ABSTRACT
One of the most critical aims of social psychological science is to inform practical solutions to pressing social problems, many of which are associated with tensions between groups in society (Demoulin, Leyens, & Dovidio, 2009). Among the most studied interventions for ameliorating tension between groups is intergroup contact (Allport, 1954; Dovidio, Gaertner, & Kawakami, 2003; Paluck & Green, 2009; Pettigrew, 1998). The central notion in contact theory is that intergroup bias can be substantially reduced via positive encounters between members of different groups. Decades of research within the framework of intergroup contact have focused on the processes that are responsible for the effects of contact on attitudes, and on the underlying principles of what constitutes a “positive”, or optimal, encounter (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). A central element that emerges from this work is that in order for contact to be effective, it needs to give rise to a sense of common identity, shared by members of both groups. This intuitive notion dates back to classic works of Allport (1954) and Sherif, Harvey, White, Hood and Sherif (1961), and was systematically investigated under the framework of processes associated with categorization (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2010). This chapter is devoted to this notion of commonality as means to create better intergroup relations.
