Authorities impact intergroup contact intentions

Two studies examined the impact of authoritys positions on intentions for inter-group contact. In Study 1, a conjoint experiment with 1000 participants revealed that discouragement from government, business and church authorities strongly decreased intentions for contact with immigrants. Conversely, encouragement had a positive but weaker effect. Additionally, indirect support signaled by policies supportive versus non-supportive of immigrants increased contact intentions. Study 2, a natural field experiment with a large dataset (N = 12,489), demonstrated that the entry of a far-right party into the German federal parliament reduced majority Germans' intentions for intergroup contact with refugees. Overall, these findings underscore the crucial role of authorities in shaping intergroup contact intentions and emphasize their importance in psychological research on prejudice.