Creating positive out-group attitudes through intergroup couple friendships and implications for compassionate love. (August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Welker, Keith M.; Slatcher, Richard B.; Baker, Lynzey; Aron, Arthur
• Other Names: Sprecher Susan guest-editor.; Mikulincer Mario guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of social and personal relationships. Volume 31:Number 5(2014)
• Page Start: 706
• Page End: 725
• Publication Date: 2014-08
• Subjects: Attitudes -- closeness -- couples -- friendship -- intergroup relations -- prejudice -- romantic relationships; Interpersonal relations -- Periodicals; Social interaction -- Periodicals; 302.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0265407514522369
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0265-4075

Abstract

Building personal relationships with out-group members is an important catalyst of positive intergroup attitudes. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, Caucasian and African American individuals and couples were randomly assigned to interact in either cross-race or same-race individual dyads and couple pairs. Participants completed pretest measures of race attitudes and engaged in a high self-disclosure closeness-induction task with an in-group or out-group race member in pairs of couples or individuals and completed measures of self-disclosure and intergroup attitudes. These results suggest that intergroup contact in the presence of romantic partners may be particularly effective for improving intergroup attitudes. We explore the implications of these results for developing compassionate love toward out-groups.