How does Intergroup Contact Generate Ethnic Tolerance? The Contact Hypothesis in a Scandinavian Context

Abstract

As European majority members are often hostile toward ethnic minorities, it is important to identify sources that reduce opposition to immigrants. First, focusing on Denmark, this article examines whether intergroup contact influences attitudes toward ethnic minority rights (henceforth: ‘ethnic tolerance’). Second, this study tests whether the contact‐tolerance relationship is mediated by self‐disclosure and symbolic threat. Furthermore, contact is measured as workplace contact in order to reduce self‐selection biases. The empirical tests are performed on a Danish high‐quality national probability sample from 2009 (N = 1,929). Analysis shows that intergroup contact generates ethnic tolerance because workplace contact weakens threat perceptions and stimulates disclosure of personal information. Generally, these results suggest that regular intergroup contact can improve ethnic relations in contemporary democracies.

Is racism the new sectarianism? Negativity towards immigrants and ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland from 2004 to 2015

“…This finding indicates that when it comes to the impact of sectarianism on attitudes towards other minorities, Northern Ireland is indeed still a special case. Consistent with other research and with findings on other countries (McLaren 2003;Hayes and Dowds 2006;Hewstone et al 2006;Tam et al 2007;Frølund Thomsen 2012;McKee 2015), we found that regular contact (at least once a week) with minorities makes individuals less likely to endorse negative attitudes towards them. The findings support contact theory (Pettigrew 1998;Brown and Hewstone 2005;Tam et al 2009).…”

“…Another finding which indirectly supports contact theory (McLaren 2003;Hayes and Dowds 2006;Hewstone et al 2006;Frølund Thomsen 2012) is that having attended a religiously mixed (as opposed to segregated) secondary school is statistically negatively related to negativity towards immigrants. Thus, enhanced contact with the religious "other" in school makes people more likely to be tolerant of the religious "other" and towards other outgroups.…”

“…A number of studies found evidence to support this theory both at the level of individual contacts and the neighbourhood level (Schmid et al 2014;Kaufmann and Harris 2015). A negative link between increased contact and negativity towards ethnic minorities was found in Northern Ireland (Hayes and Dowds 2006;McKee 2015), Scandinavia and other European countries (McLaren 2003;Frølund Thomsen 2012;Schmid et al 2014).…”

“…The literature on out-group negativity consists of three main approaches, contact theory (Pettigrew 1998(Pettigrew , 2008Brown and Hewstone 2005;Hayes and Dowds 2006;Frølund Thomsen 2012), group threat/competition theory (Quillian 1995;Schneider 2007;Schlueter and Scheepers 2010;Van Assche et al 2014) and social identity theory (Tajfel 1974;Tajfel and Turner 1979;Brewer 1993;Kunovich and Hodson 1999;Coakley 2007).…”

Ethnic Tolerance In Multiethnic Society: The Case Of Pulau Pinang

“…Sijuwade (2011) specifically assessed multivariate predictors of tolerance among ethnic, including gender, marital status, religiosity, income, occupation, and education. Other indicators such as inter-ethnic marriage, friendship, entertainment forms (Sijuwade, 2011), workplace (Thomsen, 2012), ethnic demography, conscious and unconsciousness (Bambulyakа, 2011), societal status (Bettelheim & Janowitz, 1949), social network and voluntary association (Cote & Erickson, 2009) and political competition (Kasara, 2013) are also often regarded as tests of ethnic tolerance with a mixture of end result. Studies also found that education, ranging from moderate to strong, contributes to tolerance measures (Statistics New Zealand, 2011) but was reported vice versa in Malaysia (Najeemah, 2006;Yasmin & Najeemah, 2010).…”