Although intergroup contact is one of the most prominent interventions to reduce prejudice, the generalization of contact effects is still a contentious issue. This research further examined the rarely studied secondary transfer effect (STE; Pettigrew, 2009), by which contact with a primary outgroup reduces prejudice toward secondary groups that are not directly involved in the contact. Across 3 cross-sectional studies conducted in Cyprus (N = 1,653), Northern Ireland (N = 1,973), and Texas (N = 275) and 1 longitudinal study conducted in Northern Ireland (N = 411), the present research sought to systematically rule out alternative accounts of the STE and to investigate 2 potential mediating mechanisms (ingroup reappraisal and attitude generalization). Results indicated that, consistent with the STE, contact with a primary outgroup predicts attitudes toward secondary outgroups, over and above contact with the secondary outgroup, socially desirable responding, and prior attitudes. Mediation analyses found strong evidence for attitude generalization but only limited evidence for ingroup reappraisal as an underlying process. Two out of 3 tests of a reverse model, where contact with the secondary outgroup predicts attitudes toward the primary outgroup, provide further evidence for an indirect effect through attitude generalization. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed, and directions for future research are identified.

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Secondary transfer effects of intergroup contact: Alternative accounts and underlying processes.

Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City

The purpose of this paper is to identify a philosophy for ethnography which could overcome some of the epistemological criticisms to which it has recently been subjected, notably by Martin Hammersley (1990, 1992). It is argued that Roy Bhaskar's (1989a) theory of critical realism is capable of solving many of the problems raised in relation to representational claims, theoretical focus and explanatory status. A substantive example of how critical realist ethnography can be used is given in a participant observation study of how racism affects occupational relationships between nurses and doctors, and how its effects are mediated by professional ideology. It is argued that the universalist-achievement ethos of professionalism tends to counter the ascriptive nature of racism. Thus, as long as a functional-specific pretext is unavailable, the effects of structural racism will remain latent in social situations where professionalism has a powerful influence.

Critical Realist Ethnography: The Case of Racism and Professionalism in a Medical Setting

A controversial claim that diversity has negative consequences for trust and other outcomes spawned a contentious debate in sociology and political science, but was hardly noted in social psychology. I summarize the debate, and argue that the efficacy of direct, face-to-face intergroup contact as a means of reducing prejudice is a stark omission, as I illustrate with evidence of the association between diversity, on the one hand, and trust, prejudice, and social capital on the other. I also consider two other contributions of contact theory to this issue, namely that contact with members of one group has an impact on attitudes toward members of other groups; and that contact should be studied via social networks. Despite the importance I attach to contact, I note two “enemies of contact,” resegregation in ostensibly desegregated settings, and negatively valenced contact. Finally, I point to the kind of research we should do, in order to increase the impact of our work on the public policy debate on this issue.

Consequences of Diversity for Social Cohesion and Prejudice: The Missing Dimension of Intergroup Contact

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After optimism?: ireland, racism and globalisation.

This article addresses the nature of contemporary racism and sectarianism in Northern Ireland in the context of the Good Friday Agreement and its outworking. The article responds to the increasing dominance of the ‘good relations’ model for understanding and addressing race and sectarian division in Northern Ireland. It debunks the gathering support for the notion that Northern Ireland is somehow ‘post-sectarian’ - finding instead a state formation hiding its incapacity to address rising racism and sectarianism with the fig leaf of ‘good relations’. It locates these key developments in the specific new formation of the statelet which has emerged from the GFA.

From Good Friday to Good Relations: Sectarianism, Racism and the Northern Ireland State

This article addresses the nature of contemporary racism and sectarianism in Northern Ireland in the context of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and its outworking. It responds to the increasing dom...

From Good Friday to Good Relations: sectarianism, racism and the Northern Ireland state

The specificity of Irish racism

Taking Norbert Elias’ work on the concept of civilisation as their cue, the authors explore the long history of the ‘civilising process’ in Ireland, showing how a dichotomy between the civilised and the barbarians is central to English colonialism there Examining comparative examples such as the colonisation of North America and Australia, justifications of the violence of the colonisers are surveyed to show their reliance on the idea of civilising a racially inferior people That inferiority can be demonstrated, in different contexts, by a nomadic lifestyle, a lack of industriousness or a different religion ‘Civilisation’, it is argued, is the process of rendering colonial subjects fit for purpose, first by transforming resistance into subjecthood and, finally, recruiting ‘natives’ as actively co-opted citizens This process is examined in depth in the Irish context, with particular focus on the early conquest, the seventeenth-century Plantations and the eighteenth-century Famine The symbolic ritual humiliation that continues to be imposed on nationalists in Northern Ireland – for example, compulsory poppy-wearing – shows that the Irish are still required to prove their ‘civilisation’

Civilising the Irish

In 1971 British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling suggested that the situation in Northern Ireland amounted to ‘an acceptable level of violence’. During ‘the Troubles’ this became the de facto secur...

Robbie McVeigh

Papers

From Good Friday to Good Relations: Sectarianism, Racism and the Northern Ireland State

From Good Friday to Good Relations: sectarianism, racism and the Northern Ireland state

The specificity of Irish racism

Civilising the Irish

Living the peace process in reverse: racist violence and British nationalism in Northern Ireland: