Deegan Matthew P, Hehman Eric, Gaertner Samuel L, Dovidio John F
University of Delaware, Newark, USA
New York University, New York City, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2015 Jan;41(1):52-65. doi: 10.1177/0146167214556240. Epub 2014 Oct 17.
The current research reveals that while positive expectations about an anticipated intergroup interaction encourage generalization of positive contact to outgroup attitudes, negative expectations restrict the effects of contact on outgroup attitudes. In Study 1, when Blacks and Whites interacted with positive expectations, interaction quality predicted outgroup attitudes to a greater degree than when groups interacted with negative expectations. When expectations (Studies 2 and 3) and the actual interaction quality (Study 4) were manipulated orthogonally, negative expectations about the interaction predicted negative outgroup attitudes, regardless of actual interaction quality. By contrast, participants holding positive expectations who experienced a positive interaction expressed positive outgroup attitudes, whereas when they experienced a negative interaction, they expressed outgroup attitudes as negative as those with negative expectations. Across all four studies, positive expectations encouraged developing outgroup attitudes consistent with interaction quality.
