Improving Intergroup Relationships Within and Outside the Contact Situation: The Role of Common Ingroup Identity and Emotions of Empathy and Anxiety

We proposed a model which explains the processes leading from contact to improved relationships with known and unknown outgroup members. The aim was to test the basic propositions of the common ingroup identity model by acknowledging the importance of emotions for the generalization of contact effects. We predicted that: (a) one-group identity would act as a mediator between contact and emotions (anxiety, empathy) felt for known outgroup members; (b) emotions toward known outgroup members would allow generalization to the whole outgroup. To test these hypotheses, a study was performed by considering working contexts. Participants were Italian nurses and Italian workers. The outgroup was the category of immigrants. Results generally supported predictions. The theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.