Contact Hypothesis

Allport's hypothesis and conditions

Reviewing ways to reduce intergroup tension just after World War II, Williams (1947) offered the first systematic discussion of the effects of contact. Comparing racially integrated and segregated public housing, Deutsch and Collins (1951) reported that white housewives in integrated projects held more favorable attitudes toward Black neighbors. Building on such work, Allport (1954) concluded that for contact to reduce prejudice, the situation requires equal status, common goals, cooperation rather than competition, and the support of authorities, law or custom. He also noted that mere frequent encounters can instead reinforce stereotypes.

Meta-analyses and extended forms

Pettigrew (1998) refined the theory, arguing that contact works through learning about the outgroup, changing behavior, generating affective ties and reappraising the ingroup. Pettigrew and Tropp's (2006) meta-analysis of 515 studies found contact consistently associated with reduced prejudice, with Allport's conditions enhancing the effect though not all strictly necessary. Pettigrew and Tropp (2008) then showed that reduced anxiety and increased empathy are stronger mediators than increased knowledge. Wright and colleagues (1997) proposed the extended contact effect, in which merely knowing that an ingroup friend has an outgroup friend reduces prejudice, and Crisp and Turner (2009) proposed imagined contact, the effect of imagining interactions with outgroup members.

Field experiments and critiques

Paluck, Green and Green (2019) found that, restricting attention to studies with random assignment and delayed measurement, effects remain positive, but long-term evidence on adult racial and ethnic prejudice is scarce. Mousa (2020) reported that randomly assigning Christian players in post-ISIS Iraq to soccer teams with Muslim players increased cooperative behavior within the team, while changes in general attitudes outside it were limited. In a cricket league experiment in India, Lowe (2021) showed that collaborative contact, with different castes on the same team, increased cross-caste interaction, whereas adversarial contact, facing each other as opponents, did not. Barlow and colleagues (2012) warned that negative contact may affect prejudice more than positive contact. The contact hypothesis is, together with social identity theory and research on stereotype threat, a core framework for understanding intergroup relations.

FAQ

What is the contact hypothesis in simple terms?

It is the idea that when people from different groups work together toward shared goals on an equal footing, their prejudice toward each other declines. Simply bumping into each other often, however, may not help.

Does contact always reduce prejudice?

No. Competitive or unpleasant contact can increase prejudice. Meta-analyses show a positive effect overall, but the effect grows when conditions such as cooperation and equal status are met.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

1. Williams, R. M., Jr. (1947). The Reduction of Intergroup Tensions. New York: Social Science Research Council.
2. Deutsch, M., & Collins, M. E. (1951). Interracial Housing: A Psychological Evaluation of a Social Experiment. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
3. Allport, G. W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
4. Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65–85.
5. Wright, S. C., Aron, A., McLaughlin-Volpe, T., & Ropp, S. A. (1997). The extended contact effect: Knowledge of cross-group friendships and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 73–90.
6. Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(5), 751–783.
7. Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2008). How does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Meta-analytic tests of three mediators. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(6), 922–934.
8. Crisp, R. J., & Turner, R. N. (2009). Can imagined interactions produce positive perceptions? Reducing prejudice through simulated social contact. American Psychologist, 64(4), 231–240.
9. Barlow, F. K., et al. (2012). The contact caveat: Negative contact predicts increased prejudice more than positive contact predicts reduced prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(12), 1629–1643.
10. Paluck, E. L., Green, S. A., & Green, D. P. (2019). The contact hypothesis re-evaluated. Behavioural Public Policy, 3(2), 129–158.
11. Mousa, S. (2020). Building social cohesion between Christians and Muslims through soccer in post-ISIS Iraq. Science, 369(6505), 866–870.
12. Lowe, M. (2021). Types of contact: A field experiment on collaborative and adversarial caste integration. American Economic Review, 111(6), 1807–1844.