How Positive and Negative Intergroup Contact May Shape the Communication of Discrimination Toward Migrants

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of intergroup contact of White British adults ( N = 192) on the language used when describing their recent interactions with Asian British people. Specifically, we assessed the role of different forms of intergroup contact (i.e., cross-group friendship, positive and negative, and direct and extended contact) on the abstraction of negative terms used by White British people, as a linguistic measure of outgroup derogation. As expected, the frequency of direct negative intergroup contact was associated with higher negative language abstraction in depicting Asian British people. However, this association was weaker for White British people with higher levels of positive direct and extended intergroup contacts compared to those with lower levels of positive direct and extended contact. Overall, results emphasize the importance of independently analyzing the impact of positive and negative intergroup contact experiences, as well as understanding how they interact with each other in the communication of intergroup discrimination.