Can contact reduce prejudice?

Introduction: Researchers tested whether working on mixed teams changes how students from two rival high schools feel about each other.

Participants: 192 students aged 15 to 17 (96 from each of two rival high schools in the same Georgia school district; 47% girls) attending a free two-week summer robotics program. Race/ethnicity was not reported.

Method: Students were randomly assigned to teams of four. Half of the teams were mixed, with two students from each school; the other half had all four students from the same school. Every team worked toward the program's final event: a contest against teams from other states. Before and after the program, students rated their feelings toward "students at the other school" from 0 (very cold, unfavorable) to 100 (very warm, favorable).

Results and Discussion: Students on mixed teams rated the other school's students more warmly after the program (mean of 71) than before (48). Students on same-school teams changed little (49 before, 52 after). The difference between the two kinds of teams after the program was statistically significant.

Introduction: Researchers surveyed adults to see whether having close friends from a different religious group is related to their attitudes toward that group.

Participants: 2,300 adults aged 18 to 75 in Germany, chosen at random from city population records (51% women). Race/ethnicity was not reported.

Method: Participants reported how many close friends they had from a religious group other than their own. They rated their feelings toward members of other religious groups (0 = very negative, 10 = very positive). They also completed a computer reaction-time test that measures automatic, unspoken associations between religious groups and positive or negative words; higher scores show more negative automatic associations.

Results and Discussion: Participants with more close friends from another religious group rated members of other groups more positively (r = +0.33) and had lower reaction-time test scores (r = −0.24). Both relationships were statistically significant.

Introduction: Researchers tested whether the kind of contact matters, comparing competition with cooperation.

Participants: 120 students aged 18 to 22 (66 women and 54 men) at a university in Ohio who were fans of the university's football team. Race/ethnicity was not reported.

Method: Each participant spent one hour with two students who were fans of the rival university's team. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a competitive quiz in which the participant's side played against the rival fans for a prize, a cooperative puzzle in which all three students had to work together to win a prize, or no meeting at all (the participant did the puzzle alone). Before and after, participants rated their feelings toward the rival university's fans from 0 (very cold) to 100 (very warm).

Results and Discussion: After the competitive quiz, ratings of rival fans fell (from a mean of 55 to 47). After the cooperative puzzle, ratings rose (from 54 to 66). In the no-meeting condition, ratings stayed the same (55 and 55). The changes in the competitive and cooperative conditions were both statistically significant.