Making Contact: The Power of Contact in the Rehumanization Process

Nonviolence Radio

Jasper Van Assche, a professor at the University of Gantt in Belgium, comes to Nonviolence Radio to talk to Michael and Stephanie about his research on the power of contact – direct and indirect – to decrease prejudice and cultivate tolerance and social cohesion within diverse and potentially antagonized groups. ‘Contact theory’ has been shown to lead to harmony and an enlarged sense of a common good, even when there are limited resources and competing interests. In short, genuine and meaningful contact with different kinds of people tends to humanize the dehumanized ‘other’. This kind of contact can be difficult to realize, especially where there is long entrenched prejudice and little or no institutional support to bring it about. However, contact itself is simple and readily available to all of us and Jasper's research will perhaps inspire us to start to build that support within our own communities.