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Social cure processes help lower intergroup anxiety among neighbourhood residents
Version 2 2023-06-07, 08:44
Version 1 2023-06-07, 06:52
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 08:44 authored by Clifford Stevenson, Sebastiano Costa, Matthew EasterbrookMatthew Easterbrook, Niamh McNamara, Blerina KelleziResearch in the social cure tradition shows that groups can reduce members' stress by providing support to cope with challenges, but it has yet to consider how this applies to the anxiety occasioned by outgroups. Research on intergroup contact has extensively examined how reducing intergroup anxiety improves attitudes towards outgroups, but it has yet to examine the role of intragroup support processes in facilitating this. The present article takes the case of residential contact, in which the impact of diversification upon neighborhood cohesion is hotly debated, but the role of neighborhood identification and social support from neighbors in facilitating residential mixing has been largely ignored. Our surveys of two geographically bounded communities in England (n = 310; n = 94) and one in Northern Ireland (n = 206) show that neighborhood identification predicts both well-being and more positive feelings towards outgroups, with both effects occurring via increased intragroup support. In studies 2 and 3, we show that this positive effect on feelings towards the outgroup occurs independently of that of intergroup contact and is further explained by the effect of neighborhood support in reducing intergroup anxiety. This suggests that social cure processes can improve intergroup attitudes by supporting group members to deal with the stress of intergroup interactions.
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Publication status
- Published
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- Published version
Journal
Political PsychologyISSN
0162-895XPublisher
WileyExternal DOI
Page range
1-19Department affiliated with
- Psychology Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2020-04-27First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-06-19First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-04-24Usage metrics
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