The Contact Hypothesis and Intergroup Relations 50 Years on: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

This article introduces the special issue on intergroup contact. We remind readers of the visit to South Africa, 50 years ago, of Gordon Allport and his associate, Thomas Pettigrew, and review work on one of Allport's central contributions to social psychology, the ‘contact hypothesis’. This hypothesis proposes that contact between groups will, under the right conditions, reduce prejudice and promote better intergroup relations. Although there is considerable support for the hypothesis, we note that much recent work in South Africa points to the infrequency of interracial contact, and the spontaneous self-segregation of interactants in conditions that are ostensibly optimal for intergroup contact. We discuss the contributions that individual articles in the special issue make to the wider question of intergroup contact, as well as to the specific questions of self-segregation and contact avoidance.