Depersonalized extended contact and injunctive norms about cross-group friendship impact intergroup orientations

Five experiments examine the interactive power of descriptive and injunctive norms regarding intergroup friendships on the effects of extended contact - knowing ingroup members having outgroup friends - on intergroup orientations. We propose that the positive effect of extended contact can occur even when the ingroup members having outgroup friends are unknown to the individual who becomes aware of such contact - depersonalized extended contact. However, to be effective depersonalized extended contact requires ingroup normative support. We tested this prediction by providing participants with information about the number of ingroup members (Spaniards) who have outgroup (immigrants) friends -descriptive norms - and the normative support for cross-group friendship -injunctive norms. Three experiments tested how different levels of depersonalized extended contact (none vs. low vs. high), consensus regarding norms about cross-group friendship (low vs. high), and the source of such norms (ingroup vs. outgroup) impact intergroup orientations. Even low levels of depersonalized extended contact had positive effects on intergroup orientations, when there was normative support for cross-group friendship from the ingroup, but not from the outgroup. Two additional experiments extended these effects to a behavioral outcome, and showed that the positive effect of ingroup injunctive norms was mediated by the enhanced belief that outgroup members had a genuine interest in intergroup contact (integrative motives). However, the lack of effect of outgroup injunctive norms was mediated by the suspicion that outgroup members held utilitarian motives for contact. Implications of these findings for improving intergroup relations through depersonalized extended contact and injunctive normative influence are discussed.