Literal intergroup contact: Embodied relational cues and the reduction of intergroup bias

Existing evidence shows that a brief, casual interpersonal touch results in positive behavior toward the toucher. Theoretically this effect arises because touch is an embodied cue to friendship or closeness, as demonstrated by its role in attachment and relationship development. According to research on intergroup contact, feelings of friendship toward an individual outgroup member reduce prejudice toward the entire social group. This research examined whether the effects of touch extend beyond the toucher as an individual, to influence feelings about that individual's social group. The initial study demonstrates that interpersonal touch decreases implicit, though not explicit, prejudice toward the toucher's social group (African Americans). The second study replicated this effect for African American and Asian touchers, while also demonstrating a novel effect: touch increases participants' general tendency to report empathic emotions in response to scenarios in which others were treated negatively. In the third study, half of the participants formed a negative attitude toward the African American toucher before the touch. Although touch did not affect implicit prejudice toward African Americans, touch did buffer the effects of a negatively evaluated toucher on implicit evaluations of the group. An implicit measure of self-esteem was unrelated to the implicit attitude measure. Throughout these studies, implicit evaluations of other social groups (e.g., Caucasians) were not affected by touch. Not only are these results unique in demonstrating that the effects of interpersonal touch can extend beyond the toucher to an entire social group, they suggest that the these effects of touch are automatic and occur outside of conscious awareness.