Når majoritetsmedlemmer og etniske minoritetsmedlemmer mødes

Abstract

Socialpsykologer forfaegter den sakaldte kontakthypotese, hvis pastand er, at majoritetsmedlemmer bliver mere imodekommende over for etniske minoritetsmedlemmer, nar de kommer i personlig kontakt med dem. Denne hypotese efterproves pa baggrund af den mest omfattende danske sporgeskemaundersogelse nogensinde vedrorende dette emne (N = 1.928). I modsaetning til tidligere internationale undersogelser, hvori betydningen af venskaber mellem etniske grupper understreges, fremhaever denne artikel betydningen af kontakt mellem majoritetsmedlemmer og minoritetsmedlemmer i nabolaget og pa arbejdspladsen. Disse to typer kontakt tilvejebringer en mere overbevisende test af kontakthypotesen, eftersom de rummer mindre selvselektion. Naboskab og kontakt pa arbejdspladsen daekker samtidig langt flere sociale relationer end venskaber, som primaert vedrorer en snaever privatsfaere. Artiklen bidrager til den socialpsykologiske litteratur om kontakteffekter med tre hovedkonklusioner. For det forste rummer kontakt i nabolaget og pa arbejdspladsen mere meningsfuld samtale, end fagfolk hidtil har antaget. For det andet oger begge former for kontakt den etniske tolerance. For det tredje er det samtale og meningsudvekslinger, som delvis forklarer, hvorfor kontakt gor majoritetsmedlemmer mere tolerante over for minoritetsmedlemmer. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Arzoo Rafiqi and Jens Peter Frolund Thomsen: When the Ethnic Majority Meets Ethnic Minority Members This paper examines the so-called intergroup contact hypothesis by redirecting focus away from the friendship measure preferred by social psychologists. Although theoretically important, the friendship measure is infected by self-selection biases, and its social coverage is too limited, at least in a European context. Instead, this paper focuses on workplace contact and residential contact. It examines how these relate to ethnic tolerance, as reflected in support for various rights of ethnic minority members. These two types of intergroup contact provide a stronger test of the key hypothesis (contact has a positive influence on tolerance) as they do not meet all the ideal conditions. The analysis shows that although residential contact and workplace contact are more superficial (in terms of self-disclosure), they are both positively related to ethnic tolerance. In fact, both types of contact are as strongly related to ethnic tolerance as intimate cross-group friendship. We conclude that intergroup contact effects are robust as they are capable of occurring in unfavorable circumstances. The analyses are performed on the basis of a Danish national probability sample from 2009. Keywords: intergroup contact, ethnic tolerance, cross-group friendship, residential contact, workplace contact.