The Effects Of Imagining Intergroup Contact And Prior Contact On Implicit Prejudice

How to reduce intergroup contradictions and conflicts has always been a centralconcern for Political science, Sociology and Psychology.Intergroup contact is one of themost effective psychological interventions for the reduction of prejudice and theimprovement of intergroup relations. Recently, Intergroup contact theory has a newimprovement—imagined intergroup contact. The approach combines50years ofintergroup contact research into the effects of contact with recent advances in socialcognition. It not only can reduce prejudice of out-group effectively, but also couldn't sufferthe same limitation (opportunity for contact,anxiety) as actual contact and extendedcontact.The objects of prejudice were off-farm workers—a unique group in China.Throughtwo experiments to explore the role of imagined intergroup contact and prior contactplaying in off-farm workers. And which types of contact has more active effect. How to getmaximally effective of imagined intergroup contact.Study1used a3×3between-subject design to discuss the effect of imaginedintergroup contact type and prior contact type on implicit prejudice. We found that priorcontact type influence the effect of imagined intergroup contact on implicit prejudice.When prior contact is negative, imagined positive intergroup contact reduces implicitprejudice. When prior contact is neutral or positive, imagined positive intergroup contacthas no effect on implicit prejudice. When prior contact is neutral, imagined negativeintergroup contact enhances implicit prejudice. When prior contact is negative or positive,imagined negative intergroup contact has no effect on implicit prejudice.Study2used a3×3between-subject design to discuss the effect of imaginedintergroup contact extent and prior contact type on implicit prejudice. We found that priorcontact type influence the effect of imagined intergroup contact extent on implicit prejudice.When prior contact is negative, the higher extent of imagined intergroup contact, the lowerimplicit prejudice toward off-farm workers. When prior contact is neutral, relative to no contact condition, participants who imagined highest contact with off-farm workers showedmore positive implicit attitudes towards off-farm workers. When prior contact is positive,imagined intergroup contact extent has no effect on implicit prejudice.These findings suggest that imagining intergroup contact could represent a viablealternative for reducing prejudice where actual contact between groups is impractical. Andit could be integrated with existing approaches to provide maximally effective strategiesfor improving intergroup relations.