Peer-Reviewed Journal Details
Mandatory Fields
Smith E.M.;Minescu A.
2022
August
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
The imaginary friends of my friends: Imagined contact interventions which highlight supportive social norms reduce children¿s antirefugee bias
Published
()
Optional Fields
children¿s prejudice towards refugees imagined intergroup contact school intervention social norms
25
5
1295
1311
Fostering inclusive attitudes among children in host classrooms is key to integrating refugee children. A field experiment tests the prejudice reduction effects of a teacher-led activity integrating imagined intergroup contact and normative influence. To enhance the effectiveness of imagined contact, scenarios include supportive ingroup norms. In 29 classes, 545 children (Mage = 10.88, SD = 0.96) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: standard imagined contact, imagined contact encouraged by family, class peers, or religious ingroups, or a control. Children in all norm-framed imagined contact conditions had significantly less antirefugee bias compared with the control. The class-peer norm frame significantly reduced affective and cognitive facets of bias. The family norm frame reduced affective bias, and the religious norm frame reduced cognitive bias. Standard imagined contact did not differ from the control. Potential mediating pathways are explored. These findings illustrate the utility of incorporating norms into imagined contact interventions to reduce antirefugee bias among schoolchildren.
1368-4302
10.1177/13684302211002899
Grant Details