Do "they" threaten "us" or do "we" disrespect "them": Majority perceptions of intergroup relations and everyday contacts with immigrant minorities

作者：Van Acker Kaat; Phalet Karen; Deleersnyder Jozefien; Mesquita Batja^*

来源：Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2014, 17(5): 617-628.

DOI：10.1177/1368430214536062

• anxiety
• discrimination
• intergroup contact
• intergroup threat
• perspective taking

The present study examined how majority perceptions of intergroup relations afford different contact experiences with immigrant minorities. Majority students attending culturally diverse high schools first completed a survey that measured the extent to which they perceived immigrant minorities as either threatening to the majority or discriminated by the majority. Two weeks later, the same majority students kept a 1-week diary of their contacts with immigrant minorities. As expected, perceived threat at premeasurement was positively associated with situated threat-related appraisals and emotions (e.g., fear) during everyday contacts with immigrant minorities 2-3 weeks later. In contrast, acknowledgment of discrimination at premeasurement was positively associated with perspective taking and enrichment-related appraisals and emotions (e.g., admiration). These findings suggest that generalized threat perceptions can become self-enforcing through repeated threatening contact experiences; but also that an alternative perception of minorities as disrespected by the majority may underlie more positive contact experiences.

• 出版日期2014-9