Perceived outgroup entitativity mediates stronger effects of intergroup contact for majority than minority status groups

Abstract

Positive intergroup contact reduces prejudice. However, the strength of intergroup contact effects is typically weaker for members of minority as compared to majority groups. Research on perceived outgroup entitativity (i.e., the extent to which an aggregate of people is perceived as a unified whole) has shown that minority group members perceive the majority outgroup as less entitative, while majority group members perceive the outgroup minority as comparatively more entitative. Moreover, there is evidence that people generalize the effects of intergroup contact from a single outgroup member to the outgroup as a whole more strongly when they perceive outgroups as more (versus less) entitative. We integrate these different lines of research and propose that the difference in the strength of intergroup contact effects between numerical majorities and minorities may be explained, in part, by differences in perceived outgroup entitativity. We conducted two preregistered experiments using a minimal group paradigm (N₁ = 347, N₂ = 396) in which we manipulated numerical majority-minority group status (Study 1 and 2) as well as outgroup entitativity (Study 2). In Study 2, we applied a parallel design combining measurement of the mediation and manipulation of the mediator to provide stronger evidence for a causal process. The results were in line with our hypotheses: perceived outgroup entitativity mediated the differential effect of intergroup contact for numerical majority versus minority groups. Implications for future research are discussed, including the need to investigate whether entitativity explains differences in intergroup contact effects among various real-life groups.