Thanks for listening to the first episode of Contact Research Now. In this episode, we discuss new evidence on positive and negative contact - including whether "bad is stronger than good", whether we need to move beyond the simple labels of "positive" and "negative" contact, whether positive contact may offer protection against the effects of negative contact, and whether negative contact has specific effects on people high in authoritarianism - and much more.

Please get in touch with any thoughts and suggestions. You can reach Emine at emine.bilgen@btu.edu.tr  or Lukas at l.wallrich@bbk.ac.uk - or email contactresearchnetwork@gmail.com 

In this episode, we discussed four recent papers on positive and negative intergroup contact. You can find open access links to all of them below.

With Stefania Paolini:

Paolini, S., Gibbs, M., Sales, B., Anderson, D., & McIntyre, K. (2024). Negativity bias in intergroup contact: Meta-analytical evidence that bad is stronger than good, especially when people have the opportunity and motivation to opt out of contact. Psychological Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000439

With Sarina Schäfer:

Schäfer, S. J., Kros, M., Hewstone, M., Schmid, K., Fell, B. F., Jaspers, E., ... & Christ, O. (2025). Differential effects of positive versus negative contact: The importance of distinguishing valence from intensity. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 28(1), 140-163. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302241258070 

With Giulia Rosa Policardo:

Prati, F., Policardo, G. R., Hewstone, M., & Rubini, M. (2024). How Positive and Negative Intergroup Contact May Shape the Communication of Discrimination Toward Migrants. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 43(3), 273-297. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X241237260. Preprint: https://cris.unibo.it/retrieve/a4bf348e-5df8-4ed4-b10f-2a4cbd7a0380/MainManuscriptJLSP.pdf 

With Jasper Van Assche:

Pollmanns, C., & Van Assche, J. (2025). The extended contact asymmetry: Authoritarians benefit more from positive but do not suffer more from negative extended intergroup contact. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 28(1), 115-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302241249051, Preprint: https://contact-research-network.github.io/PollmannsVanAssche_preprint.pdf

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit contactresearch.substack.com