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Contact Hypothesis (contact + hypothesis)
Selected AbstractsThe Italian Banking Structure in the 1990s: Testing the Multimarket Contact HypothesisECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 2 2000Riccardo De Bonis The multimarket contact hypothesis holds that more contacts between firms competing in the same markets may induce more collusion. This paper tests the hypothesis for the Italian banking market, analysing the behaviour of the largest Italian banks from 1990 to 1996. Market rivalry is gauged by changes in loan market shares and interest rates in each Italian province. We estimate the effects of increasing multimarket contacts, concentration indicators, banks' costs and loan demand on variations in market shares and interest rates. No support is found for the multimarket contact hypothesis. Geographical overlap in banking is positively correlated with changes in market shares, confirming the thesis of an overall increase in competition within the Italian banking system. Greater multimarket links also seem to correspond to lower lending rates. (J.E.L.:G21, C33, L40.) [source] DOES DIVERSITY IN URBAN SPACE ENHANCE INTERGROUP CONTACT AND TOLERANCE?GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2009Terje Wessel ABSTRACT. Contemporary urban theory has started to question the elevation of diversity as a panacea for enduring urban problems , segregation, prejudice and intergroup hostility. This critique coincides with an opposite tendency within classic contact theory and research. The latter tradition has developed an increasing enthusiasm for face-to-face interaction. The contact hypothesis, which presupposes established contact, has received conclusive support independent of target groups and contact settings. Research on ,lived diversity', which includes both contact and lack of contact, offers two supplementary insights. It shows, on the one hand, that boundaries are inscribed in social spaces. Physical proximity between ethnic and social groups tends to have a minor effect on interaction. Interaction, on the other hand, is not essential to attitude formation. Both subfields within contact research have confirmed that urban space may act as a catalyst for tolerant attitudes. This observation corresponds with increasing recognition of affective states, such as empathy, anxiety and group threat. Contact research has therefore, in summary, transcended the scope of the contact hypothesis. It has expanded into the realm of urban theory, which foreshadows future collaboration between the two traditions. Some key points for such exchange are suggested at the end of the article. Future research should combine an open-ended approach to casual contact with a diversified conception of diversity and a richer conception of urban space. A move in this direction would leave substantial space for geographical research. [source] Points of View, Social Positioning and Intercultural RelationsJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2010GORDON SAMMUT The challenge of intercultural relations has become an important issue in many societies. In spite of the claimed value of intercultural diversity, successful outcomes as predicted by the contact hypothesis are but one possibility; on occasions intercultural contact leads to intolerance and hostility. Research has documented that one key mediator of contact is perspective taking. Differences in perspective are significant in shaping perceptions of contact and reactions to it. The ability to take the perspective of the other and to understand it in its own terms is a necessary condition for successful intergroup outcomes. This paper sheds light on the processes involved in intercultural perspective taking by elaborating the notion of the point of view based on social representations theory. The point of view provides a theory of social positioning that can analyse cultural encounters between social actors, and identify the conditions for positive relations. Insights are drawn from a study of public views on the relative merits of science and religion, following a documentary by Richard Dawkins in which it was suggested that religion is a source of evil. The findings demonstrate that the point of view may be categorised according to a three-way taxonomy according to the extent to which it is open to another perspective. A point of view may be monological,closed to another's perspective entirely, dialogical,open to the possibility of another perspective while maintaining some percepts as unchallengeable, or metalogical,open to another's perspective based on the other's frame of reference. [source] Intergroup contact in Romania: When minority size is positively related to intergroup conflictJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Vasile Cernat Abstract Contexts in which minority size is positively related to intergroup conflict are challenging for the contact hypothesis. In such situations, if opportunities for contact increase prejudice, the contact hypothesis may seem less credible, but if they reduce prejudice, the contact hypothesis may seem less useful for improving intergroup relations. Based on path analyses run on a Romanian national probability sample (N,=,733), the current research shows that the contact hypothesis can nevertheless be relevant. Because the Hungarian minority is concentrated in Transylvania, a region with a long history of conflict between Romanians and Hungarians, Transylvanians have more opportunities for out-group contact than other Romanians. However, the analyses also detected significant differences within Transylvania: Urban Transylvanians have more opportunities for contact with Hungarians than rural Transylvanians and, consequently, are less negative towards them. The results, which closely match recent historical events, suggest that a proper application of the contact hypothesis at a societal level has to take into account that minority size is not necessarily equivalent to opportunities for contact and that inter-regional comparisons in opportunities for contact can hide significant intra-regional differences. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Child disability case studies: an interprofessional learning opportunity for medical students and paediatric nursing studentsMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 8 2007Karen N Street Context, We describe an interprofessional learning (IPL) opportunity for pre-qualification medical and paediatric nursing students using community-based case studies of disabled children and their families. Methods, A total of 160 students were randomly allocated into interprofessional and uniprofessional pairs. Each pair visited a disabled child at home and school and presented their experience to the rest of the group. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods were used to explore the learning experience. Data collection tools included a scale measuring attitudes towards IPL, which was completed by all students before and after their visits and focus groups. Results, The value of the community setting and independent working of the case study was appreciated by the students. The intimacy involved in working in IP pairs demonstrated both positive and negative features. Nursing students showed more open and positive attitudes towards IPL than medical students. Nursing students in IP pairs appear to have benefited most from the exercise, notably in terms of confidence and self-esteem. Professional differences in communication skills and approach were identified as particular learning points for all students. Conclusions, The added value of combining quantitative and qualitative research methods is well demonstrated by this study. Learning opportunities from the case study were greater as a result of working interprofessionally. Student attitudes towards IPL and professional stereotyping changed as a result of this IPL exercise. The importance of the social context of learning and the contact hypothesis are supported by our findings. [source] Does Truth Lead to Reconciliation?AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2004Reconciliation Process, Testing the Causal Assumptions of the South African Truth Throughout the world, truth commissions have been created under the assumption that getting people to understand the past will somehow contribute to reconciliation between those who were enemies under the ancien regime. In South Africa, the truth and reconciliation process is explicitly based on the hypothesis that knowledge of the past will lead to acceptance, tolerance, and reconciliation in the future. My purpose here is to test that hypothesis, based on data collected in a 2001 survey of over 3,700 South Africans. My most important finding is that those who accept the "truth" about the country's apartheid past are more likely to hold reconciled racial attitudes. Racial reconciliation also depends to a considerable degree on interracial contact, evidence that adds weight to the "contact hypothesis" investigated by western social scientists. Ultimately, these findings are hopeful for South Africa's democratic transition, since racial attitudes seem not to be intransigent. [source] A phylogeographic analysis of southern and eastern populations of the Australian magpie: evidence for selection in maintenance of the distribution of two plumage morphsBIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 1 2001J. M. HUGHES The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is polymorphic for back colour with three distinct morphs recognized: the black-backed form (BB) which occurs in northern and north-eastern Australia; the white-backed form (WB) which occurs in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania and the Western form which occurs in the far south-west corner of the continent. Male and female WBs and BBs are both monomorphic for back colour while Westerns are sexually dimorphic, with males white-backed and females black-backed. In the south-east the WB and BB distributions overlap with individuals of intermediate phenotype interspersed with pure WB and BB phenotypes. This study used mtDNA control-region sequences to test the predictions of two alternative hypotheses to explain the distribution of WB and BB populations in eastern Australia and Tasmania. Our data support the hypothesis that the variation has evolved in situ, as no population genetic structuring was evident in eastern Australia related to back colour and Tasmanian WBs were no more closely related to mainland WBs than to mainland BBs (primary contact hypothesis). Back colour patterns may be maintained by different forms of natural selection favouring BB genes in the north-east and WB genes in the south-east. [source] | |||||||||||||