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Extended contact through peer modelling to promote tolerance in Finland
Author(s) -
Liebkind Karmela,
McAlister Alfred L.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199908/09)29:5/6<765::aid-ejsp958>3.0.co;2-j
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , peer review , political science , law
A field experiment studied the effect of extended contact through peer modelling for tolerance promotion among 1480 Finnish students (ages 13–15) in three pairs of middle schools that were matched on the proportion of foreign students (ranging from 3 per cent to 19 per cent) and randomised to control or experimental condition. In the experimental schools, printed stories of ingroup members engaged in close friendship with members of outgroups were presented in two sessions as examples of successful intergroup contact. In order to avoid subtyping, i.e. to ensure both inclusion of the ingroup member in the self and generalisation from the outgroup friend to the whole outgroup, the typicality of both the ingroup exemplar and the outgroup friend was enhanced. Intergroup attitudes were measured before and after the experimental intervention. A scale score measuring intergroup tolerance showed stability or favourable changes in experimental schools, while attitudes worsened or stayed the same in the control schools. The experimental effect was significant in four statistical tests ( p <0.001 to p <0.05). The results show that tolerance can be improved or maintained by extended contact, i.e. peer modelling of positive intergroup contacts. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.