Bridging the contact and threat hypotheses: The influence of multiple social contexts, contextual congruency and socioeconomic environment on the relationship between racial composition and white racial attitudes

The relationship between the contextual characteristics and racial attitudes is complex and at times contradictory. Proponents of the contact hypothesis contend that positive racial attitudes among whites increase with the growth of the African American population; however, threat hypothesis supporters argue that while there is a relationship between racial composition and white racial attitudes, it is in the opposite direction. Positive racial attitudes decline with increases in the African American population. How is it that these hypotheses predict different outcomes based on the same underlying condition: size of the African American population? The answer to this question lies in recent theoretical and methodological innovations in the study of contextual effects. This research suggests that the socioeconomic environment, the presence of multiple social contexts and contextual/attitude congruency influence the relationship between racial composition and racial attitudes. Using these findings, the purpose of this study is to reconcile the contact and threat hypotheses by demonstrating that they are part of the same theoretical framework, but operate under different conditions.;I hypothesize that the influence of racial composition on white racial attitudes is dependent on the congruency between the type of attitude being measured and the contextual level under examination. Further, socioeconomic context conditions this relationship. Areas with a high socioeconomic composition are likely to produce more positive racial attitudes than areas of a similar racial but lower socioeconomic composition. Finally, the composition of social contexts further conditions the relationship between racial composition and white racial attitudes.;Using multilevel regression models to test my hypotheses, I find that context/outcome congruency does not exist. Both neighborhood and city racial composition negatively influence the interpersonal attitudes of Whites towards African Americans but neither influences group position attitudes. Furthermore, the racial composition of each contextual level does not condition the effect of the other level.;I also find that the socioeconomic composition of neighborhood and city contexts does not directly or conditionally influence racial attitudes.;Finally, I find that racial attitudes and conditionally influenced by both geographic and social contexts. Diverse social contexts tend to negate the negative influence of neighborhood and city racial composition for both interpersonal and group position attitudes. Thus these findings demonstrate that the contact and threat hypotheses operate simultaneously but under different conditions. Positive racial attitudes are fostered by social contexts while geographic contexts exert a negative influence on attitudes. From a contextual effects perspective, these results show that multiple geographic contexts need to be taken into account in order to understand the expression of racial attitudes.;Overall, the results from this study will help social scientists better understand the complex relationship between the social environment and the development of racial attitudes. Further, they will provide insight into the implications of prointegrative public policies.