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Can (elaborated) imagined contact interventions reduce prejudice among those higher in intergroup disgust sensitivity ( ITG‐DS )?
Author(s) -
Hodson Gordon,
Dube Blaire,
Choma Becky L.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12281
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , disgust , psychology , moderation , social psychology , psychological intervention , affect (linguistics) , association (psychology) , relaxation (psychology) , psychotherapist , anger , communication , psychiatry
Intergroup disgust sensitivity ( ITG‐DS ) reflects an affect‐laden revulsion toward out‐groups. Previous attempts to weaken its prediction of prejudice have failed. Given that clinical approaches to disgust sensitivity successfully utilize mental imagery, we consider contact simulation interventions. Participants were randomly assigned to control, standard imagined contact, or an elaborated contact condition (elaborated imagined contact [ EIC ]; detailed imagination involving physical contact with a homeless person, with relaxation instructions). Both contact conditions (vs. control) significantly weakened the link between ITG‐DS and prejudice, yet only EIC weakened the relation between ITG‐DS and out‐group trust. Mediated moderation analysis confirmed that EIC significantly attenuated the link between ITG‐DS and prejudice through increasing trust. Clinically relevant treatments are thus valuable in severing the association between (a) ITG‐DS and (b) lower out‐group trust and greater out‐group prejudice.