ERIC Number: EJ1367590
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Feb
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1381-2890
EISSN: EISSN-1573-1928
Using Fiction to Improve Intergroup Attitudes: Testing Indirect Contact Interventions in a School Context
Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, v26 n1 p81-105 Feb 2023
The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention using indirect intergroup contact for improving intergroup attitudes in schools, in particular anti-Roma prejudice. Vicarious contact--a form of indirect intergroup contact--can be experienced through fictional book characters, who can serve as positive role models in terms of intergroup attitude improvement. A vicarious contact experiment was conducted with sixth grade students (N = 177) from three Slovak elementary schools, using passages from the Harry Potter series. A "three-group pretest-posttest design" was adopted; experimental condition 1 involved reading passages without subsequent discussion, experimental condition 2 involved reading the same passages followed by a discussion, while the control group was not involved in any activities. There was a significant improvement of intergroup attitudes in experimental condition 2 compared to the control group, while condition 1 did not show any such improvement. The first contribution of the study is in tackling conceptually distinct mediators of the intervention's effect--perspective taking and narrative transportation. The second contribution is in demonstrating the added value of discussion in interventions focused on prejudice reduction in schools.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Migrants, Population Groups, Travel, Migration, Minority Groups, Ethnic Groups, Intergroup Relations, Elementary School Students, Student Attitudes, Grade 6, Intervention, Fiction, Control Groups, Social Bias, Attitude Change
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 6; Intermediate Grades; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Slovakia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A