Introduction
Amidst war, economic crisis, and political unrest, social tensions fueled by oppositional identities are evident. Intergroup Contact Theory proposes that high-quality interactions with outgroup members can weaken such oppositional identities. Friendships are the strongest form of high-quality contact, with age-diverse friendships in the workplace emerging as an increasingly relevant form of intergroup contact given the significant time spent at work and the progressively aging workforce.
Purpose
We test our conceptual model, the Taxonomy of Age-Diverse Friendship Effects, which posits that high-quality intergroup contact can foster tertiary transfer known as cognitive liberalization, ultimately breaking down oppositional identities. This effect is proposed to be especially strong when the outgroup member is atypical, as greater semantic distance can challenge assumptions and promote mental expansion. Thus, this study examines whether age-diverse workplace friendships, as a form of high-quality intergroup contact, can foster cognitive liberalization, additionally investigating the role of semantic distance.
Method
A 10-week longitudinal study with data collected at 21 time points was conducted, resulting in a final sample of 171 German workers (56.2% men, 43.8% women) with an average of 4.16 (SD = 1.07) age-diverse workplace friends. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze within- and between-person effects.
Results
Age-diverse workplace friendships were positively associated with higher levels of cognitive liberalization both within and between participants. Contrary to expectations, friendships with more typical outgroup members strengthened these effects.
Conclusions
Findings provide empirical support for the role of age-diverse workplace friendships in promoting cognitive liberalization and reducing oppositional identities. However, results challenge our conceptual model's assumption that atypical outgroup members most strongly foster tertiary transfer, highlighting the need to reconsider how typicality influences intergroup contact processes and transfer effects.