| Summary: | I examined whether perceptions of intergroup similarity and conflict interact to predict prejudice and facilitation of an intergroup social interaction as a consequence of physiological linkage – a state correlated with successful social interactions wherein two people's autonomic nervous
systems synch-up in time. Studies 1 and 2a, revealed an association between similarity, conflict and low prejudice. In Study 2b participants completed essays priming similarity and conflict in order to test the indirect effect of their interaction with participants' physiological reactivity on
the success of a dyadic social interaction. Similarity, conflict and physiological reactivity interacted to predict physiological linkage, which in turn moderated the effects of conflict on the success of the social interaction. These results suggest that physiological and social cognitive
processes play key roles in determining the important moment when an outgroup stranger becomes a potential friend.
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