Helping versus being helped: which is more effective for the generalization part of Allport's contact hypothesis?

Abstract

Participants in previous studies of the contact hypothesis adopted less negative attitudes toward an entire social group after a reciprocal helping interaction with one member of that group but only when they perceived the group member as typical. The present hypothesis was that these results occurred because of different attributions for the typical versus atypical helper to the group as a whole. Typicality effects were predicted to apply to being helped, which elicits attributions about the helper, but not when the participant helped, which elicits attributions about the self. In the current study, one group of participants helped and was predicted to positively change their attitude toward both the typical and atypical group member (a confederate). Two other groups of participants were either helped or reciprocated helping and were predicted to positively change their attitude toward only the typical member. The fourth group of participants studied in the same room with the confederate but did not interact with him. No attitude change was predicted for this control group. The typicality manipulation failed and differences in pre-liking ratings existed. An unpredicted pattern of attitude change occurred that might be the result of these problems. Possible shortcomings of the methodology are examined and recommendations for future research are discussed.