“Contact is effective – but doesn’t just happen on its own”

How can we strengthen social cohesion? Social psychology has a clear answer to this: through contact between different social groups. But it’s not quite that straightforward. Research on intergroup contact still raises many questions – for example: How do you establish contact in the first place? What kind of people come into contact? And under what circumstances do we avoid contact? To promote research in this area, psychologists from around the world gathered in Hamburg in 2024 at a small group conference. The conference was organized by Prof. Dr. Oliver Christ (FernUniversität in Hagen), his colleague Dr. Maria-Therese Friehs and Prof. Dr. Mathias Kauff (Medical School Hamburg). The European Association of Social Psychology and the participating universities sponsored the international meeting.

The small group conference was designed to foster collaboration, not competition – experts work together to generate and refine innovative research ideas. “It’s a conscious move away from traditional conference formats which are all about simply presenting the current state of research,” explains Therese Friehs. “Instead, we were focusing on developing new research topics with an eye to the future.” With this in mind, the psychologists created five working groups and set to work.

The teamwork is already bearing fruit: The journal “Nature Reviews Psychology” has now published an article written by one of the research groups. Its authors review previous research on seeking and avoiding contact (see info box). “We used literature synthesis to also incorporate the results of our conference,” explains Friehs, who was one of the article’s authors.

Historical Classification

Psychologists have long held an interest in the phenomenon of how contact is made: “Contact research originated primarily from the USA; from the times of segregation between Black and White Americans,” says Therese Friehs. Initially, racial segregation was only abolished in certain places, for example where circumstances forced people to collaborate without holding up traditional lines of segregation – such as among soldiers in the Second World War or workmen in the coal mining industry. Later, this opening up of society became more widespread, for example being applied to schools in 1954. “This is where contact research originated.” Instead of trying to avoid conflicts through strict separation, groups are brought together on the assumption that this will improve relationships. “I realize that my counterpart is also a human being – just like me,” Friehs points out. Researchers recognized: “Contact is effective! And that’s a good thing for society.”

New Publication Takes a Look at the Bigger Picture

Based on this insight, social psychology is now interested in looking into deeper questions. “Up to now, we have mainly seen contact as the influence that changes things,” says Friehs. “But we have rarely looked at how contact actually occurs, why it is avoided or which kinds of people have more or less contact.” She believes it is important to explore these questions. “After all, we live in such a multicultural world where we have so much potential for contact, so there really shouldn’t be any prejudice anymore, should there?” Friehs’ own assessment of the situation, however, is sober: “That is clearly not the case. Even in areas with a very high level of diversity, we still observe prejudice, stereotypes and tensions between groups.”

Results of the Study

What findings are presented in the current publication? “We need to forget the idea that contact is something that just happens,” says Friehs. “Especially in longitudinal analyses, we often see that there is little change here. This means we need to identify phases in which there are changes in contact behavior. These could be ruptures of everyday routines, such as moving house, changing schools, starting university or becoming a parent. It is at times like these that the team sees great potential for new encounters. “These are opportunities to escape from your own ‘daily grind’ and to meet new people.”

Force of Habit(s)

The team is pinning its hopes above all on habit research. To illustrate this, Friehs uses the example of brushing teeth: “It’s a daily habit that requires little mental effort on our part. It’s part of our daily routine. But anyone with young children knows how difficult it is to learn this.” The team of authors suspects that contact might work in much the same way in everyday life: “The bus I take every day, my regular seat in the canteen, the bench in the playground – these are opportunities that allow people to have a certain level of contact with others.” It is challenging to bring about changes in these areas that would lead to increased levels of contact. That makes this an important starting point for current research.

The new publication is just the beginning; the newly formed team is staying on the ball and wants to find out more. One thing is already clear: The contact between the various international scientists was a success.