This paper analyses two research articles titled “Imagined contact with atypical outgroup members that are anti-normative within their group can reduce prejudice” and “Can state-ways change folkways? Longitudinal tests of the interactive effects of intergroup contact and categorization on prejudice?”
Article 1: Imagined contact with atypical outgroup members that are anti-normative within their group can reduce prejudice.
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Introduction
Yetkili, Abrams, Travaglin, and Giner-Sorolla (2018) conducted a study about whether imagined contact with atypical outgroup group members can help reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations.
Participants and setting
The participants for the study were students from and the setting was in a British University. The methodology for the research was divided into three different studies; study 1, study 2 and study 3. Study 1 had a sample group of 79 psychology students at a British University. The participants were assigned two imagined contact conditions where 39 participants were in the normative condition and 40 in the anti-normative condition. After being exposed to the contact condition, the participants were asked to respond to whether the scene was friendly, hostile, pleasant or unpleasant. The participants also responded to the perceived target threat and target evaluations to measure the attitude toward target individuals. Their prejudice was measured based on how the scale of unfavorable or favorable, negative or positive, and cold or warm.
The second study involved 47 psychology students from a university in the UK. The study was established after the first study to ascertain whether the positive imagined contact in the anti-normative group of study 1 could have a positive impact on the evaluation of the outgroup as a whole. Measures that were used to check the norms of the group was based on the asking of questions. The answers from the students were recorded and analyzed. The different measures for the task included frequency of prior contact, quality of prior contact, and outgroup prejudice
Study 3 was created to overcome the limitation of study 1 and study 2 by increasing the sample size. The participants for the study were 180 United States citizens who were assigned to one of three imagine tasks include control, in-group anti-normative, and outgroup anti-normative. The procedure for the experiment was done by asking the participants to complete their imagination tasks. From the study, participants that imagined interacting with an outgroup person showed a difference in prejudice which became lower.
Findings
The findings from the study was that imagined contact with atypical outgroup members that are anti-normative within their group can reduce prejudice. The authors suggested that imagined contact with atypical outgroup members that are anti-normative should be used and not for those that are normative in order to achieve a significant effect of reduced bias.
The research article investigates whether imagined contact with atypical outgroup group members can help reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations. The theory is based on extant theories which predict prejudice reduction after contact with typical outgroup members. The hypothesis for the study was that imagining contact with anti-normative group members will aid in promoting positive intergroup attitude and reduce prejudice. This is achieved through reduction of intergroup threat and reinforcing in-group norms.
The results of the findings from study 1 showed that when the contact anti-normative instead of a normative outgroup member, the member was viewed as less typical and the contact was less threatening. One of the items studied about perceived threat showed that normative contacts were perceived to be more threatening than those in the anti-normative condition. The findings confirm the initial hypothesis that imagined contact with atypical group members can help create a positive intergroup attitude.
The results from the second study showed that participants who perceived in the in-group norm had a mean of 2.45 and standard deviation of 0.7. They were more favorable to the outgroup norm that had a mean of 3.30 and a standard deviation of 0.98. The results showed that there was an inherent bias and prejudice in the intergroup context. The psychology students showed that they believed that each group would show bias to its members and prejudice to outside members when allocating resources.
Author’s note
The research is based on analysis of prejudice and whether it can be reduced through imagined contact. The atypical outgroup members who are anti-normative can be defined as individuals that someone has never interacted with and would not easily conform to another individual’s social behavior.
Relation to the textbook
The study is similar to the textbook study about intergroup contact theory. The theory states that positive contact between individual members that come from different groups can help in improving intergroup relations. However, segregated social contexts rarely make contact increasing bias and prejudice among different groups. Imagined intergroup has been previously proposed as a way to reduce prejudice in instances where getting in contact with another individual is impossible and challenging.
Relevance to psychology The study can be applied in assisting the reduction of bias among individuals that never make contact. The findings show that imagined contact with an outgroup member will have a positive effect if the member is anti-normative instead of a normative member. The research can be used in media to create imagined contact among individuals that never are outbound and never meet. The images created by the media create imagined contact for individuals that are outgroup and anti-normative and thus help in reducing prejudice and bias.
Article 2: Can state-ways change folkways? Longitudinal tests of the interactive effects of intergroup contact and categorization on prejudice?
Introduction
Eller, Abrams, and Koschate (2017) was about predictable changes in social structure that takes place over a period of time and how it affects ingroup and outgroup members. The social structure that was investigated was the change from a segregated to the integrated social structure. The research explores the effects of contact with time throughout a legitimized transition within the intergroup structure of segregation to integration. The term legitimized is used to mean an external or an officially sanctioned change in social structure. This change in social structure occurs where people do not have any control and whether the constraints do not enable intergroup contact.
Participants and setting
The participants for the study were students and the setting for the study was in a high school in Germany. The study specifically examines how school students’ relationships with their peers from change as the classes become integrated into a common scale and grade. The methodology for the study was carried out through a three-stage longitudinal study carried out in intervals of six months. The sample size for study 1, study 2, and study 3 were 708, 435, and 418 respectively. The times were divided into two where time 1, labeled as T1, included structural segregation. Times 2 and 3, labeled as T2 and T3 was characterized by structural integration.
The study further investigated the impact that changes in intergroup structure had on the prejudicial perceptions of former and outgroup members. It investigates how both subjective categorization and the quality of the intergroup contact can affect important outcome variables that have been previously identified in the literature. The study examines various factors such as interpersonal closeness, intergroup anxiety, intergroup bias, and the desire for an outgoing friendship.
Findings
A longitudinal analysis between T1 and T2 was investigated. Results of the study showed that intergroup categorization as society moved from structural segregation to structural integration. The first hypothesis of the study was based on the intergroup contact theory which suggested that a higher quality of contact is going to reduce prejudice by causing positive intergroup relations over a period of time. The study was able to confirm that the hypothesis was true when the structural changes between the two phases resulted in significant reductions in intergroup bias and intergroup anxiety in the second phase.
The relationship between T2 and T3 showed a reduced intergroup bias and a decrease in interpersonal closeness in dual identity. There was an increased bias and reduced interpersonal closeness for superordinate categorization between T2 and T3. The study found that there was no intergroup categorization between time T2 and T3.
Author’s suggestion
The authors noted that the study provided a clear demonstration that both structural and temporal factors of the intergroup context have to be considered for an effective intergroup relation. At phase I for the study between T1 and T2, there was a significant reduction in prejudice. However, the effects of T2 and T3 did not have a significant reduction. However, there was an overall positive effect where there was a decrease in prejudice over time. The results from the study supported the intergroup contact theory. The authors suggested future research should focus on several years of structural integration and whether it would promote positive intergroup relations.
The authors also suggest questions for new research in situations where there could be forced integration or unjustifiable structural segregation. The expectation is that such a forced system would produce reactive effects instead of improving intergroup relations. Other variables such as status, system justification, and perceived legitimacy that can play an important moderating role in social structures should also be considered.
Relation to the textbook
According to the study from the textbook, prejudice among different groups can be reduced by exposing the different groups together. Establishing high-quality contact between members that come from the different social group is an established basis for reducing stereotyping and prejudice and to improve intergroup relations. The study focuses on the effect of changes in social structure on prejudice. It shows that the current changes in social structure increase intergroup contacts which ultimately reduces prejudice.
The literature from the intergroup study shows that there have been several studies in the past years that examine whether, how, and when intergroup relations and the structure of the intergroup context can reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations. However, previous studies do not examine the changes in prejudice and intergroup relations over time with respect to changes in social structure.
The research is relevant and important in the field of social psychology because it offers a time-series study with a greater focus on the broader changes in social structure. It offers a full understanding of the role of contact in intergroup relations. The study offers a solution to the sociological topic of prejudice. It offers an understanding of whether prejudice increases or decreases as social structures change over time.
The study can be applied in educational settings where it is desired to reduce social exclusion and prejudice. To enhance the educational climate in these institutions, social psychologists should find ways of engaging with policymakers and politicians. The groups should incorporate various psychological interventions that will blend effectively with the changing intergroup structures. The structures should be geared towards improving social contacts among people of different groups.
Abstract of Article 1:
Can imagining contact with anti-normative outgroup members be an effective tool for improving intergroup relations? Extant theories predict the greatest prejudice reduction following contact with typical outgroup members.
In contrast, using subjective group dynamics theory, we predicted that imagining contact with anti-normative outgroup members can promote positive intergroup attitudes because these atypical members potentially reduce the intergroup threat and reinforce in-group norms.
In Study 1 (N = 79) when contact was imagined with an anti-normative rather than a normative outgroup member, that member was viewed as less typical and the contact was less threatening. Studies 2 (N = 47) and 3 (N = 180), employed differing methods, measures, and target groups, and controlled for the effects of direct contact. Both studies showed that imagined contact with anti-normative outgroup members promoted positive attitudes to the outgroup, relative both to a no-contact control condition and (in Study 3) to a condition involving imagined contact with an in-group antinormative member.
Overall, this research offers new practical and theoretical approaches to prejudice reduction
Abstract of Article 2:
This research examined how a predictable change in the social structure over time (from segregated to integrated) can affect the way intergroup contact and subjective categorization of in-group and outgroup members (intergroup, superordinate, dual identity) impact on intergroup bias.
A three-stage longitudinal study was conducted with six-month intervals (Ns = 708, 435, 418) involving high school students in Germany. Time 1 (T1) was characterized by structural segregation and Times 2 and 3 (T2, T3) by structural integration. Longitudinal analysis between T1 and T2 showed that intergroup categorization (but not superordinate categorization or dual identity) improved intergroup relations.
Between T2 and T3, dual identity reduced intergroup bias and marginally increased interpersonal closeness whereas superordinate categorization increased bias and reduced interpersonal closeness. There were no effects of intergroup categorization between T2 and T3.
Overall, positive effects of contact increased over time, reaching significance from T2 to T3, supporting a consolidation hypothesis and intergroup contact theory more widely.
These findings are also consistent with a congruence hypothesis that the impact of intergroup contact is partly determined by the match between how people categorize ingroup and outgroup members and the social structure that frames intergroup relations.
References
Yetkili, O., Abrams, D., Travaglino, G. A., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2018). Imagined contact with atypical outgroup members that are anti-normative within their group can reduce prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 76 , 208-219.
Eller, A., Abrams, D., & Koschate, M. (2017). Can stateways change folkways? Longitudinal tests of the interactive effects of intergroup contact and categorization on prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 72 , 21-31.
