ABSTRACT
Within the context of the contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954; Cook, 1984), researchers have identified a range of independent factors in intergroup situations, such as equal status, personal interaction, cooperative interdependence, and supportive norms, that are critical for reducing bias and conflict. Recent approaches to reducing intergroup bias have extended this work by focusing on potentially unifying frameworks involving fundamental cognitive, affective, and social processes (Brewer & Miller, 1984; Miller, Brewer, & Edwards, 1985; Stephan & Stephan, 1984, 1985). One such approach is the Common Ingroup Identity Model (Gaertner, Dovidio, Anastasio, Bachman, & Rust, 1993), a guiding framework in the present chapter that is based on the social categorization perspective of intergroup behavior (Brewer, 1979; Brown & Turner, 1981; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). The model proposes that intergroup bias and conflict can be reduced by influencing the ways in which group members conceive of group boundaries.
