Conditions of Conflict: Community Ethnic Composition, Prejudice, and the Role of Segregation for Contact/Threat Processes

• In Event: 099 - Regular Session. Bringing Sociology's 'Community Question' Back to the 21st Century City

Abstract

Extensive research has explored how the size of the ethnic out-group population in an environment affects inter-group attitudes. Drawing on the threat and contact hypotheses, this study develops and tests a framework integrating segregation into this debate. Conceiving of the size of out-group and its level of segregation as (largely) independent characteristics of a community, we suggest it is the intersection of high exposure and high segregation that is problematic for inter-group relations. Using a sample of white British individuals in England, we observe that community segregation moderates the association between community percent non-white British and: prejudice, inter-group contact and (perceived) inter-group threat. It is only residents living amongst large out-group populations in segregated communities who evince higher prejudice (residents experiencing high-exposure in integrated communities remain unaffected). This can be accounted for by both lower inter-group contact and higher perceived-threat. This demonstrates the importance of accounting for segregation alongside community out-group size in studies examining the spatial drivers of prejudice. Processes of contact and threat appear conditional on both out-group size and how segregated groups are from one another, generating key differences in how out-group exposure affects inter-group relations.

Authors

• James Laurence, Manchester University

• Katharina Schmid, University of Oxford

• Miles Hewstone, Oxford University