Contact hypothesis: Testing models with different paradigms

Across three studies, we tested the contact hypothesis and the effectiveness of four contact modes: decategorization (Brewer & Miller, 1984), categorization (Brown & Hewstone, 2005), recategorization (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000), dual identity (Gaertner et al., 2000). In the first study, correlational, we analyzed the relationship between non-disabled and disabled in the work place. Results showed that contact had positive effects, which generalized to explicit and implicit measures concerning the distal outgroup. Recategorization favored more positive relations with known outgroup members; contact effects generalized more when dual identity was salient; contact reduced implicit bias when salience of common identity, dual identity or separate groups was high. In the second and third studies, experimental, we tested the effects of contact strategies on cognitive impairment (Richeson & Shelton, 2003) and intergroup relations. Results indicated that all contact strategies were effective at improving attitudes toward known outgroup members, if contact was cooperative; generalization was more pronounced when salience of one-group and, especially, two-groups or dual identity were high. Furthermore, cognitive impairment tended to be higher when a two-groups representation was salient, whereas it was slightly lower when perceptions of separate individuals, one-group or dual identity were high or when contact was with an ingroup member.