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As European majority members are often hostile toward ethnic minorities, it is important to identify sources that reduce opposition to immigrants. First, focusing on Denmark, this article examines whether intergroup contact influences attitudes toward ethnic minority rights (henceforth: 'ethnic tolerance'). Second, this study tests whether the contact‐tolerance relationship is mediated by self‐disclosure and symbolic threat. Furthermore, contact is measured as workplace contact in order to reduce self‐selection biases. The empirical tests are performed on a Danish high‐quality national probability sample from 2009 (N = 1,929). Analysis shows that intergroup contact generates ethnic tolerance because workplace contact weakens threat perceptions and stimulates disclosure of personal information. Generally, these results suggest that regular intergroup contact can improve ethnic relations in contemporary democracies.

Some people have consistently positive attitudes toward ethnic minority members in every respect. Sniderman and Hagendoorn (2007) characterize these individuals as "pure liberals." Because of limited empirical evidence on the characteristics of this category of majority members, the consistency thesis, claiming that pure liberals have no negative reactions toward Muslims, remains contentious. Accordingly, we introduce a new idea – the inconsistency hypothesis – claiming that pure liberals' commitment to greater ethnic diversity may not convert into unprejudiced reactions toward Muslim minority members. To test our inconsistency hypothesis, we fielded a survey in 2018 that also included a so-called list experiment among 716 Danish university students. The list experiment was designed to measure prejudice toward Muslims. Our analyses of the survey's observational data revealed that pure liberals supported the general idea of greater diversity and remained positive toward ethnic minorities. However, and unlike previous research, the list experiment showed that around 34 percent of pure liberals in the survey were prejudiced toward Muslims. When we combine the observational and experimental evidence, it appears that many pure liberals had inconsistent attitudes: around a third of pure liberals combined support for the general idea of a multiethnic society with prejudice toward Muslims. Our inconsistency hypothesis contributes to literatures on liberal orientations and prejudice toward Muslims: Many liberals are not liberals, and prejudice is surprisingly powerful. The conclusion emphasizes the role of self-interest and distinct values as drivers of prejudice among the strongest advocates of a multiethnic society.

Socialization theory claims that the ability of education to reduce anti-foreigner sentiment varies cross-nationally because state authorities are not equally committed to accepting ethnic minorities: higher educated persons harbor less anti-foreigner sentiment because they spend longer in educational institutions that impose official democratic values, which forbid negative reactions toward ethnic minorities. Consequently, higher educated persons ought to diverge from the lower educated as democratic institutions progress. Analyses support these claims: the impact of education on reducing anti-foreigner sentiment is strongest in the oldest democracies, moderate among the medium-aged (e.g., South European) democracies and weakest among the youngest (East European) democracies; and higher educated persons are disproportionately influenced by the maturation of democratic institutions. Analyses utilize data from the 28-country 2008 European Social Survey.

Socialpsykologer forfægter den såkaldte kontakthypotese, hvis påstand er, at majoritetsmedlemmer bliver mere imødekommende over for etniske minoritetsmedlemmer, når de kommer i personlig kontakt med dem. Denne hypotese efterprøves på baggrund af den mest omfattende danske spørgeskemaundersøgelse nogensinde vedrørende dette emne (N = 1.928). I modsætning til tidligere internationale undersøgelser, hvori betydningen af venskaber mellem etniske grupper understreges, fremhæver denne artikel betydningen af kontakt mellem majoritetsmedlemmer og minoritetsmedlemmer i nabolaget og på arbejdspladsen. Disse to typer kontakt tilvejebringer en mere overbevisende test af kontakthypotesen, eftersom de rummer mindre selvselektion. Naboskab og kontakt på arbejdspladsen dækker samtidig langt flere sociale relationer end venskaber, som primært vedrører en snæver privatsfære. Artiklen bidrager til den socialpsykologiske litteratur om kontakteffekter med tre hovedkonklusioner. For det første rummer kontakt i nabolaget og på arbejdspladsen mere meningsfuld samtale, end fagfolk hidtil har antaget. For det andet øger begge former for kontakt den etniske tolerance. For det tredje er det samtale og meningsudvekslinger, som delvis forklarer, hvorfor kontakt gør majoritetsmedlemmer mere tolerante over for minoritetsmedlemmer.


ENGELSK ABSTRACT:

Arzoo Rafiqi and Jens Peter Frølund 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.