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Imagining Intergroup Contact Can Improve Intergroup Attitudes Rhiannon N Imagining Intergroup Contact Can Improve Intergroup Attitudes Rhiannon N. Turner, Richard J. Crisp, Emily Lambert To cite this version: Rhiannon N. Turner, Richard J. Crisp, Emily Lambert. Imagining Intergroup Contact Can Improve Intergroup Attitudes. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, SAGE Publications, 2007, 10 (4), pp.427-441. 10.1177/1368430207081533. hal-00571660 HAL Id: hal-00571660 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00571660 Submitted on 1 Mar 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 2007 Vol 10(4) 427–441 Imagining Intergroup Contact Can Improve Intergroup Attitudes Rhiannon N. Turner University of Leeds Richard J. Crisp University of Kent Emily Lambert University of Birmingham We investigated whether simply imagining contact with outgroup members can improve intergroup attitudes. In Experiment 1, young participants who imagined talking to an elderly person subsequently showed lower levels of intergroup bias than participants who imagined an outdoor scene. In Experiment 2, young participants who imagined talking to an elderly person subsequently showed lower levels of intergroup bias than participants who simply thought about elderly people, ruling out a priming explanation for our fi ndings. In Experiment 3, heterosexual men who imagined talking to a homosexual man subsequently evaluated homosexual men more positively, perceived there to be greater variability among them, and experienced less intergroup anxiety compared to a control group. The effect of imagined contact on outgroup evaluations was mediated by reduced intergroup anxiety. These fi ndings suggest that imagining intergroup contact could represent a viable alternative for reducing prejudice where actual contact between groups is impractical. keywords intergroup contact, reducing prejudice In 1954, Gordon Allport proposed that contact Intergroup contact between members of opposing groups, under the right conditions, would lessen intergroup According to Allport (1954) simple contact be- hostility and lead to more positive intergroup tween groups would not be suffi cient to improve attitudes (Allport, 1954). Subsequent research intergroup relations. Rather, for contact between has supported this premise but to date this groups to reduce prejudice, certain prerequisite research has usually involved either actual conditions must be in place. Specifi cally, Allport contact or retrospective reports of past actual con- proposed that optimal intergroup contact would tact. In this article we ask whether actual contact with outgroups is a necessary component in Author’s note interventions derived from the contact hy- Address correspondence to Rhiannon Turner pothesis, or whether simply imagining contact at the Institute of Psychological Sciences, with outgroups may be enough to have a positive University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK impact on intergroup relations. [email: [email protected]] Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) 10:4; 427–441; DOI: 10.1177/1368430207081533 Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 10(4) be of equal status, involve cooperation to achieve themselves, may behave in an incompetent or common goals, and should be supported by offensive manner. These fears may lead people important societal institutions. Over the past to avoid intergroup contact altogether. Plant 50 years, a great deal of research has been and Devine (2003), for example, found that devoted to testing and amending the basic prin- the more negative White people’s expectations ciples of the contact hypothesis and contact is about interacting with Black people were, the now one of the most widely used psychological more they reported avoiding encounters with interventions for the reduction of prejudice Black people. Similarly, Shelton and Richeson and the improvement of intergroup relations (2005) found that participants explained their (Oskamp & Jones, 2000). failure to initiate intergroup contact in terms The theory has had to deal with various con- of their fear of being rejected by outgroup troversies over the years. Past debate has focused members because they belonged to a different on whether the proposed optimal conditions group. Even if contact does arise, intergroup are suffi cient, or even necessary, for contact anxiety increases the likelihood that individuals to reduce prejudice, and whether the positive will enter the encounter with feelings of hostility effects of successful intergroup contact would (Plant & Devine, 2003). In turn, this increases generalize from the individuals involved in the likelihood that group members will interpret the contact to the entire outgroup. However, the interaction in a negative light, with negative a recent meta-analysis of over 500 studies on consequences for intergroup relations. intergroup contact conducted by Pettigrew Intergroup anxiety is likely to arise where there and Tropp (2006) found a robust highly signifi - has been minimal previous contact and when cant negative effect of contact on prejudice, an there are large differences in status (Stephan & effect that remained even for contact that did not Stephan, 1985). When individuals have had a meet the proposed ‘optimal conditions’, and for successful interaction with an outgroup member, generalized measures of outgroup prejudice. however, their level of intergroup anxiety is likely Having confi rmed that contact does indeed to be reduced, as they come to realize they have result in more positive generalized outgroup nothing to fear from the outgroup. Consistent attitudes, even under less than optimal con- with this reasoning, a number of studies, in ditions, recent research has concerned itself diverse intergroup settings, have found the effect with how contact reduces prejudice—that of intergroup contact on reducing prejudice is, the processes that underlie the effect of to be mediated by intergroup anxiety (Islam & contact—and what consequences contact has Hewstone, 1993; Paolini, Hewstone, Cairns, & for intergroup relations. Below we expand on Voci, 2004; Voci & Hewstone, 2003). these two developments. First, we discuss inter- group anxiety, a negative emotional arousal Affective and cognitive consequences that can characterize intergroup encounters, of contact the reduction of which is thought to be a key process underlying the effect of intergroup Affective components of prejudice refl ect feel- contact. Second, we outline research which ings and emotional responses to a group, for shows that contact has both cognitive and example liking of an outgroup, whereas cog- affective consequences. nitive components of prejudice are generally considered to relate to perceptions, judgments Intergroup anxiety and stereotypes about a group. Research has demonstrated that intergroup contact can Stephan and Stephan (1985) argued that inter- reduce both affective and cognitive forms of group anxiety can arise as a consequence of prejudice, although typically intergroup contact negative expectations of rejection or discrim- has a more powerful effect on affective than ination during cross-group interactions, or fears cognitive outcome measures (Tropp & Pettigrew, that the interaction partner, or the respondents 2005; Wolsko, Park, Judd, & Bachelor, 2003). 428 Turner et al. imagined contact With respect to cognitive outgroup measures, friendship, a uniquely high quality form of inter- studies have shown that in addition to generating group contact, led to more positive attitudes and more positive attitudes (outgroup members are increased perceived outgroup variability among better liked), intergroup contact leads to greater Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. perceptions of outgroup variability. In sum, recent developments in research on People have a general tendency to show an contact reveal that the effect of intergroup con- ‘outgroup homogeneity effect’ (Quattrone & tact is mediated by intergroup anxiety, and that Jones, 1980). That is, we have a general tendency intergroup contact can reduce both affective to assume that outgroup members are relatively and cognitive forms of prejudice. more homogeneous than ingroup members. This Despite the clear benefi ts of intergroup con- is largely because we encounter few outgroup tact, however, it has one inevitable limitation; it members and therefore have little knowledge of can only be used as an intervention to reduce the diversity among them and because, initially prejudice when group members have the oppor- at least, interactions with the outgroup tend to tunity for contact in the fi rst place (e.g. Phinney, be superfi cial, constrained by social norms, and Ferguson, & Tate, 1997; Turner, Hewstone, & lacking in intimacy. Seeing outgroup members Voci, in press). Unfortunately, there are many as relatively homogeneous may initially help examples of opposing groups that have few such the positive effects of contact to generalize from opportunities; many Catholic and Protestant the individual involved in the contact to the communities in
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