Effect of Contact on intercultural Acceptance: A Field Study

A field study was conducted to assess the effect of an intervention designed to promote contact between international and Australian students in an Australian university residential hall on their subsequent intercultural contact with, and acceptance of, unfamiliar outgroup members. In addition, the research was designed to assess the extent to which three variables (i.e. cultural stereotypes, cultural knowledge, and cultural openness) mediated the effect of intercultural contact. Seventy-six Australian and international students in one residential hall (vs 71 Australian and international students in a control residential hall) experienced an intervention designed to promote intercultural contact over a 7 month period. The results revealed considerable support for the intercultural contact hypothesis - the pattern of residential hall contact tended to impact directly upon the dependent measures. However, the results also indicated that the intervention impacted differentially upon the responses of the Australian and international students and that the most plausible explanation for this effect related to the students' intercultural knowledge and openness. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.