Effects of Intergroup Contact on Explicit and Implicit Outgroup Attitudes: A Longitudinal Field Study with Majority and Minority Group Members

A longitudinal field study tested the long-term associations (three years) of intergroup contact with both explicit and implicit outgroup attitudes. Participants were majority (Italian) and minority (immigrant) high-school students, who were tested at four waves from the beginning of their first year in high-school to the end of the third school year. Results revealed, first, longitudinal associations of quantity (but not quality) of contact with explicit attitudes (positive associations with explicit positive attitudes, negative associations with explicit negative attitudes). They also revealed bi-directional associations over time between explicit positive and negative attitudes and intergroup anxiety, on the one hand, and quantity and quality of contact, on the other. Second, reduced intergroup anxiety longitudinally mediated the association between quantity of contact and improved explicit attitudes (more positive explicit positive attitudes and less negative explicit negative attitudes). Third, the product of quantity and quality of contact longitudinally was positively associated with implicit outgroup attitudes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of findings.