Abstract: In 1950s, the social psychologist Allport put forward the famous intergroup contact hypothesis, namely between groups if can meet some conditions (i.e., equality social status, common goals, cooperation and support system), a simple contact can reduce the prejudice and improve intergroup relations. Over the past 60 years, the researchers carried out a large number of studies about the mechanism that intergroup contact reduces prejudice. From the current research results, intergroup contacts can reduce prejudice, mainly because intergroup contact leads to individual changes in cognition and emotion, Changes in cognition, include intergroup contact can increase the knowledge about out-groups, reduce the negative stereotype and the negative expectations for intergroup interaction, weakened the in-group identity and bias, and make the individual perceive more commonality to ingroup and outgroup; in the emotion, it can reduce the intergroup anxiety level, with the increase of empathy towards other groups, other factors include group identity, personal threat, intergroup threat and so on. although researchers have made fruitful work on the mechanism of intergroup contact reducing prejudice, it still needs to be improved and developed. First of all, the researchers found some mediator variables that the intergroup contact reduces the bias , but these study is scattered, lacking integration between the mediator variables, such as negative stereotypes and intergroup anxiety, it is because the individual hold negative stereotypes toward out-group members lead to intergroup anxiety, so a possible mechanism that intergroup contact reducing prejudice is: intergroup contact reduces negative stereotypes, thus reduces intergroup anxiety, and ultimately reduces the bias, this is a hypothesis in this study need to tested; secondly, Allport advocated the intergroup contact hypothesis has been fully verified, but another point of view, the essentialism beliefs towards social group is an important personality characteristics that lead to prejudice, but the researchers have not incorporated the essentialism beliefs into the study of the mechanism of contact reducing prejudice. The author argues that intergroup contacts can weaken the essential beliefs held by people, thereby reducing prejudice. In this study, 321 minority college students were selected as subjects, the ethnic contact (with Han), contact attitude, ethnic identity, ethnic essentialism, ethnic stereotypes，intergroup anxiety and other variables were investigated, from a perspective of integration, this study explores the mechanism of ethnic contact promoting ethnic interaction. The results show that: ethnic contact through reducing intergroup anxiety and ethnic identity, weaken the negative stereotypes and ethnic essentialism thus indirectly promote ethnic relations, ethnic identity. Ethnic identity plays a significant mediating role between ethnic contact and ethnic essentialism, and negative stereotype plays a mediating role between ethnic contact and intergroup anxiety, the results verified the hypothesis of this study. This study enriches the theory of intergroup contact reducing prejudice, and finds a new mediator variable, which has guiding significance for promoting the practice of ethnic relation.

Key words: intergroup contact, ethnic essentialism, ethnic identity, intergroup anxiety, stereotypes, contact attitude

摘要： 以321名少数民族大学生为被试，考察了民族接触（与汉族）、交往态度、民族认同、民族本质论、民族刻板印象和群际焦虑等变量，以整合的视角探讨了民族接触促进民族交往的机制问题。研究结果表明：民族接触通过降低群际焦虑和民族认同、减弱消极刻板印象和民族本质论而间接促进了民族交往，民族认同在民族接触和民族本质论之间、消极刻板印象在民族接触和群际焦虑之间存在中介作用。这项整合的研究理论上丰富了群际接触减少偏见的机制研究，发现了新的中介变量，对促进民族交往的实践具有指导意义。

关键词: 群际接触, 民族本质论, 民族认同, 群际焦虑, 刻板印象, 交往态度