Can imagined intergroup contact change (internal) dialogues on differences between ingroup and outgroup?

Abstract

Puchalska -Wasyl, M. M. (2019). Can imagined intergroup contact change (internal) dialogues on differences between ingroup and outgroup? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 60, 181-188.Several positive functions have been ascribed to integrative internal dialogues (IDs), which are based on mutual openness to a partner's viewpoint and a readiness to consider his/her arguments in order to potentially modify one's own stance. As the technique of imagined intergroup contact (IIC) favorably influences attitudes towards outgroup members, it was hypothesized that IIC would have a beneficial impact on IDs with an outgroup member when the dialogue is focused on differences between ingroup and outgroup. In the experiment, 151 people (80 women) participated. It revealed that after IIC, both the dialogue author's confrontational attitude and the interlocutor's integrative attitude decreased. Thus, IIC made participants less inclined to gain an advantage over their imagined outgroup interlocutors and more inclined to give them freedom in IDs. However, the effect was significant only when the author's involvement in ID was high or medium.

The use of strategies from the social sciences to inform pipeline development programs for under-represented minority faculty and students in the health sciences

“…This method has been employed frequently with student participants reporting increased self-reflection, awareness of self as a member of a social group, knowledge about structural group inequality, perspective taking, and motivation and actions to bridge differences (24). Additionally, Puchalska-Wasyl (25) found that intergroup contact reduced confrontational attitudes and made participants less inclined to gain an advantage over outgroup members, increased mutual openness to different viewpoints, and enhanced readiness to consider the arguments of others. By reducing social distance and encouraging intergroup contact, pipeline programs may be able to the reduce social isolation experienced by URM students.…”