Effects of Contact and Perceived Attitude Differences on Social Distance among Australian, Japanese, and Pakistani Students

Ss (N = 234) in Pakistan, Japan, and Australia responded to a questionnaire measuring extent of contact experienced with and information obtained about the two outgroups, perceptions of discrepancy between own and outgroup attitudes, and social distance orientations toward the outgroups. The findings demonstrated an overall lack of support for the contact hypothesis and the belief-differences hypothesis concerning inter-group relations, nor was there a consistent relationship between amount of contact and perceptions of attitude discrepancy.