive effect on intergroup relations. Since its formulation by Gordon Allport (1954), the ‘contact hypothesis’ has embodied this potential positive effect in the fi eld of social psychology, and has produced a signifi cant body of research into its conditions, processes, and outcomes. This chapter will outline the progression of intergroup contact research over the last 50-60 years, provide a summary of the current state of the fi eld, and discuss some of the recent criticisms levelled against contact theory. It will conclude that, despite the challenges to its claims and principles, the position of contact as an evidentially sound and integrated theory of intergroup relations renders it an invaluable tool in the study of diversity.
