Professor Miles Hewstone and his group have been awarded a large grant to investigate intergroup conflict, from the Economic and Social Research Council. The grant involves coordinating with research partners in three countries.
While positive intergroup contact has been shown to reduce prejudice, negative contact has the potential to worsen intergroup relations. The grant aims to investigate the interaction between positive and negative contact, especially in diverse settings where individuals are frequently exposed to both types of contact. The grant aims to reveal the consequences of the interaction between positive and negative contact, and will have implications for public policy.
In other news, the group have been funded from the Department for Education for two months to analyse, using existing data sets, the impact of segregation vs mixing in schools and the impact of merging segregated schools, with a focus on the role of intergroup contact in improving out-group attitudes and trust.