scholarly journals The imaginary friends of my friends: Imagined contact interventions which highlight supportive social norms reduce children’s antirefugee bias

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022110028
Author(s):  
Elaine M. Smith ◽  
Anca Minescu
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Control Potential ◽  
Contact Conditions ◽  
The Family ◽  
Affective Bias ◽  
Imagined Contact ◽  
Peer Norm

Fostering inclusive attitudes among children in host classrooms is key to integrating refugee children. A field experiment tests the prejudice reduction effects of a teacher-led activity integrating imagined intergroup contact and normative influence. To enhance the effectiveness of imagined contact, scenarios include supportive ingroup norms. In 29 classes, 545 children ( Mage = 10.88, SD = 0.96) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: standard imagined contact, imagined contact encouraged by family, class peers, or religious ingroups, or a control. Children in all norm-framed imagined contact conditions had significantly less antirefugee bias compared with the control. The class-peer norm frame significantly reduced affective and cognitive facets of bias. The family norm frame reduced affective bias, and the religious norm frame reduced cognitive bias. Standard imagined contact did not differ from the control. Potential mediating pathways are explored. These findings illustrate the utility of incorporating norms into imagined contact interventions to reduce antirefugee bias among schoolchildren.

scholarly journals Imagined contact encourages prosocial behavior towards outgroup members

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Meleady ◽  
Charles R. Seger
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Unobtrusive Measures ◽  
Imagined Contact ◽  
Intergroup Behavior

Imagined contact is a relatively new technique designed to focus the accumulated knowledge of over 500 studies of intergroup contact into a simple and versatile prejudice-reduction intervention. While it is now clear that imagined contact can improve intergroup attitudes, its ability to change actual intergroup behavior is less well established. Some emerging findings provide cause for optimism with nonverbal, and unobtrusive measures of behavior. This paper extends this work by adopting methods from behavioral economics to examine more deliberative behavior. Participants believed they were playing a prisoner’s dilemma with an outgroup member. They could choose whether to cooperate or compete with the other player. In three studies, we provide reliable evidence that imagined contact (vs. control) successfully encouraged more prosocial, cooperative choices. In the third study we show that this effect is mediated by increased trust towards the outgroup member. The findings demonstrate that imagined contact interventions can have a tangible impact on volitional intergroup behaviors.

Refugees in Education

2018 ◽  
pp. 252-267
Author(s):  
Pierre Léna
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Family Culture ◽  
The Family ◽  
Displaced Children

This chapter focuses on one particular aspect of education for refugee children, namely science education, in the various contexts these refugees encounter, especially when immersed in cultures away from their mother language and bridges with the family culture. The universal character of natural sciences makes is precious for these displaced children. Renovating science education has been the subject of international efforts and remarkable innovative pilot projects since two decades A number of such projects, in various developing or developed countries, are reported here, with the positive impact which was observed in multi-cultural contexts. Although none of these projects yet dealt with extreme situations such as refugee camps, the lessons learned suggest to act in this direction, using the pedagogical ressources now available in many languages, as well as a potential contribution of the scientific community.

The Development and Influence of Parasocial Relationships With Television Characters: A Longitudinal Experimental Test of Prejudice Reduction Through Parasocial Contact

2020 ◽  
pp. 009365021990063
Author(s):  
Bradley J. Bond
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Parasocial Relationships ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
Television Characters ◽  
Extended Exposure ◽  
Over Time

The current study investigates parasocial relationships as the underlying mechanism explaining prejudice reduction following extended exposure to mediated outgroups. Heterosexual participants viewed a fictional television series for 10 weeks depicting outgroup (gay) characters in which the outgroup attribute (sexuality) was accentuated or sanitized. Parasocial relationships with outgroup characters grew significantly over the course of the study regardless of condition. White participants and participants who reported the strongest pretest prejudice experienced the most intense growth. Outgroup prejudice decreased significantly over time for participants in both experimental conditions. Parasocial relationships predicted both prejudice reduction over time and behavioral responses to the outgroup. Parasocial relationships with an ingroup character engaged in intergroup contact did not contribute to prejudice reduction beyond parasocial relationships with outgroup characters. This research suggests that audiences can develop socioemotional bonds with outgroup television characters that can influence attitudes and behaviors much the same as direct, interpersonal intergroup contact.

scholarly journals The Role of Personality Factors in the Reduction of Intergroup Anxiety and Amelioration of Outgroup Attitudes via Intergroup Contact

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhiannon N. Turner ◽  
Kristof Dhont ◽  
Miles Hewstone ◽  
Andrew Prestwich ◽  
Christiana Vonofakou
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Intergroup Anxiety ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Potential Confound

Two studies investigated the role of personality factors in the amelioration of outgroup attitudes via intergroup contact. In study 1, the effect of extraversion on outgroup attitude operated via an increase in cross–group friendship, whereas openness to experience and agreeableness had a direct effect on outgroup attitude. In study 2, we included intergroup anxiety as a mediator explaining these relationships, and we ruled out ingroup friendship as a potential confound. We found that the relationships between openness to experience and agreeableness on the one hand and outgroup attitude on the other were mediated by reduced intergroup anxiety. In addition, the effect of extraversion on outgroup attitude operated via an increase in cross–group friendship that was in turn associated with lower levels of intergroup anxiety. Across both studies, the friendship–attitude relationship was stronger among those low in agreeableness and extraversion. We discuss the importance of integrating personality and situational approaches to prejudice reduction in optimizing the impact of contact–based interventions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

From extreme emotions to extreme actions: Explaining non-normative collective action and reconciliation

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 432-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allard R. Feddes ◽  
Liesbeth Mann ◽  
Bertjan Doosje
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Complementary Approach ◽  
Target Article

AbstractA key argument of Dixon et al. in the target article is that prejudice reduction through intergroup contact and collective action work in opposite ways. We argue for a complementary approach focusing on extreme emotions to understand why people turn to non-normative collective action and to understand when and under what conditions extreme emotions may influence positive effects of contact on reconciliation.

scholarly journals Diversity in health care institutions reduces Israeli patients’ prejudice toward Arabs

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (14) ◽  
pp. e2022634118
Author(s):  
Chagai M. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Impact ◽  
To Receive

Diversity in the lines of public institutions, such as hospitals, schools, and police forces, is thought to improve provision for minority group members. Nonetheless, whether and how diversity in public institutions shapes majority citizens’ prejudice toward minorities are unclear. Building on insights from the intergroup contact literature, I suggest that diversity in public institutions can facilitate positive intergroup contact between majority group members and minorities in elevated social positions. Such unique interactions, which exceed the equal status condition for effective intergroup contact, can serve to reduce prejudice and facilitate more inclusive attitudes among majority group members. To test this expectation, I focus on health care provision—a leading sector with regard to minority representation. Leveraging a natural experiment unfolding in 21 Israeli medical clinics where Jewish patients are haphazardly assigned to receive care from Jewish or Arab doctors and embedding prejudice-related questions in a routine evaluation survey, I demonstrate that brief contact with an Arab doctor reduces prejudice. Specifically, contact with an Arab doctor reduces Jewish patients’ exclusionary preferences toward Arabs by one-sixth of an SD and increases Jewish patients’ optimism about peace by a 10th of an SD. The modest magnitude of these effects is similar to the impact of well-powered interventions recently reviewed in a meta-analysis of prejudice reduction experiments. These findings emphasize how the demographic makeup of public institutions can reduce mass prejudice, even in a context of intractable conflict.

scholarly journals Vicarious Intergroup Contact and the Role of Authorities in Prejudice Reduction

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel Gómez ◽  
Carmen Huici
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Contact Condition ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Shared Beliefs ◽  
Authority Figure ◽  
Basketball Teams

The present study focuses on the effect of vicarious intergroup contact and the support of an authority figure on the improvement of outgroup and meta-stereotype evaluations. Meta-stereotype refers to the shared beliefs of ingroup members about how they consider outgroup members to perceive their group. Three preliminary studies were carried out to determine desirable and undesirable characteristics for a good basketball performance, the task that best demonstrates the application of these characteristics, and the two groups (basketball teams) that should be involved in the vicarious intergroup contact. Fans of one of the basketball teams participated in the current study. Vicarious intergroup contact improved outgroup and meta-stereotype evaluations as compared with a no contact condition. In addition, the positive effects of vicarious intergroup contact significantly increased when it was supported by an authority figure. More importantly, our study also shows that the improvement of outgroup evaluation was partially mediated by changes on meta-stereotypes.

scholarly journals The role of optimal conditions and intergroup contact in promoting positive intergroup relations in and out of the workplace: A study with ethnic majority and minority workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022110109
Author(s):  
Gian Antonio Di Bernardo ◽  
Loris Vezzali ◽  
Michèle D. Birtel ◽  
Sofia Stathi ◽  
Barbara Ferrari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Contact Conditions ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Positive Contact

A field study was conducted with majority and minority group members to test whether the effects of optimal contact conditions and of intergroup contact generalize across situations, and extend to the support of intergroup equality in terms of agreement with social policies benefitting the minority group. Participants were 163 Italian and 129 immigrant workers in three corporate organizations. Results from structural equation modelling analyses revealed that, for the majority group, positive contact stemming from optimal contact conditions was indirectly associated, via reduction in negative stereotypes, with more positive behavior that generalized across situations. For both majority and minority groups, positive contact stemming from optimal contact conditions was associated with less negative stereotypes, and in turn with greater support for social policies favoring the minority. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, also in relation to the significance of the present results for research investigating the relation between intergroup contact and social change.

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