Effects of contact and personality on intergroup attitudes of different professionals

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of intergroup contact, per sonality, and demographic characteristics on the intergroup attitudes of po lice officers, medical doctors and nurses (N = 421; 274 females, 147 males) . Following the contact hypothesis, intergroup contact in and of itself was not expected to be sufficient for reducing intergroup prejudice, especiall y in unequal contacts between professionals and their clients. It was argue d that the quality of contact required for the improvement of intergroup at titudes is not equal status or emotional closeness of the participants, but rather that of individuation and familiarity of the outgroup member. The r esults showed that both level of authoritarianism and individuation of an o utgroup member affected intergroup attitudes across all types of contact. F or authoritarianism, this result did not hold separately for males, but the individuation effect was very stable; those who knew an outgroup member on ly superficially held more negative intergroup attitudes than those who kne w him or her well, even in unequal and non-voluntary contacts, and even whe n controlling for authoritarianism, gender, education and professional fiel d. The effect was non-significant in voluntary contacts. No differences in intergroup attitudes were found between males and females or between the pr ofessional groups among males after controlling for authoritarianism. Copyr ight (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.