Cameron, Lindsey and Rutland, Adam and Turner, Rhiannon N. and Holman-Nicolas, Rosie and Powell, Claire (2011) Changing attitudes with a little imagination’: Imagined contact effects on young children’s intergroup bias. Anale de Psychologia, 27 (3). pp. 708-717. ISSN 0212-9728. (Full text available)
The current research tested a recent development in social psychology, namely ‘imagined contact’, among young children (n = 123, 5 to 10 years). Children imagined interacting with a physically disabled child, or did not take part in this activity (the control group). Compared with the control group, children who engaged in ‘imagined contact’ subsequently showed reduced inter-group bias in their general attitude and ratings of warmth and competence. Imagined contact also led to more positive intended friendship behavior towards the disabled, but only among 5 – 6 year olds. This provides partial support for our hypothesis that younger children, perhaps as a result of their lack of out-group experience, are more likely to benefit from imagined contact. Implications for the development of attitudes towards the disabled, imagined contact theory and the development of classroom-based prejudice-reduction techniques based on imagined contact are discussed.
|Subjects:||B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology|
|Divisions:||Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Psychology|
|Depositing User:||Lindsey Cameron|
|Date Deposited:||10 May 2011 11:03|
|Last Modified:||18 Jul 2014 10:41|
|Resource URI:||https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/27770 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)|