Spontaneous imagined intergroup contact and intergroup relations: Quality matters

While research on experimental interventions that aim to improve outgroup attitudes via contact imagery grows, it is important to examine if contact imagery that occurs in spontaneous, non‐experimentally controlled conditions drives attitudes, and in what direction. To answer this, we constructed and validated a spontaneous imagined intergroup contact scale (SIICS) that differentiates between frequency, quality and elaboration of the spontaneous imagery of outgroups. In three correlational studies (NPortugal = 305, NUnited Kingdom = 185, NItaly = 276), we tested the role of spontaneous imagined contact frequency, quality and elaboration in predicting attitudes and social distance (Studies 1‐3) and intended behaviour (Study 3) toward immigrant groups. Results demonstrated that spontaneous imagined contact quality consistently predicted key outcome variables above and beyond the other two dimensions. Importantly, the effects were significant while controlling for other potent forms of direct and indirect contact. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed

The societal relevance of communities in the COVID-19 era

Non peer reviewe

The week after:Do the effects of imagined contact last over time?

The vast majority of studies assessing the prejudice reduction properties of imagined contact have focused so far on the immediate effects of the intervention. In an attempt to contribute to the literature examining the long-term effects of imagined contact, the two studies reported in this paper tested the immediate and long-term effects of imagined contact on outgroup attitudes, intergroup anxiety, and behavioral intentions in Experiment 1, and also on contact self-efficacy in Experiment 2. Both studies were conducted in a context of entrenched intergroup conflict, Cyprus. The results supported the effectiveness of imagined contact in eliciting more positive attitudes, lower levels of anxiety, more positive behavioral intentions, and higher contact self-efficacy when these were measured immediately after contact. However, evidence for the endurance of these effects was systematically found only for outgroup attitudes and intergroup anxiety. While these results speak to the ability of imagined contact to lead to long-term changes in important and commonly studied intergroup outcomes, lack of consistent evidence regarding its ability to yield lasting changes on variables pertaining to intended behavior toward the outgroup compose a challenge for the intervention

The association between transgender-related fiction and transnegativity: Transportation and intergroup anxiety as mediators

Fictional narratives can serve as an indirect contact strategy when direct contact between two groups is not feasible. This study investigated whether exposing cisgender individuals to transgender-related fiction was associated with reduced transnegativity. Two emotion-related mediators were examined in this relationship: transportation into the story (proximal to fiction exposure) and intergroup anxiety (proximal to contact theory). Cisgender participants (N = 84) viewed or read stories involving transgender characters or read a science article. Those who encountered transgender characters reported lower transnegativity than those who read the control story. Transportation into the story and intergroup anxiety serially mediated this relationship. The findings suggest conditions under which a fictional story can expand an audience’s social world and thereby serve as a strategy for prejudice reduction

Putting ourselves in another’s skin: using the plasticity of self-perception to enhance empathy and decrease prejudice

The self is one the most important concepts in social cognition and plays a crucial role in determining questions such as which social groups we view ourselves as belonging to and how we relate to others. In the past decade, the self has also become an important topic within cognitive neuroscience with an explosion in the number of studies seeking to understand how different aspects of the self are represented within the brain. In this paper, we first outline the recent research on the neurocognitive basis of the self and highlight a key distinction between two forms of self-representation. The first is the “bodily” self, which is thought to be the basis of subjective experience and is grounded in the processing of sensorimotor signals. The second is the “conceptual” self, which develops through our interactions of other and is formed of a rich network of associative and semantic information. We then investigate how both the bodily and conceptual self are related to social cognition with an emphasis on how self-representations are involved in the processing and creation of prejudice. We then highlight new research demonstrating that the bodily and conceptual self are both malleable and that this malleability can be harnessed in order to achieve a reduction in social prejudice. In particular, we will outline strong evidence that modulating people’s perceptions of the bodily self can lead to changes in attitudes at the conceptual level. We will highlight a series of studies demonstrating that social attitudes towards various social out-groups (e.g. racial groups) can lead to a reduction in prejudice towards that group. Finally, we seek to place these findings in a broader social context by considering how innovations in virtual reality technology can allow experiences of taking on another’s identity are likely to become both more commonplace and more convincing in the future and the various opportunities and risks associated with using such technology to reduce prejudice

Neuroscienze sociali: un nuovo settore di ricerca

La neuroscienza sociocognitiva è una disciplina ancora alla sua infanzia, ma che ha davanti a sé prospettive affascinanti e di sicuro interesse, grazie al suo approccio multidisciplinare. La presente rassegna è volta a presentare alcuni studi che evidenziano la grande rilevanza che questa disciplina può avere nell'implementare e sviluppare le attuali teorie della psicologia sociale