Delving into interminority relations: The crucial role of perceived self-efficacy in enacting solidarity

Objectives: The present research aims to understand how contact between ethnic minorities is associated with solidarity toward the outgroup minority, exploring how this relation is moderated by one's perceived self-efficacy in contact. Specifically, we examined the association between valence of contact and both attitudinal and behavioral measures of solidarity, analyzing the relation between the two. Method: Two cross-sectional studies were conducted in Italy (Study 1, N = 173, M-age = 33.67, 56% female, 43% male, two respondents self-identified as "other") and the United Kingdom (Study 2, N = 253, M-age = 33.99, 49% female, 50% male, 2 NA), respectively, with people of Albanian and sub-Saharan African origins. Participants answered an online survey and hypotheses were tested with multiple linear regression models and structural equation modeling. Results: Consistently across studies, positive contact was associated with higher solidarity, both in terms of behavioral intentions and actual behavior, while negative contact yielded a significant negative relation only to solidarity intentions in Study 2. The relation between positive contact and solidarity behavior was partially mediated by solidarity intentions. Moreover, the results showed that respondents with high self-efficacy displayed a strong association between positive contact and solidarity, while for respondents with medium-low self-efficacy, the relation was not significant. Conclusions: Findings from the studies extend previous knowledge on interminority solidarity by highlighting the important role played by perceived self-efficacy in interethnic contact. Moreover, the differences found between attitudinal and behavioral measures of solidarity signal the need to further study actual behavior and carry important practical implications for intergroup contact-based interventions.