Cross-group friendships: predictors and implications for intergroup relations and beyond

This chapter provides an insight into the experience of friendships between members of different groups, highlighting such friendships' potential consequences on intergroup attitudes and beyond, and exploring mechanisms that predict their formation. We review theoretical and empirical research on cross-group friendships focusing first on cross-group friendships' associations with intergroup attitudes and behaviors and potential mediators that may explain how cross-group friendships promote intergroup relationships, as well as potential moderators that increase their effectiveness. Next, we turn our attention to a more recent generation of research concentrating on social-psychological outcomes of cross-group friendships, beyond the traditionally researched group-based variables. Then, we concentrate on factors that play a role in the formation of cross-group friendships including both individual and contextual variables, and highlight the value of studying cross-group friendships among children and adolescents. Finally, we discuss possible avenues for the development of cross-group friendship research across multiple intergroup contexts.