The Influence Of Imaginary Inter-group Contact Intervention On Minority Implicit Prejudice And Its Secondary Transfer Effect

The prejudice of public against minorities is mostly due to stereotypes and lack of contact with minorities.This leads to a lack of deep understanding of the minority group and a deep-rooted prejudice.Inter-group contact has therefore been one of the most common interventions to reduce prejudice.The contact hypothesis suggests that under the right conditions,contact between different groups of members will lead to more positive inter-group relationships.However,due to various factors,inter-group contacts are often difficult to achieve in the real world.The group members will also conceal their group characteristics and identity.Therefore,some researchers have proposed imaginary inter-group contacts to eliminate inter-group prejudice.After the first study by Turner et al.found that imaginary contact can effectively reduce inter-group prejudice,many researchers began to study the intervention of this method of bias on prejudice.As a new orientation of inter-group research,the research of imaginative contact is getting more attention and attention.In the process of studying inter-group contacts,researchers have discovered another meaningful contact effect,that inter-group contact can not only reduces prejudice against the external groups currently in contact,but also reduces other external groups that are not directly exposed.The effect is called the secondary transfer effect(STE)of inter-group contact.The STE effect not only exist in direct contact but also exist in indirect imaginary contact.Two important factors that produce the STE of inter-group contact are the reduction of inter-group anxiety and the generation of inter-group empathy.Because of the generation of empathy and the reduction of inter-group anxiety,the positive attitude is shifted from the directly contacted primary foreign group to the non-directly contacted secondary external group.At the same time,the similarity between the primary and secondary groups is also a key influencing factor in the STE.At present,there are not many studies on the secondary transfer effects of imaginary inter-group contacts,and there are few related studies in China.Therefore,under the national conditions of China,it is important to understand the psychological mechanism and influencing factors of the secondary transfer effect of inter-group contact,and to carry out localization research,which is of great significance for the construction of good inter-group relations.Based on the above research purposes,this study is based on the theory of inter-group contact,taking college students as the research object,combining with China’s national conditions,discussing whether the intervention of imaginary inter-group contact will have an impact on minority implicit bias and whether the secondary transfer effect of imaginary inter-group contact intervention exists in China’s national conditions.And explore the relationship among inter-group anxiety,inter-group empathy,group similarity and the secondary transfer effect of imaginary inter-group contact.This study consists of three sub-studies:In the first study,74 students from Southwest University were randomly selected,including 35 male students and 39 female students.The subjects were randomly divided into experimental group and control group.The number of each group was equal and the ratio of male to female was balanced.The experimental group conducted the intervention of imaginary inter-group contact,and the control group performed unrelated imagination.After the intervention,the Single Category Implicit Association Test was used to measure the implicit bias of the experimental group and the control group to the minority.Finally,fill in the inter group anxiety scale and the basic empathy scale for adults.Study 1 aims to explore whether the intervention of imaginary inter group contacts will affect the prejudice of minority.In the second study,it use a mixed design of 2(intervention content)× 2(group similarity).Seventy-seven college students from Southwest University were randomly selected,including 34 male students and 36 female students.The subjects were randomly divided into experimental group and control group.The number of each group was equal and the ratio of male to female was balanced.The experimental group conducted the intervention of imaginary group contact,and the control group performed unrelated imagination.After the intervention,the single-class implicit association test was used to measure the experimental group and the control group to the minority1(primary group),the minority2(high similarity sub-outgroup).and homosexuality(low similarity sub-outgroups).The second study aims to explore whether sub-transfer effects will occur after the intervention of imaginary intergroup contacts has an impact on minority1 implicit bias.Thus affecting the implicit bias of minority2 and homosexuality with different similarities with minority1.And whether the secondary transfer effect is significantly different when the similarity between the secondary external group and the primary external group is different.In the third Study,it selected all the subjects in the experimental group in the second study,filled in the inter-group anxiety scale and the basic empathy scale for adults.Analysis of the mediating effect of secondary transfer effect in two parts for imaginary inter-group contact intervention.The first part is the mediating effect of inter-group empathy and inter-group anxiety when the positive effect of inter-group contact intervention is transferred from minority1 to minority2(high similarity sub-external group).The second part is the mediating role of inter-group empathy and inter-group anxiety in the imaginary positive effect of inter-group contact intervention from minority1 to homosexuality(low similarity sub-external group).The third study aims to explore the role of inter-group anxiety and inter-group empathy in STE.This study draws the following main conclusions:1.The intervention of imaginative inter-group contact reduces the implicit bias of the minority1(primary group)and produces a secondary transfer effect,which shifts the influence to the minority2(high similarity sub-outgroup).and homosexuality(low similarity sub-outgroups)and also makes the prejudice against the minority2 and homosexuality reduced.And inter-group empathy plays a mediating role in the secondary transfer effect of imaginary inter-group contacts.2.The secondary transfer effect of imaginary inter-group contact is independent of the similarity between the primary and secondary external groups.3.When the similarity between the secondary external group and the primary external group is high,the cognitive part of inter-group empathy plays a mediating role in the STE effect,and the inter-group anxiety and the affective part of inter-group empathy do not mediate in the STE effect.When the similarity between the secondary external group and the primary external group is low,the inter-group empathy and inter-group anxiety do not mediate in the STE effect.