Efficacy of imagined contact intervention with children and adolescents in reducing negative intergroup outcomes: A systematic review

Imagining a better world: assessing the immediate and delayed effects of imagined contact on attitudes toward refugees in elementary school

“…Our aim of this study was to assess the short-term and long-term effectiveness of the imagined contact intervention conducted in lower and upper grades of elementary school on the change in children’s attitudes and contact intentions toward refugee children. We designed an imagined contact intervention in a way that tried to respond to previously established obstacles ( Husnu and Crisp, 2010 ; Miles and Crisp, 2014 ; Vezzali et al, 2015c ; Ülger et al, 2018 ; Smith and Minescu, 2022a , 2022b ; Vrdoljak et al, 2023 ) that could be the reason why the intervention is sometimes effective in changing attitudes toward outgroup members, and sometimes not. Specifically, we tried to amplify the vividness of the imagined interaction in intervention by developing modified scenarios, using multiple sessions, and incorporating reinforcement techniques after imagining positive interaction with the refugee child.…”

“…The goal of this study is to provide schools with an effective, widely applicable and easily adaptable imagined contact intervention. However, results of a recent systematic review suggest that imagined contact interventions conducted with younger children might be more effective than those conducted with children older than 11 ( Vrdoljak et al, 2023 ). These differences in intervention effectiveness could stem from differences in developmental stages, or they could point to differences in methods used.…”