Disentangling contact and socialization effects on outgroup attitudes in diverse friendship networks.

What is it about?

How do friendships shape adolescents’ attitudes towards other ethnic groups? To answer this question, we conducted a longitudinal social network study in two UK schools. We found that the more friendships students had with members of a different ethnic group, the more positive their attitudes towards other ethnic groups. Furthermore, we examined whether students’ attitudes were influenced by their friends’ attitudes, and we found that this was the case for same-ethnicity friends: over time, same-ethnicity friends became more similar in their attitudes towards other ethnic groups. This was the most important predictor of students’ attitudes. Thus our findings indicate that, even in diverse environments, adolescents rely primarily on friends from their own ethnic group to inform their attitudes towards other ethnic groups.

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Photo by Levi Guzman on Unsplash

Photo by Levi Guzman on Unsplash