Cross-community contact, perceived status differences, and intergroup attitudes in Northern Ireland: The mediating roles of individual-level versus group-level threats and the moderating role of social identification

Nicole Tausch, Miles Hewstone, Jared Kenworthy, Ed Cairns, Oliver Christ

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We tested a model which examined the relationship between contact quantity and quality, relative ingroup status, and intergroup attitudes in Northern Ireland. Intergroup anxiety was considered an individual-level mediator and realistic and symbolic threat as group-level mediators in the model. We examined the idea that the strength of ingroup identification moderates the predictive power of individual- versus group-level variables. Both contact and relative ingroup status predicted anxiety and perceived threats to the ingroup, which were significant mediators in the model. Our results also suggest that while anxiety predicts attitudes for low but not high identifiers, symbolic threats to the ingroup are more important for high than for low identifiers. There was also some evidence indicating that status perceptions moderate contact effects. We discuss these results in terms of their implications for intergroup relations in Northern Ireland.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)53-68
Number of pages16
JournalPolitical Psychology
Volume28
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2007

Keywords

  • Northern Ireland
  • contact
  • threat
  • identification
  • status differences
  • GROUP FRIENDSHIPS
  • PREJUDICE
  • ANXIETY

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