America began the desegregation process in the 1950s and 1960s, since then there has been a plethora of literature analyzing its success and progress (Barlow et al., 2012). The Western public has massively come to the consensus that keeping groups separate is an inefficient way to promote social cohesion (Barlow et al., 2012). The informal and formal contact between Caucasian-American and African-American communities resulted in researchers and scholars widely accepting that desegregation reduces prejudice (Barlow et al., 2012). However, Barlow et al., argues much of the public and researchers neglect to consider the impact of negative contact. Racially diverse neighbourhoods that have the most intergroup contact tend to have higher rates of antagonism (Barlow et al., 2012). This is suggested because people in these neighbourhoods have higher rates of negative contact from proximity, which increases prejudice (Barlow et al., 2012). Considering that not all forms of intergroup contact will be conducive to ameliorating conflict, more research attention needs to be paid to how to mitigate the effects of …show more content…
They discovered that interreligious actors who developed bonds of friendship had a more positive outlook towards the rest of the out-group, reducing prejudice (Kanas et al., 2016). However, if the relationships were casual than there was an increased likelihood that prejudice would remain and would be projected onto the out-group (Kanas et al., 2016). Researchers found that the threat and experiences of negative contact (i.e. interreligious violence) did not have a negative impact on interreligious friendships, but increases the prejudice felt between casual relationships (Kanas et al., 2016). This shows that it is easier to ignore past negative experiences and possible future ones if there is a deeper bond between conflicting intergroup