Imagined contact encourages prosocial behaviour towards outgroup members

Meleady, Rose ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4671-4960 and Seger, Charles (2017) Imagined contact encourages prosocial behaviour towards outgroup members. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20 (4). pp. 447-464. ISSN 1368-4302

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Abstract

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 non-verbal, 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 prisoners 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.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	behavioral economics,intergroup contact,imagined contact,outgroup trust,prosocial behavior
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Social Cognition Research Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	22 Mar 2016 09:10
Last Modified:	19 Apr 2023 00:52
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57646
DOI:	10.1177/1368430215612225

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