The Contact Hypothesis: Social and Economic Contact and Generational Changes in the Study of Black Anti-Semitism

Abstract

Studies indicate that respondents experiencing equal-status contact across ethnic lines are more likely to hold tolerant attitudes toward minorities than those not having been exposed to such interaction. This paper extends the research on this proposition in three ways. We examine: (1) responses of blacks reporting equal-status contact with Jews; (2) effects of equal-status contact compared with other types of reported associations with Jews such as perceived economic mistreatment; and (3) possible trends in the shifting effects of both types of reported contact over time. The findings indicate strong support for the contact hypothesis, particularly when equal-status contact is intimate and occurs in a noninstitutional setting. On the other hand, they show that perceived economic mistreatment is strongly related to heightened antipathy toward Jews. When the two types of reported contacts are compared for their predictive effects, the economic variable exerts by far the greater influence of the two. Last, we examine trends in the changing effects of these two types of reported contact on anti-Semitism. We observed two patterns. First, the younger generation of blacks exhibits a weaker inverse relationship between intimate, equal-status contact and anti-Semitism than older cohorts. Second, the positive association between perceived economic mistreatment and the dependent variable increases with each younger generation. These findings suggest that there are generational changes taking place in black-white relations.