Chapter 12 Allport: Psychology of the Individual 373and minority groups interacted more under optimal conditions, there would be less
prejudice. This became known as the contact hypothesis and the optimal conditions
were relatively simple: (1) equal status between the two groups, (2) common goals,
(3) cooperation between groups, and (4) support of an authority figure, law, or
custom. For example, if African American and European American neighbors got
together to form a neighborhood watch group with the common goal of making
their neighborhood safer and such a program was endorsed by the mayor or city
police department, then this interaction and group effort would be likely to lead to
reduced prejudice among residents of the neighborhood.
Although Allport himself conducted some research on the topic of prejudice
reduction (Allport, 1954), one of his students, Thomas Pettigrew, has continued
the work that Allport began (Pettigrew et al., 2011; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006;
Tropp & Pettigrew, 2005). Thomas Pettigrew and Linda Tropp have built a large
research program targeted at investigating the conditions under which contact
between groups can reduce prejudice.
In two complex meta-analyses of over 500 studies and more than 250,000
participants, Pettigrew, Tropp, and colleagues (2006, 2011) examined the validity
of Allport’s contact hypothesis. They found that, indeed, intergroup contact reduces
prejudice, and that Allport’s four conditions for optimal contact between groups
facilitate this effect. Furthermore, although the concept of optimal contact was
originally conceptualized as a way to reduce racial prejudice (Allport, 1954),
research has shown that it also works to reduce prejudiced attitudes toward other
stigmatized groups such as the elderly, disabled, mentally ill, and gay and lesbian
individuals (Pettigrew et al., 2011). Studies generally show larger effects for mea-
sures of liking than for such indicators as stereotyping, meaning that optimal con-
tact helps us like the outgroup more even while stereotypes about them may persist
(Tropp & Pettigrew, 2005).
The best way to decrease conflict and prejudice is to have more contact and interaction with those
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