Challenges and Opportunities: Intergroup Contact and the Reduction of Prejudice in a Hostile Normative Context

This chapter examines the interplay of social norms, intergroup contact, and ethnic prejudice among youth, particularly focusing on the severe prejudice against Roma people in Hungary, a post-socialist country in Central-Eastern Europe. First, we describe how the state’s repeated inaction in addressing the integration of Roma students, leading to widespread educational discrimination and segregation, limits the opportunities for the formation of intergroup contact in educational settings. To investigate the role of contact and group norms in the formation of ethnic prejudice within school classes, we conducted a panel study among Hungarian adolescents (age 14–15 years) at the start and end of their first year in secondary school (N = 986). Findings indicate that, although interethnic contact is not very common, those students who form such contacts demonstrate decreased prejudice and are less likely to conform to the prejudicial norms prevalent in their peer groups. We conclude the chapter by raising critical questions about the possibility of prejudice reduction in contexts where societal norms and educational institutions do not support equal treatment of ethnic minorities. Drawing on the empirical findings, the chapter offers potential strategies for combating ethnic prejudice in such contexts.