Individual paper summary

Brief Introduction to my topic

Hindu and Muslim conflict has always been present in India from pre-colonial times
to the current times. These conflicts have culminated in killings, the tearing down of religious
monuments and discrimination that continues to impact Muslims in their daily lives.
Additionally, the current Prime Minister has very strong Hindu sentiments which have caused
an intensification of these differences and conflict.
Therefore, given the detrimental consequences of the prejudice between Hindus and
Muslims, I would like to study whether imagined contact reduces prejudice in the context of
the Hindu-Muslim conflict.
Research Question
Does imagined contact lower prejudice in the Hindu-Muslim context in India?
Three concepts or topics from this course you will integrate
Prejudice and Discrimination as discussed in week 3, Intergroup threat as discussed in week 4
and Interethnic contact as a remedy for prejudice as discussed in week 5.
Mention the theoretical approach(es) that you plan to use
I will use Allport’s contact hypothesis as my main theoretical approach. Additionally, I will
use the theoretical approach of Crisp and Turner (2009) specifically for imagined contact.
Outline of my paper
 Begin with contact theory – introduce 4 tenets
 State method and findings of Pettigrew & Tropp (2006) for a more contemporary
perspective of the contact hypothesis
 In order to understand how exactly intergroup contact reduces prejudice, Pettigrew &
Tropp (2008) study the mediation effects of information, intergroup anxiety and
empathy – perspective taking.
 Main critique of the contact hypothesis is that it’s only open to a situation where two
groups have the opportunity to be in contact.
o Give examples – Catholics and protestants in Ireland
o Hindus and Muslims in India
 Introduce the Hindu and Muslim conflict
 The power of social imagery – Mental imagery has been found to elicit emotional and
motivational responses similar to those of real experiences (Dadds, Bovbjerg, Redd,
& Cutmore, 1997)
 Imagined Intergroup contact - Imagined intergroup contact is the mental simulation of
a social interaction with a member or members of an outgroup category. The basic
idea is that mentally simulating a positive contact experience activates concepts
normally associated with successful interactions with members of other groups. These
can include feeling more comfortable and less apprehensive about the prospect of
future contact with the group, and this reduced anxiety should reduce negative
outgroup attitudes.
 Mention previous studies that have used imagined intergroup contact.
o West et al. (2011) - Four studies investigated the effect of imagining
intergroup contact on prejudice against people with schizophrenia.
 o Smith and Minescu (2021) - A field experiment tests the prejudice reduction
effects of a teacher-led activity integrating imagined intergroup contact and
normative influence.
o Stathi et al. (2014)The present research tested a prejudice-reduction
intervention based on imagined contact. White children imagined interacting
with a child from an ethnic out-group (Asian) once a week for 3 weeks or did
not take part in this activity (control group).
o De Carvalho-Freitas and Stathi (2017) In this research we test the
effectiveness of imagined intergroup contact as an intervention that improves
attitudes toward people with disabilities in organizational settings.
 Although existing literature has studied intergroup contact and in the Hindu-Muslim
context (Maiti et al., 2020; Tusicisny, 2017), literature has not investigated this
context using imagined contact. This brings me to my research question: does
imagined contact lead to a reduction in prejudice in the Hindu-Muslim context?
 Study design for my research inspired by West et al. (2011)
o The study will first be done with a Hindu sample, with the aim of reducing
prejudice toward Muslim Indians.
 Independent variables – control condition (opinions about Muslims)
experimental condition (imagining contact with Muslims)
 Participants assigned to the imagined contact condition to take 5
minutes to imagine meeting, for the first time, a Muslim stranger. They
were asked to “Imagine their appearance, the conversation that follows
and, from what you learn, all the different ways you could classify
them into different groups of people”. Participants assigned to the
control condition were instructed to complete a priming task as
follows: “We would like you to take 5 minutes to think about
Muslims”.
 At the same time, both sets of participants also received the following
instructions: “We want you to spend the time thinking, but also please
write down, from time to time, the things that you imagine. Please
write clearly and feel free to write down whatever springs to mind”. In
both conditions, participants were given 5 minutes to complete the
task.
 Following this manipulation, participants will report their levels of
intergroup anxiety and attitudes toward Muslim Individuals.
 Dependent variables – intergroup anxiety and attitudes towards
Muslims
 To assess intergroup anxiety, participants were asked to complete a
shortened measure based on Stephan and Stephan (1985): “If you were
to meet a Muslim individual in the future, how do you think you would
feel?” They reported, on a 7-point scale, how “Awkward”, “Happy”
(reversed), “Self-Conscious”, “Competent” (reversed), and “Relaxed”
(reversed) they would feel (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very; Cronbach’s α
= .80).
 To measure attitudes, the short version of the Generalized Group
Attitude Scale by Maiti et al. (2020) administered to Hindu participants
(i) It really upsets me to hear anyone say anything negative about
Muslims (reverse coded); (ii) Muslims have some very bad
characteristics; (iii) I have very positive attitudes towards Muslims
(reverse coded); (iv) There is little to admire about Muslims; (v)
 Sometimes I think India would be better off without so many Muslims.
Responses were provided on a five-point scale (1 = strongly disagree
to 5 = strongly agree). The short version of the Generalized Group
Attitude Scale is the sum of the five items with higher values
representing more prejudicial attitudes.
o The study will be repeated with a Muslim sample, with the aim of reducing
prejudice toward Hindus.
 Independent variables – control condition (opinions about Hindus)
experimental condition (imagining contact with Hindus)
 Participants assigned to the imagined contact condition to take 5
minutes to imagine meeting, for the first time, a Hindu stranger. They
were asked to “Imagine their appearance, the conversation that follows
and, from what you learn, all the different ways you could classify
them into different groups of people”. Participants assigned to the
control condition were instructed to complete a priming task as
follows: “We would like you to take 5 minutes to think about Hindus”.
 At the same time, both sets of participants also received the following
instructions: “We want you to spend the time thinking, but also please
write down, from time to time, the things that you imagine. Please
write clearly and feel free to write down whatever springs to mind”. In
both conditions, participants were given 5 minutes to complete the
task.
 Following this manipulation, participants will report their levels of
intergroup anxiety and attitudes toward Hindu Individuals.
 Dependent variables – intergroup anxiety and attitudes towards Hindus
 To assess intergroup anxiety, participants were asked to complete a
shortened measure based on Stephan and Stephan (1985): “If you were
to meet a Hindu individual in the future, how do you think you would
feel?” They reported, on a 7-point scale, how “Awkward”, “Happy”
(reversed), “Self-Conscious”, “Competent” (reversed), and “Relaxed”
(reversed) they would feel (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very; Cronbach’s α
= .80).
 To measure attitudes, the short version of the Generalized Group
Attitude Scale by Maiti et al. (2020) administered to Muslim
participants (i) It really upsets me to hear anyone say anything negative
about Hindus (reverse coded); (ii) Hindus have some very bad
characteristics; (iii) I have very positive attitudes towards Hindus
(reverse coded); (iv) There is little to admire about Hindus; (v)
Sometimes I think India would be better off without so many Hindus.
Responses were provided on a five-point scale (1 = strongly disagree
to 5 = strongly agree). The short version of the Generalized Group
Attitude Scale is the sum of the five items with higher values
representing more prejudicial attitudes.