Attitude and intergroup anxiety generalisation as mediators of the secondary transfer effect of the contact-prejudice relationship among white South African Stellenbosch University students

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY: Intergroup contact has been found to be one of the most effective ways of reducing prejudice (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006) and its effects generalise beyond the outgroup involved in the interaction (Pettigrew, 2009). As such, the present study aimed to explore the impact that White South African students' intergroup contact with Coloured South Africans has on the attitudes and intergroup anxiety towards Coloured South Africans, and whether these attitudes and intergroup anxiety generalise to impact social distance and expectancies towards Black (African) South Africans, while controlling for prior contact with the secondary outgroup. In other words, the present study explored the secondary transfer effect, as well as the mechanisms mediating this effect. The present study is a quantitative, cross-sectional study. Data was collected via an online survey questionnaire completed by 866 White South African Stellenbosch University students and was subsequently analysed via structural equation modelling. I found that cross-group friendships with Coloured South Africans were significantly associated with intergroup anxiety towards Coloured South Africans and positive attitudes towards Coloured South Africans. Furthermore, intergroup anxiety towards Coloured South Africans was significantly related to negative outcome expectancies towards Black (African) South Africans and positive attitudes towards Coloured South Africans had a significant relationship with social distance towards Black (African) South Africans. The findings support the secondary transfer effect and provide valuable evidence of the mediating role of attitude- and intergroup anxiety generalisation. These findings fill an important theoretical gap in the contact literature, as South African studies exploring the secondary transfer effect and its mediators are extremely scarce. Furthermore, the findings from the present study provide important insights that can be applied in the organisation of interventions aiming to reduce prejudice.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University