ABSTRACT
Key words: contact hypothesis, intergroup contact, intergroup relations, prejudice reduction, social change
Having read the previous chapters of this book, the reader will appreciate how far contact research has progressed since this classic formulation of the “contact hypo - thesis”. Nowadays, our ideas about what counts as “contact”, the conditions under which it is successful, and how and why it promotes psychological change have all developed well beyond the simple formulation proposed by Gordon Allport more than half a century ago. Indeed, as Hewstone and Swart (2011) observe, knowledge has grown to the extent that contact hypothesis is perhaps now better described as a fully-fledged theory. It is a theory that is widely acknowledged as one of social psychology’s most important and enduring contributions to the project of improving relations between groups.
