The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members

We aim to provide one explanation for why the link between contact and prejudice is consistently less strong for minority group members than it is for majority group members. Specifically, we propose a “wallpaper effect” such that contact works to increase minority group members' positivity tow...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Barlow, Fiona Kate, Hornsey, Matthew J., Thai, Michael, Sengupta, Nikhil K., Sibley, Chris G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3859597/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24349227
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082228
_version_ 1782295436547063808
author Barlow, Fiona Kate
Hornsey, Matthew J.
Thai, Michael
Sengupta, Nikhil K.
Sibley, Chris G.
author_facet Barlow, Fiona Kate
Hornsey, Matthew J.
Thai, Michael
Sengupta, Nikhil K.
Sibley, Chris G.
author_sort Barlow, Fiona Kate
collection PubMed
description We aim to provide one explanation for why the link between contact and prejudice is consistently less strong for minority group members than it is for majority group members. Specifically, we propose a “wallpaper effect” such that contact works to increase minority group members' positivity towards majority groups when they live in areas densely populated with other minority group members. Conversely, we suggest that when minority group members live in neighborhoods patterned with majority group faces (as is so often the case), contact will be less transformative. We test this assumption using a large sample of both New Zealander minority (Māori; N = 925) and majority (European; N = 3805) group members. In line with predictions, Māori who lived in minority dense neighborhoods showed the traditional association between contact and increased warmth towards New Zealander Europeans. This relationship, however, was weak or non-existent when they lived in primarily European neighborhoods. Contact effects in majority group members were unaffected by neighborhood composition. The interaction held when controlling for, and was not explained by: gender, income, experiences of harm, cognitions of race-based rejection, or realistic threat. We provide the first evidence to suggest that when it comes to minority group members' intergroup attitudes, contact with majority group members may be a relatively ineffective predictor unless the “wallpaper” of their lives is minority-dense.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3859597
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2013
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-38595972013-12-13 The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members Barlow, Fiona Kate Hornsey, Matthew J. Thai, Michael Sengupta, Nikhil K. Sibley, Chris G. PLoS One Research Article We aim to provide one explanation for why the link between contact and prejudice is consistently less strong for minority group members than it is for majority group members. Specifically, we propose a “wallpaper effect” such that contact works to increase minority group members' positivity towards majority groups when they live in areas densely populated with other minority group members. Conversely, we suggest that when minority group members live in neighborhoods patterned with majority group faces (as is so often the case), contact will be less transformative. We test this assumption using a large sample of both New Zealander minority (Māori; N = 925) and majority (European; N = 3805) group members. In line with predictions, Māori who lived in minority dense neighborhoods showed the traditional association between contact and increased warmth towards New Zealander Europeans. This relationship, however, was weak or non-existent when they lived in primarily European neighborhoods. Contact effects in majority group members were unaffected by neighborhood composition. The interaction held when controlling for, and was not explained by: gender, income, experiences of harm, cognitions of race-based rejection, or realistic threat. We provide the first evidence to suggest that when it comes to minority group members' intergroup attitudes, contact with majority group members may be a relatively ineffective predictor unless the “wallpaper” of their lives is minority-dense. Public Library of Science 2013-12-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3859597/ /pubmed/24349227 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082228 Text en © 2013 Barlow et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Barlow, Fiona Kate
Hornsey, Matthew J.
Thai, Michael
Sengupta, Nikhil K.
Sibley, Chris G.
The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members
title The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members
title_full The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members
title_fullStr The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members
title_full_unstemmed The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members
title_short The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members
title_sort wallpaper effect: the contact hypothesis fails for minority group members who live in areas with a high proportion of majority group members
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3859597/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24349227
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082228
work_keys_str_mv AT barlowfionakate thewallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT hornseymatthewj thewallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT thaimichael thewallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT senguptanikhilk thewallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT sibleychrisg thewallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT barlowfionakate wallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT hornseymatthewj wallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT thaimichael wallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT senguptanikhilk wallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers
AT sibleychrisg wallpapereffectthecontacthypothesisfailsforminoritygroupmemberswholiveinareaswithahighproportionofmajoritygroupmembers