The cognitive side of intergroup contact: a test of the Cognitive Liberalization hypothesis in an Italian sample

Since the publication of "The nature of prejudice" by Gordon Allport (1954), the study of intergroup contact has constantly attracted scholars' interest and it proved its validity in reducing prejudice. Through the years, several studies have shown that the positive effect is not limited to the outgroup member with whom the person interacts, but it is also transfered to their whole outgroup (primary transfer effect) and beyond, to other outgroups that the person has not encountered directly (secondary transfer effect) (Boin et al., 2021). In 2018, Hodson and colleagues advanced the cognitive liberalization hypothesis, arguing that intergroup contact over time makes people more cognitively flexible, open to diversity, and creative. Using the authors' words, intergroup contact is considered a "liberalizing agent" (Hodson et al., 2018, p.524). The present study tested this hypothesis in an Italian sample (n=204). The first two chapters cover the theoretical background that sustain the cognitive liberalization hypothesis, while the third one present the study design, the specific hypothesis of the study, and the used questionnaires. As to our knowledge no previous studies have developed a specific scale to measure Cognitive Liberalization, a battery of scales that measure related constructs (namely Langer mindfulness, personal growth, curiosity, deprovincialization, cognitive flexibility, openness to diversity and challenge, and pro-diversity beliefs) has been used as a proxy. The forth chapter presents the results of the statistical analyses run on the sample (t-tests, correlations, linear regression models), and the implication of these are discussed in the following chapter. The results support the existence of a strong association between intergroup contact and a more liberal mindset. Limitations of the study and future research directions can be found in the last chapter.