Using Contact Hypothesis and Indirect Reciprocity Approach to Improve Intergroup Relationship: A Slum-based Proposed Intervention

Abstract

Intergroup conflicts are a manifestation of the perceived incompatibility of goals or values between two or more individuals, which emerges because the involved individuals classify themselves as members of different social groups. It can be easily perceived as the result of ingroup-outgroup bias. Conflicts can stem from a scarcity of economic resources, hunger for power, polarized ideologies, and opposing faith in science and religion. The relevance of psychology serves as a hawk eye in group relations which are also playgrounds for conflict. Slums are complex communities with convoluted intersections between religion, income levels, political patronage, etc. Social psychologists attempt to understand the social threads in these close-spaced and seemingly cohesive communities since they house a sizable proportion of our heritage and population. The hypothetical constructs and deductive systems of psycho-social theories explain group properties with objectives beyond internal physical reality. These explanations are only useful for the common when applied in the real-world setting for the resolution of social problems. Here comes the role of Interventionists who utilize these explanations as a basis for building interventions to reap benefits for society. The following study sets the stage for a proposed intervention in Ahmedabad’s Chandola landfill slum located on the periphery housing a fractured community post the riots (2002) yielding a knotty understanding of the abstraction. The target population featuring Chandola comprises Gujarati Muslims and Bangla Muslims ranging from 13 to 29 years of age socially ascertained as ragpickers. The bastions of the advocated intervention are the Contact hypothesis and Indirect Reciprocity that transpired by a Vocational training program and a Computer game program appraised via impact evaluation.