Building personal relationships with out-group members is an important catalyst of positive intergroup attitudes. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, Caucasian and African American individuals and couples were randomly assigned to interact in either cross-race or same-race individual dyads and couple pairs. Participants completed pretest measures of race attitudes and engaged in a high self-disclosure closeness-induction task with an in-group or out-group race member in pairs of couples or individuals and completed measures of self-disclosure and intergroup attitudes. These results suggest that intergroup contact in the presence of romantic partners may be particularly effective for improving intergroup attitudes. We explore the implications of these results for developing compassionate love toward out-groups.
AboudF. E.MendelsonM. J.PurdyK. T. (2003). Cross-race peer relations and friendship quality. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 165–173. doi:10.1080/01650250244000164
2.
AgnewC. R.EtcheverryP. E. (2006). Cognitive interdependence considering self-in-relationship. In VohsK. D.FinkelE. J. (Eds.), Self and relationships: Connecting intrapersonal and interpersonal processes (pp. 274–293). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
3.
AgnewC. R.LovingT. J.DrigotasS. M. (2001). Substituting the forest for the trees: Social networks and the prediction of romantic relationship state and fate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1042–1057. doi:10.1037/0022- 3514.81.6.1042
4.
AikenL. S.WestS. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
5.
AllenK.BlascovichJ.MendesW. B. (2002). Cardiovascular reactivity and the presence of pets, friends, and spouses: The truth about cats and dogs. Psychosomatic Medicine. 64, 727–739. doi:10.1097/01.PSY.0000024236.11538.41
6.
AllportG. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
7.
AronA.AronE. N. (1986). Love and the expansion of self: Understanding attraction and satisfaction. New York, NY: Hemisphere Publishing Corp/Harper & Row Publishers.
8.
AronA.AronE. N. (1996). Self and self-expansion in relationships. In FletcherG. J. O.FitnessJ. (Eds.), Knowledge structures in close relationships: A social psychological approach (pp. 325–344). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
9.
AronA.AronE. N.NormanC. (2004). Self-expansion model of motivation and cognition in close relationships and beyond. In BrewerM. B.HewstoneM. (Eds.), Self and social identity (pp. 99–123). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
10.
AronA.AronE. N.SmollanD. (1992). Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596–612. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.63.4.596
11.
AronA.AronE. N.TudorM.NelsonG. (1991). Close relationships as including other in the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 241–253. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.60.2.241
12.
AronA.MelinatE.AronE. N.ValloneR. D. (1997). The experimental generation of interpersonal closeness: A procedure and some preliminary findings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 363–377. doi:10.1177/0146167297234003
13.
AronA.NormanC. C.AronE. N.McKennaC.HeymanR. E. (2000). Couples’ shared participation in novel and arousing activities and experienced relationship quality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 273–284. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.2.273
14.
AronA.ParisM.AronE. N. (1995). Falling in love: Prospective studies of self-concept change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1102–1112. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.6.1102
15.
BatsonC. D.PolycarpouM. P.Harmon-JonesE.ImhoffH. J.MitchenerE. C.BednarL. L. (1997). Empathy and attitudes: Can feeling for a member of a stigmatized group improve feelings toward the group?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 105–118. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.72.1.105
16.
BodenmannG.MeuwlyN.KayserK. (2011). Two conceptualizations of dyadic coping and their potential for predicting relationship quality and individual well-being: A comparison. European Psychologist, 16, 255–266. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000068
17.
BrewerM. B.GardnerW. (1996). Who is this “We”? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 83–93. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.71.1.83
18.
BrighamJ. C. (1993). College students’ racial attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 1933–1967. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1993.tb01074.x
19.
BrodyS.WrightS. C.AronA.McLaughlin-VolpeT. (2008). Compassionate love for individuals in other social groups. In FehrB.SprecherS.UnderwoodL. G. (Eds.), The science of compassionate love: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 283–308). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
20.
CairnsR. B.LeungM.BuchananL.CairnsB. D. (1995). Friendships and social networks in childhood and adolescence: Fluidity, reliability, and interrelations. Child Development, 66, 1330–1345. doi:10.2307/1131650.
21.
CialdiniR. B.BrownS. L.LewisB. P.LuceC.NeubergS. L. (1997). Reinterpreting the empathy–altruism relationship: When one into one equals oneness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 481–494. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.73.3.481
22.
CoanJ. A.SchaeferH. S.DavidsonR. J. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17, 1032–1039. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01832.x
23.
CollinsN. L.MillerL. C. (1994). Self-disclosure and liking: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 457–475. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.116.3.457
24.
DaviesK.TroppL. R.AronA.PettigrewT. F.WrightS. C. (2011). Cross-group friendships and intergroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 332–351. doi:10.1177/1088868311411103
25.
DitzenB.HoppmannC.KlumbP. (2008). Positive couple interactions and daily cortisol: On the stress-protecting role of intimacy. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70, 883–889. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e318185c4fc
26.
DovidioJ. F.JohnsonJ. D.GaertnerS. L.PearsonA. R.SaguyT.Ashburn-NardoL. (2010). Empathy and intergroup relations. In MikulincerM.ShaverP. R. (Eds.), Prosocial motives, emotions, and behavior: The better angels of our nature (pp. 393–408). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
27.
EisenbergN.EggumN. D.GiuntaL. D. (2010). Empathy-related responding: Associations with prosocial behavior, aggression, and intergroup relations. Social Issues Policy Review, 4, 143–180. doi:10.1111/j.1751-2409.2010.01020.x
28.
EisenbergerN. I.MasterS. L.InagakiT. K.TaylorS. E.LiebermanM. D.NaliboffB. D. (2011). Attachment figures activate a safety signal-related neural region and reduce pain experience. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 11721–11726. doi:10.1073/pnas.1108239108
29.
EssesV. M.HaddockG.ZannaM. P. (1993). Values, stereotypes, and emotions as determinants of intergroup attitudes. In MackieD. M.HamiltonD. L. (Eds.), Affect, cognition, and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception (pp. 137–166). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
30.
FehrB.SprecherS. (2009). Compassionate love: Conceptual, measurement, and relational issues. In FehrB.SprecherS.UnderwoodL. G. (Eds.), The science of compassionate love: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 27–52). West Sussex, England: Wiley- Blackwell.
31.
GaertnerS. L.DovidioJ. F. (2000). Reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
32.
GaertnerS. L.DovidioJ. F. (2009). A common ingroup identity: A categorization-based approach for reducing intergroup bias. In NelsonT. D. (Ed.), Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 489–505). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
33.
GaertnerS. L.DovidioJ. F. (2012). The common ingroup identity model. In van LangeP. A. M.KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 439–457). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
34.
GalinskyA. D. (2002). Creating and reducing intergroup conflict: The role of perspective-taking in affecting outgroup evaluations. In MannixN. M. A.MannixE. A.SondakH. (Eds.), Toward phenomenology of groups and group membership (Vol. 4, pp. 85–113). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
35.
GalinskyA. D.MoskowitzG. B. (2000). Perspective-taking: Decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and ingroup favoritism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 708–724.
36.
GhiselliE. (1964). Theory of psychological measurement. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
37.
GreenwaldA. G.McGheeD. E.SchwartzJ. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.74.6.1464
38.
GreenwaldA. G.NosekB. A.BanajiM. R. (2003). Understanding and using the implicit association test: I. An improved scoring algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 197–216. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.197
39.
HofmannW.GawronskiB.GschwendnerT.LeH.SchmittM. (2005). A meta-analysis on the correlation between the implicit association test and explicit self-report measures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1369–1385. doi:10.1177/0146167205275613
40.
HunterJ.SchmidtF. (1990). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
41.
KaneH. S.McCallC.CollinsN. L.BlascovichJ. (2012). Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 37–44. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.07.001
42.
KennyD. A.KashyD. A.CookW. L. (2006). Dyadic data analysis. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
43.
LaurenceauJ.-P.BarrettL. F.PietromonacoP. R. (1998). Intimacy as an interpersonal process: The importance of self-disclosure, partner disclosure, and perceived partner responsiveness in interpersonal exchanges. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1238–1251. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.74.5.1238
44.
LehmillerJ. J.AgnewC. R. (2006). Marginalized relationships: The impact of social disapproval on romantic relationship commitment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 40–51. doi:10.1177/0146167205278710
45.
LehmillerJ. J. (2012). Perceived marginalization and its association with physical and psychological health. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29, 451–469. doi:10.1177/0265407511431187
46.
LehmillerJ. J.AgnewC. R. (2007). Perceived marginalization and the prediction of romantic relationship stability. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 1036–1049. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2007.00429.x
47.
MallettR. K.HuntsingerJ. R.SinclairS.SwimJ. K. (2008). Seeing through their eyes: When majority group members take collective action on behalf of an outgroup. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 11, 451–470. doi:10.1177/1368430208095400
48.
MarkusH. R.KitayamaS. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253. doi:10.1037//0033-295X.98.2.224
49.
MashekD. J.AronA.BonciminoM. (2003). Confusions of self with close others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 382–392. doi:10.1177/0146167202250220
50.
MilardoR. M. (1982). Friendship networks in developing relationships: Converging and diverging social environments. Social Psychology Quarterly, 45, 162–172. doi:10.2307/3033649
51.
NadlerA.LiviatanI. (2006). Intergroup reconciliation: Effects of adversary’s expressions of empathy, responsibility, and recipients’ trust. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 459–470. doi:10.1177/0146167205276431
52.
Page-GouldE.Mendoza-DentonR. (2011). Friendship and social interaction with outgroup members. In TroppL. R.MallettR. K. (Eds.), Moving beyond prejudice reduction: Pathways to positive intergroup relations (pp. 139–158). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
53.
Page-GouldE.Mendoza-DentonR.TroppL. R. (2008). With a little help from my cross-group friend: Reducing anxiety in intergroup contexts through cross-group friendship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1080–1094. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.95.5.1080
54.
PettigrewT. E.MeertensR. W. (1995). Subtle and blatant prejudice in western Europe. European Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 57–75. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420250106
55.
PettigrewT. F.TroppL. R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 751–783. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.751
56.
PreacherK. J.CurranP. J.BauerD. J. (2006). Computational tools for probing interaction effects in multiple linear regression, multilevel modeling, and latent curve analysis. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 31, 437–448. doi:10.3102/10769986031004437
57.
ReisH. T.ShaverP. (1988). Intimacy as an interpersonal process. In DuckS.HayD. F.HobfollS. E.IckesW.MontgomeryB. M. (Eds.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions (pp. 367–389). Oxford, England: John Wiley & Sons.
58.
RossL. T.LutzC. J.LakeyB. (1999). Perceived social support and attributions for failed support. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 896–909. doi:10.1177/0146167299025007011
59.
SedikidesC.OlsenN.ReisH. T. (1993). Relationships as natural categories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 71–82. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.1.71
60.
SherifM.HarveyO. J.WhiteB. J.HoodW. R.SherifC. W. (1961). Intergroup conflict and cooperation: The Robbers Cave experiment. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange.
61.
SlatcherR. B. (2010). When Harry and Sally met Dick and Jane: Creating closeness between couples. Personal Relationships, 17, 279–297. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01276.x
62.
SlatcherR. B.RoblesT. F.RepettiR.FellowsM. D. (2010). Momentary work worries, marital disclosure and salivary cortisol among parents of young children. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72, 887–896. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181f60fcc
63.
SlotterE. B.GardnerW. L. (2009). Where do you end and I begin? Evidence for anticipatory, motivated self–other integration between relationship partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1137–1151. doi:10.1037/a0013882.
64.
SmithE. R.HenryS. (1996). An in-group becomes part of the self: Response time evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 635–642. doi:10.1177/0146167296226008
65.
SprecherS.FehrB. (2006). Enhancement of mood and self-esteem as a result of giving and receiving compassionate love. Current Research in Social Psychology, 11, 227–242.
66.
SprecherS.FehrB. (2005). Compassionate love for close others and humanity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 629–652.
67.
SprecherS.FelmleeD. (1992). The influence of parents and friends on the quality and stability of romantic relationships: A three-wave longitudinal investigation. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 54, 888–900. doi:10.2307/353170
StephanW. G.FinlayK. (1999). The role of empathy in improving intergroup relations. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 729–743. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00144
70.
StephanW. G.StephanC. W. (1985). Intergroup anxiety. Journal of Social Issues, 41, 157–175. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1985.tb01134.x
71.
StephanW. G.StephanC. W. (2000). An integrated threat theory of prejudice. In OskampS. (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 23–45). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
72.
TajfelH.TurnerJ. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In WorchelS.AustinW. G. (Eds.), Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall.
73.
TroppL. R.WrightS. C. (2001). Ingroup identification as the inclusion of ingroup in the self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 585–600. doi:10.1177/0146167201275007
74.
TurnerR. N.HewstoneM.VociA.VonofakouC. (2008). A test of the extended intergroup contact hypothesis: The mediating role of intergroup anxiety, perceived ingroup and outgroup norms, and inclusion of the outgroup in the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 843–860. doi:10.1037/a0011434
75.
UchinoB. N.CacioppoJ. T.Kiecolt-GlaserJ. K. (1996). The relationship between social support and physiological processes: A review with emphasis on underlying mechanisms and implications for health. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 488–531. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.119.3.488
76.
UnderwoodL. G. (2009). Compassionate love: A framework for research. In FehrB.SprecherS.UnderwoodL. G. (Eds.), The science of compassionate love: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 3–25). West Sussex, England: Wiley-Blackwell.
77.
WatsonG. (1947). Action for unity. Oxford, England: Harper.
78.
WelkerK. M.BakerL.PadillaA.AronA. (2014). Effects of self-disclosure and responsiveness between couples on passionate love within couples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (manuscript submitted for publication).
79.
WilcoxR. R. (2001). Fundamentals of modern statistical methods: Substantially improving power and accuracy. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
80.
WrightS. C.AronA.McLaughlin-VolpeT.RoppS. A. (1997). The extended contact effect: Knowledge of cross-group friendships and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 73–90. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.73.1.73
81.
WrightS. C.AronA.TroppL. R. (2002). Including others (and groups) in the self: Self-expansion and intergroup relations. In ForgasJ. P.WilliamsK. (Eds.), The social self: Cognitive, interpersonal and intergroup perspectives (pp. 343–363). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
82.
YoungerJ.AronA.ParkeS.ChatterjeeN.MackeyS. (2010). Viewing pictures of a romantic partner reduces experimental pain: Involvement of neural reward systems. PLoS ONE, 5, e13309. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013309
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
