Humanizing the homeless: Does contact erode stereotypes?

Knecht, Tom; Martinez, Lisa M.

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.01.009

Cited by 42 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…All told, 79 service-learning students and 234 volunteers completed both the pre-and postsurvey. An extended discussion of this methodology and its limits is found in Knecht and Martinez (2009), but here we briefly highlight a few considerations. The students in our study were from courses in a variety of disciplines, including political science, English, sociology, and theater arts.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging the Reluctant? Service Learning, Interpersonal Contact, and Attitudes toward Homeless Individuals

Knecht

Martinez

2012

APSC

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the extent to which service-learning courses affect students' attitudes and opinions. Elsewhere, we used a pre/postsurvey field experiment to demonstrate that volunteering with a homeless person tends to erode the stereotypes held by the domiciled-a confirmation of the venerable contact hypothesis. Here we use the same research design to assess whether students in service-learning courses exhibit a similar type of opinion change after spending a day with a homeless person. We find that even with limited contact a significant number of service-learning students came away from their time with homeless individuals holding fewer stereotypes and with a more nuanced perspective on the causes and consequences of homelessness. Nevertheless, working with a homeless person did have a negative effect on some students and contact generally failed to change students' views on public policy.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging the Reluctant? Service Learning, Interpersonal Contact, and Attitudes toward Homeless Individuals

Knecht

Martinez

2012

APSC

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In Fiske, Cuddy, Glick and Xu's (2002) stereotype content model, perceptions of outgroups can be condensed along two axes-competence and warmth (e. g., Jews are stereotyped as competent but hostile, while older adults are stereotyped as incompetent but warm). These groups tend to engender different emotional reactions, but pure derogation, contempt, and disgust is reserved for groups that are perceived as both incompetent and hostile, such as homeless people (Knecht & Martinez, 2009). Homeless people are stereotyped as dirty, lazy, morally bankrupt, and potentially dangerous (Whaley & Link, 1998).…”

Section: Expe Rime Ntmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imagined contact can be more effective for participants with stronger initial prejudices

West

Hotchin

Wood

2017

J Applied Social Pyschol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Imagined contact is an intervention that combines the prejudice‐reduction of intergroup contact with the easy, low‐risk application of imagery‐based techniques. Accordingly, it can be applied where direct contact is difficult or risky. However, a possible limitation of imagined contact is that it may not be effective for participants with stronger initial prejudices, which would limit its usefulness and application. Two experiments (N1 = 103, N2 = 95) investigated whether initial prejudice moderated imagined contact's effects on explicit attitudes, behavioral intentions (Experiment 1), implicit attitudes, and petition‐signing behaviors (Experiment 2) toward two different outgroups. In both experiments, imagined contact was more effective when initial prejudice was higher. Implications for imagined contact theory and application are discussed.

show abstract

“…Education has a mixed impact, boosting tolerant attitudes toward the homeless while reducing support for economic assistance (Phelan et al 1995). Virtually any kind of exposure to homelessness—observing homeless persons, living in a community with a homeless presence, or having experienced homelessness oneself—as been found to erode stereotypes and render attitudes more positive (Knecht & Martinez 2009; Lee et al 1991, 2004; Toro et al 2007). However, sympathetic attitudes may turn hostile if shelters or services are about to be sited next door.…”

Section: Public and Media Viewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The New Homelessness Revisited

2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ‘new homelessness’ has drawn sustained attention from scholars over the past three decades. Definitional inconsistencies and data limitations rendered early work during this period largely speculative in nature. Thanks to conceptual, theoretical, and methodological progress, however, the research literature now provides a fuller understanding of homelessness. Contributions by sociologists and other social scientists since the mid-1990s differentiate among types of homelessness, provide credible demographic estimates, and show how being homeless affects a person's life chances and coping strategies. Agreement also exists about the main macro- and micro-level causes of homelessness. Active lines of inquiry examine public, media, and governmental responses to the problem as well as homeless people's efforts to mobilize on their own behalf. Despite the obstacles faced when studying a stigmatized population marked by high turnover and weak anchors to place, recent investigations have significantly influenced homelessness policy. A greater emphasis on prevention should further strengthen the research-policy nexus.

show abstract

Humanizing the homeless: Does contact erode stereotypes?

Cited by 42 publications

References 24 publications

Engaging the Reluctant? Service Learning, Interpersonal Contact, and Attitudes toward Homeless Individuals

Engaging the Reluctant? Service Learning, Interpersonal Contact, and Attitudes toward Homeless Individuals

Imagined contact can be more effective for participants with stronger initial prejudices

The New Homelessness Revisited

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About