Research published

Tom Nijs and Tobias Stark published a paper on the Effect of Contact with Dual Identifier Friends on Interethnic Attitudes in the European Journal of Social Psychology.

The intergroup contact literature has traditionally examined interactions as being between clearly defined, mutually exclusive groups. Yet in Western societies, descendants of immigrants often identify both with their (grand)parents’ ethnicity and with the national majority in the country of residence. We examined whether contact through friendship with such dual identifiers is associated with more positive outgroup attitudes. We used cross-sectional data from native Dutch adults (N₁=598), longitudinal school data from native German and Turkish ethnic minority students (N₂=1,486), and cross-sectional school data from native Dutch students (N₃=890). Among natives, having dual identifier friends was associated with more positive attitudes toward ethnic minorities, whereas having mono-identifying outgroup friends was not. The association was stronger when participants categorized their friends as dual identifiers than when friends self-identified as such. As dual identifiers are widespread in Western societies, these findings are particularly promising for fostering more positive intergroup relations.