Extended Contact Effect

Supporting Evidence

The extended contact effect was formally introduced in 1997 with evidence from a series of studies. Two studies were surveys of Whites, Latinos, and Blacks. Respondents indicated how many people they knew from their own ethnic group who had a friend in one of the other ethnic groups. They also answered questions measuring their attitudes toward the two other ethnic groups. Both surveys showed that compared to people who knew of fewer cross-ethnic friendships, people who knew about more friendships between members of their own group and another ethnic group had more positive attitudes toward that other ethnic group.

Subsequently, surveys have shown the same positive effect of extended contact for numerous other groups, including both Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland; German adults toward “foreigners” and Muslims; German school children toward Turkish children; heterosexuals toward gay men in both Vancouver, Canada, and in New York; White and South Asian high school students in Britain; and White, Chinese, and South Asian groups in Vancouver, Canada. In every case, the more friendships that a person knew about their own group and another group, the more positively they felt toward the other group.

However, in these survey studies, extended contact and attitudes toward the other group are measured at the same time. Therefore, it could be that knowing [Page 266]about more cross-group friendships leads a person to hold more positive attitudes—the extended contact effect. However, the causal influence behind these results could just as well be in the opposite direction: Perhaps people with more positive attitudes seek out situations where there will be more interactions between the two groups, so they find out about more cross-group friendships. To be certain that extended contact causes improvements in attitudes, controlled experimental studies were required.

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