Extended contact through peer modelling to promote tolerance in Finland

A field experiment studied the effect of extended contact through peer mode lling for tolerance promotion among 1480 Finnish students (ages 13-15) in t hree pairs of middle schools that were matched on the proportion of foreign students (ranging from 3 per cent to 19 per cent) and randomised to contro l or experimental condition. In the experimental schools, printed stories o f ingroup members engaged in close friendship with members of outgroups wer e presented in two sessions as examples of successful intergroup contact. I n order to avoid subtyping, i.e. to ensure both inclusion of the ingroup me mber in the self and generalisation from the outgroup friend to the whole o utgroup, the typicality of both the ingroup exemplar and the outgroup frien d was enhanced. Intergroup attitudes were measured before and after the exp erimental intervention. A scale score measuring intergroup tolerance showed stability or favourable changes in experimental schools, while attitudes w orsened or stayed the same in the cona ol schools. The experimental effect was significant in four statistical tests (p < 0.001 to p < 0.05). The resu lts show that tolerance can be improved or maintained by extended contact, i.e. peer modelling of positive intergroup contacts. Copyright (C) 1999 Joh n Wiley & Sons, Ltd.