Negative intergroup contact makes group memberships salient: Explaining why intergroup conflict endures

Drawing from the intergroup contact model and self-categorization theory,the authors advanced the novel hypothesis of a valence-salience effect,whereby negative contact causes higher category salience than positive contact. as predicted,in a laboratory experiment of interethnic contact,white australians (n = 49) made more frequent and earlier reference to ethnicity when describing their ethnic contact partner if she had displayed negative (vs. positive,neutral) nonverbal behavior. in a two-wave experimental study of retrieved intergenerational contact,american young adults (n = 240) reported age to be more salient during negative (vs. positive) contact and negative contact predicted increased episodic and chronic category salience over time. some evidence for the reverse salience-valence effect was also found. because category salience facilitates contact generalization,these results suggest that intergroup contact is potentially biased toward worsening intergroup relations; further implications for theory and policy making are discussed. © 2010 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.