Perspective-Taking Increases Willingness to Engage in Intergroup Contact

Cosimo Urgesi,Gillian Ku,Adam D Galinsky,Tai Kenneth,Cynthia S Wang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085681

Abstract

The current research explored whether perspective-taking increases willingness to engage in contact with stereotyped outgroup members. Across three studies, we find that perspective-taking increases willingness to engage in contact with negatively-stereotyped targets. In Study 1, perspective-takers sat closer to, whereas stereotype suppressors sat further from, a hooligan compared to control participants. In Study 2, individual differences in perspective-taking tendencies predicted individuals' willingness to engage in contact with a hooligan, having effects above and beyond those of empathic concern. Finally, Study 3 demonstrated that perspective-taking's effects on intergroup contact extend to the target's group (i.e., another homeless man), but not to other outgroups (i.e., a man of African descent). Consistent with other perspective-taking research, our findings show that perspective-taking facilitates the creation of social bonds by increasing contact with stereotyped outgroup members.

Highlights

From local communities to international relationships, a key to building effective interactions with stereotyped outgroups is finding ways to overcome prejudice and stereotyping
We focus on a social strategy that has been argued to effectively create and maintain social bonds – perspective-taking [28]
The 2 X 2 betweenparticipants ANOVA on the number of tasks participants were willing to engage in revealed a significant interaction, F(1, 108) = 3.94, p = .05 (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

From local communities to international relationships, a key to building effective interactions with stereotyped outgroups is finding ways to overcome prejudice and stereotyping. One method to decrease stereotyping and prejudice is increasing contact between different social groups [1]. A problem with this method is that prejudice and stereotyping may beget a host of negative approach behaviors such as out-group derogation, aggression, and even genocide and war [2,3,4], an arguably more basic and common reaction in day to day living is sheer avoidance and a reluctance to have contact with stereotyped outgroups [2,5,6]. Contact can decrease prejudice and stereotyping, prejudice itself may prevent willingness to engage in contact. This dilemma raises the question of how to increase willing intergroup contact. We suggest that perspective-taking – actively imagining another’s viewpoint – will increase individuals’ willingness to engage in contact with stereotyped outgroup members

Methods

Results

Conclusion