This study focuses on the latent aspects of an ethno-religious conflict. It describes why and how people avoid contact with out-groups. Their contact avoidance is largely based on the notion of power. It shows how contact avoidance towards out-groups is related to people's ethno-religious identification. The relationship between contact avoidance and ethno-religious identification is explained by factors, such as perceived group threat, out-group distrust, fundamentalism, quantity of contact and direct experiences of violence. Finally, it illustrates how education, mass media and history of conflict are related with intergroup contact avoidance.

Menandro S. Abanes is Assistant Professor at Ateneo de Naga University.