Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIV. Dispositional Theories 13. Allport: Psychology of
the Individual© The McGraw−Hill^401
Companies, 2009interested in prejudice more generally, and developing ways to reduce racial preju-
dice was of the utmost importance to him. Allport (1954) proposed that one of the
most important components to reducing prejudice was contact: If members of ma-
jority and minority groups interacted more under optimal conditions, there would be
less prejudice. This became known as the contact hypothesisand the optimal condi-
tions 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 to-
gether 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 de-
partment, 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 & 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 a complex review of more than 500 studies testing Allport’s contact hypothesis,
Pettigrew and Tropp found not only that prejudice can be reduced, but also that the
four specific criteria originally outlined by Allport are essential to this reduction
(Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Furthermore, although the concept of optimal contact
was originally conceptualized as a way to reduce racialprejudice (Allport, 1954),
research has found that optimal contact also works to reduce prejudiced attitudes
toward the elderly and the mentally ill (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006).
Some of the studies included in Thomas Pettigrew and Linda Tropp’s review
(2006) involved relatively simple methods of merely asking people how many
friends they have who are of a minority group (a measure of contact) and then hav-
ing them complete various self-report measures designed to capture the extent to
which participants endorse stereotypical views of minority groups. Other studies,
however, included in the review involved a more complex methodology whereby par-
ticipants were randomly assigned to either groups that involved optimal contact with
members of a minority group as prescribed by Allport or groups that did not involve
the optimal contact prescribed by Allport. Although both types of studies found that
optimal contact reduces prejudice, the experiments in which people were randomly
assigned to engage in optimal contact or not showed the strongest reduction in prej-
udice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Of course, there is no reason such optimal contact
must take place in a laboratory, and Pettigrew and Tropp’s (2006) findings demon-
strate the great potential for community programs to be developed based on Allport’s
prescription for prejudice reduction. If such programs were implemented, research
shows that relations between majority and minority groups would likely be greatly
improved.
Overall, Gordon Allport was an immensely insightful personality psycholo-
gist whose ideas continue to inspire psychologists today. Although his ideas un-
doubtedly continue to enrich research in personality psychology, his methods for
prejudice reduction have quietly enriched the lives of people who have, perhaps
unknowingly, benefited from his deep commitment to reducing prejudice in our
society.
Chapter 13 Allport: Psychology of the Individual 395