Many studies have shown that intergroup contact is a useful tool for improving intergroup relations. But, interventions based on real contact are costly and are difficult to put into practice. Recent research therefore focused on indirect contact forms. In the present article, the effectiveness of an experimental intervention with elementary school children based on imagined contact was examined. This imagined contact rests on the idea that simply imagining a positive contact experience with a member from the outgroup may be sufficient to ameliorate negative attitudes between groups. Studies have shown that imagined contact improves intergroup attitudes, behavioural intentions, enhances projection of positive traits to the outgroup, reduces stereotype threat and increases confidence about successful future intergroup interactions. Evidence also shows that imagined contact exerts its effects through reduced anxiety and improved intergroup attitudes.

In the present study, imagined contact was tested as a strategy to improve explicit and implicit intergroup attitudes in an educational setting. There have not been many studies of this kind. In one of the previous studies, the researchers asked non-disabled children (5 to 10-year old) to imagine a positive interaction with a disabled child. The results indicated that children in the experimental condition (compared to children in the control condition) had more positive attitudes, behavioural intentions and stereotypes of warmth toward disabled children. The effect on behavioural intentions was found only among younger children (5- and 6-year old). Dependent measures were assessed immediately after the imagination task, so the researchers couldn’t evaluate the longevity of the imagined contact effect.

In the current study, the writers carried out an experimental intervention with 5-th graders, by testing the effectiveness of imagined contact on behavioural intentions and implicit prejudice toward immigrants. Examining implicit prejudice is interesting. Explicit attitudes have been associated with more controlled behaviours and implicit attitudes predict a wide range of non-verbal and subtle behaviour. So, holding negative attitudes at an implicit level may have detrimental effects on intergroup relations and prevent the formation and duration of new cross-group friendships. This is important in educational contexts, where children start to socialize with outgroup peers. Explicit attitudes are conscious and can be easily controlled and implicit attitudes are largely unintentional and less influenced by social desirability concerns. Studies have shown that children display implicit ingroup bias at least by age 6. Other studies have shown that explicit prejudice appears in 3 to 4-year-old children and starts to decline at 7-8-years of age. Implicit prejudice has been shown to be relatively stable across children’s development. Examining the factors that can counter the implicit negativity toward outgroups in children is crucial for a better understanding of how to improve intergroup relations. Research has shown that implicit attitudes are shaped by repeated exposure to positive outgroup exemplars. It is likely that imagined contact affects implicit attitudes through exposure to positive outgroup exemplars. However, in that case, exposure to outgroup targets is indirect, because positive exemplars are imagined and not encountered. The writers of the current study wanted to show that children exposed to imagined contact would reveal greater interest for contact with outgroup peers. To further advance the indirect contact research, the writers examined self-disclosure as a mediator of imagined contact. Self-disclosure is the voluntary presentation of intimate and personal information to another person. Research has found that self-disclosure is often reciprocated and leads to mutual attraction. Self-disclosure is also a crucial component of friendships. Fostering self-disclosure toward outgroup members can facilitate the initiation of new friendships across group boundaries. Studies have shown that self-disclosure mediates the effects of direct and extended contact on improved intergroup attitudes. The writers of the current study imagined that contact would enhance the intention to disclose personal information to immigrant children and that this would in turn lead to more favourable intended behaviours toward them. The writers think that imagined contact fosters self-disclosure and that in turn positive outgroup behaviour intentions would arise. The writers also thought that positive intergroup interactions would strengthen the association between outgroup targets and positive concepts and would reduce implicit prejudice.

The study

In this study, Italian 5-th graders (average age 10,5 years) were used. The children were randomly allocated to the experimental or control condition. Children in the experimental condition took part in three intervention sessions. The interventions took place in small groups (5 to 6 children) and were implemented once a week for 3 consecutive weeks. The children were asked to imagine having a pleasant interaction with an unknown immigrant child who had just arrive from a foreign country. The writers varied the context in which the children imagined the contact scenario. Every week the imagined interaction took place in a different setting, with a different child. The first week it took place at school, the second week in the neighbourhood and in the third week it took place at the park. In each sessions, the children were given 15 minutes to write down a detailed description of the imagined encounter. They had to focus on the immigrant’s characteristics, on the games they experienced together and on the things that the participants and outgroup children said in order to become friends. Studies have shown that enhanced elaboration has an empowering effect on imagined contact. The children also engaged in a brief discussion of about 10 minutes with the research assistant about what they had just imagined. One week after the last sessions, participants were given questionnaires containing the dependent measures. This questionnaire tested self-disclosure and ingroup and outgroup behavioural tendencies. They also completed a child version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Children in the control condition just completed the questionnaire and the Child IAT and did not engage in imagined contact intervention sessions.

The results showed that participants who engaged in the mental simulation of positive contact experiences with members of the outgroup expressed more positive outgroup behavioural intentions and less implicit prejudice than participants in the control condition. The effect of the experimental intervention on outgroup behavioural intentions was mediated by self-disclosure. This research shows that imagined contact can be important as a first step for facilitating future intergroup encounters. Self-disclosure is an important component of friendships and it tends to be reciprocated. Therefore, the development of intention to self-disclose to an outgroup member can start the formation of future cross-group friendships. The writers found that imagined contact improved implicit attitudes. The effects of experimental condition on implicit bias was unmediated. This is consistent with the finding that explicit and implicit attitudes are distinct. Imagining and then discussing an imagined intergroup interaction could have strengthened the mental associations between positive attributes and the outgroup category. Previous studies assessed the effects of imagined contact immediately after the mental simulation task, but this has raised discussions over the long-term effectiveness of the technique. In the current study, the writers measured the criterion variables one week after the last intervention session. This means that the findings offer an important demonstration of the longevity of the imagined contact effects. Future studies could examine longer periods between intervention sessions and data collection or they could vary the number of sessions.