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Can intergroup contact improve humanity attributions?
Author(s) -
Capozza Dora,
Trifiletti Elena,
Vezzali Loris,
Favara Irene
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207594.2012.688132
Subject(s) - outgroup , psychology , social psychology , empathy , attribution , humanity , salience (neuroscience) , mediation , context (archaeology) , anxiety , contact theory , structural equation modeling , developmental psychology , sociology , cognitive psychology , social science , theology , philosophy , paleontology , statistics , mathematics , structural engineering , psychiatry , engineering , biology
In this paper, intergroup contact was evaluated as a strategy to favor outgroup humanization. We tested a double‐mediation model, in which contact is associated with both decreased salience of intergroup boundaries and the adoption of a common identity. These recategorizations, in turn, are related to lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of empathy, both emotions being proximal predictors of outgroup humanization. The model was tested using structural equation modeling in the context of different intergroup relations: Italians versus immigrants (Study 1); Northern Italians versus Southern Italians (Study 2). Supporting the hypotheses, group representations and emotions mediated the relationship between contact and humanity attributions. The practical implications of results are discussed.