In psychology and media studies, the parasocial contact hypothesis is that positive portrayals of minority groups in mass media can reduce prejudice in a manner similar to that predicted by the contact hypothesis in social psychology. [1]
Developed by Edward Schiappa, Peter B. Gregg, and Dean E. Hewes in a series of studies conducted at the University of Minnesota, the theory is now widely cited. [2] [ original research? ] In 2016 it was recognized with the Woolbert Award of the National Communication Association as work "that has stood the test of time and has become a stimulus for new conceptualizations of communication phenomena.”
The basic premise of the Contact Hypothesis (also called Intergroup Contact Theory) formulated by Gordon Allport is that prejudice often stems from ignorance and stereotyping, and interpersonal contact under appropriate circumstances can break down such stereotypes and reduce prejudice. [3] As Allport put it, “a differentiated category is the opposite of a stereotype.” [3] Thus, the more a person learns about a minority category of people, the more differentiated that category is and the more resistant it is to being reduced to a negative stereotype. The Contact Hypothesis has been supported by decades of research. Thomas Pettigrew and Linda Tropp’s meta-analysis [4] of over 700 independent samples confirms the contact hypothesis for a variety of minority groups and conservatively estimates the average correlation between contact and prejudice as -.215 (N > 250,000, p < .0001).
Schiappa, et al. build on the contact hypothesis by integrating research on Parasocial Interaction (PSI), that is, the perceived relationship that audiences develop through mediated encounters with real and fictional characters. Consumers of media feel they get to know the characters they learn about and, in certain circumstances, feel they have a sort of relationship with those characters.
Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl described communicative interaction that results from the illusion of face-to-face contact between mass mediated performers and their audiences as “parasocial interaction,” a sort of “intimacy at a distance”. [5] The concept of parasocial interaction became increasingly attractive to mass communication scholars as more active views of the audience emerged in the second half of the 20th century—especially uses and gratification theory—and numerous empirical studies have utilized the idea to explore PSI’s antecedents, correlates, and consequences. [4]
The most common way to detect and measure parasocial Interaction has been a survey created by Rubin, Perse, and Powell [6] Their survey form, known as the RPP-PSI, treats parasocial interaction as a holistic experience that “may take many forms including seeking guidance from a media persona, seeking media personalities as friends, imagining being part of a favorite program’s social world, and desiring to meet media performers.”
Many studies have used the RPP-PSI instrument by adapting the items to “favorite soap opera character”, [7] [8] “favorite TV character”, [9] and for “favorite characters from a just-watched TV program”. [10] While these studies specifically rely on an adaptation of the Rubin, Perse, & Powell PSI survey form, other studies draw from the survey form while incorporating other survey instruments to answer, other studies draw from the instrument while incorporating other instruments to answer their research questions, such as wishful identification, [11] audience-persona interaction, the home shopping experience, [12] emotional appraisal, affinity for TV, and perceived realism of TV. In addition to the frequency in which the RPP-PSI instrument has been used or adapted for research, it has been institutionalized via its inclusion in Mass Communication Research Methods [13] as the exemplary measure of PSI.
A meta-analysis published by Schiappa, Mike Allen, and Peter Gregg suggests that the perception of parasocial relationships correlate with the amount of television viewing, affinity for TV viewing, the perception that TV content is real, the attractiveness of characters, perceived similarity with TV characters, and age. [14]
Since the introduction of the concept of parasocial interaction, researchers have argued that the original conceptualization of PSI as holistic or unidimensional is flawed and urged a multi-dimensional approach to account for the wide range of responses that media consumers have with mediated characters. Philip J. Auter and Philip Palmgreen expanded RPP-PSI to a 47-item questionnaire and developed a four-factor Audience Persona Interaction Scale, including identification, interest, group identification, and problem-solving abilities. [15] Sood and Rogers (2000) performed content analysis of letters written to a popular “edutainment” program in India and identified five different kinds of audience responses, described as cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement, and critical and referential involvement. Uli Gleich added three items to the RPP-PSI, which was translated into German, and recommends a three-factor solution for German viewers: companionship, person-program interaction, and empathetic interaction. [16]
Christoph Klimmt, Tilo Hartmann, Holger Schramm proposed a model in which not only is PSI conceptually multidimensional, but there are distinct “levels” of involvement with media personae that need to be measured. [17] Recent scholarship openly challenges the notion that PSI is unidimensional conceptually. [18] [19] A dissertation by Peter B. Gregg provided factor analysis of several studies focusing on parasocial responses and concluded that the specific variables and measures that should be used in future research depend on the aims of particular research projects, and that there is no reason to think that the range of measurable parasocial responses is any less diverse than those resulting from interpersonal contact. [20] Numerous researchers have noted the similarities between how we react to and think of mediated personae (whether fictive or real) and people we meet in person. As Rebecca Rubin and Alan Rubin note, PSI is “grounded in interpersonal notions of attraction, perceived similarity or homophily, and empathy”. [21] People use the same communication-related cognitive processes for both mediated and interpersonal contexts, and “people and media are coequal communication alternatives that satisfy similar communication needs and provide similar gratifications” (p. 59). [7] In other words: People make the same sort of analytical and affective judgments about mediated characters as they do with people they meet in real life, such as physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, predictability, perceived similarity (homophily), and likeability. [22] [23]
Positive portrayals of minority outgroups can reduce prejudice in one of two ways. The first is usually described as parasocial contact. Such research typically assumes that lack of meaningful interpersonal contact allows for the persistence of negative stereotypes and prejudice. As viewers learn about a minority group by observing positive media representations, they have the opportunity to form more favorable opinions about minority group members in terms of such traits as likeability, perceived similarity, physical attractiveness, predictability, and trustworthiness. The second way to reduce prejudice is by observing other majority group members interact positively with minority group members. This is called vicarious contact or learning, which can help “normalize” the minority group and reduce prejudice. [24]
In both cases, the hypothesized result of learning more about a minority group is to breakdown stereotypes and acquire a more complex set of cognitive schemata associated with that group. A 2020 meta-analysis by Banas, et al., included 79 cases and concluded that “positive mediated contact decreased [prejudice] (r = −.23; 95% CI, −.29 to −.17), whereas negative mediated contact increased prejudicial attitudes (r = .31; 95% CI, .24 to .38).” [25] When comparing parasocial and vicarious contact, the meta-analysis found no significant difference between the two routes; both have been demonstrated to reduce prejudice.
The PCH or similar intergroup contact theory has been utilized in research exploring the potential of mediated contact reducing prejudice toward a variety of minority groups, including the following:
The potential of new technologies to reduce stigma towards people with mental health problems, such as virtual reality, [38] has been examined. In this regard, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials [39] showed that there are several interventions to reduce stigma towards this population, such as video games, audiovisual simulation of hallucinations, virtual reality and electronic contact with mental health service users. The meta-analysis (n=1832 participants) demonstrated that these interventions had a consistent medium effect on reducing the level of public stigma (d=–0.64; 95% CI 0.31-0.96; p<.001). However, more research is needed in this field to determine the mechanisms of change and their medium- and long-term effects.
Based on the PCH and other social psychological research on stereotypes and social groups, Catalin Brylla has described a series of case studies of documentaries about marginalized groups in order to identify the best documentary narrative practices to reduce stereotypes and prejudice. [40]
Bradley J. Bond, “Parasocial Contact and Prejudice Reduction.” In The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology (John Wiley & Sons, 2020).
Peter B. Gregg and Edward Schiappa, “Parasocial Communication.” In Mike Allen, ed., The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2017): 1179-1182.
Edward Schiappa, Peter B. Gregg, & Dean E. Hewes, “The Parasocial Contact Hypothesis,” Communication Monographs, 72 (2005): 95-118.
Edward Schiappa, Peter B. Gregg, & Dean E. Hewes, “Can One TV Show Make a Difference? Will & Grace and the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis,” Journal of Homosexuality, 51 (2006): 15-37. Edward Schiappa, Beyond Representational Correctness (SUNY Press, 2008).
Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's perceived personal characteristics, such as political affiliation, sex, gender, gender identity, beliefs, values, social class, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, culture, complexion, beauty, height, body weight, occupation, wealth, education, criminality, sport-team affiliation, music tastes or other perceived characteristics.
Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group, or between social groups. The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, leadership studies, business and managerial studies, as well as communication studies.
The out-group homogeneity effect is the perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members, e.g. "they are alike; we are diverse". Perceivers tend to have impressions about the diversity or variability of group members around those central tendencies or typical attributes of those group members. Thus, outgroup stereotypicality judgments are overestimated, supporting the view that out-group stereotypes are overgeneralizations. The term "outgroup homogeneity effect", "outgroup homogeneity bias" or "relative outgroup homogeneity" have been explicitly contrasted with "outgroup homogeneity" in general, the latter referring to perceived outgroup variability unrelated to perceptions of the ingroup.
The uncertainty reduction theory, also known as initial interaction theory, developed in 1975 by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese, is a communication theory from the post-positivist tradition. It is one of the few communication theories that specifically looks into the initial interaction between people prior to the actual communication process. Uncertainty reduction theory originators' main goal when constructing it was to explain how communication is used to reduce uncertainty between strangers during a first interaction. Uncertainty reduction theory claims that everyone activates two processes in order to reduce uncertainty. The first being a proactive process, which focuses on what someone might do. The second being a retroactive process, which focuses on how people understand what another does or says. This theory's main claim is that people must receive information about another party in order to reduce their uncertainty and, that people want to do so. While uncertainty reduction theory claims that communication will lead to reduced uncertainty, it is important to note that this is not always the case. Dr. Dale E. Brashers of the University of Illinois argues that in some scenarios, more communication may lead to greater uncertainty.
Parasocial interaction (PSI) refers to a kind of psychological relationship experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers in the mass media, particularly on television and on online platforms. Viewers or listeners come to consider media personalities as friends, despite having no or limited interactions with them. PSI is described as an illusory experience, such that media audiences interact with personas as if they are engaged in a reciprocal relationship with them. The term was coined by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956.
In psychology and other social sciences, the contact hypothesis suggests that intergroup contact under appropriate conditions can effectively reduce prejudice between majority and minority group members. Following WWII and the desegregation of the military and other public institutions, policymakers and social scientists had turned an eye towards the policy implications of interracial contact. Of them, social psychologist Gordon Allport united early research in this vein under intergroup contact theory.
Social identity is the portion of an individual's self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.
Aversive racism is a social scientific theory proposed by Samuel L. Gaertner & John F. Dovidio (1986), according to which negative evaluations of racial/ethnic minorities are realized by a persistent avoidance of interaction with other racial and ethnic groups. As opposed to traditional, overt racism, which is characterized by overt hatred for and discrimination against racial/ethnic minorities, aversive racism is characterized by more complex, ambivalent expressions and attitudes nonetheless with prejudicial views towards other races. Aversive racism arises from unconscious personal beliefs taught during childhood. Subtle racist behaviors are usually targeted towards African Americans. Workplace discrimination is one of the best examples of aversive racism. Biased beliefs on how minorities act and think affect how individuals interact with minority members.
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example, an expectation about the group's personality, preferences, appearance or ability. Stereotypes are often overgeneralized, inaccurate, and resistant to new information. A stereotype does not necessarily need to be a negative assumption. They may be positive, neutral, or negative.
The self-expansion model proposes that individuals seek to expand their sense of self by acquiring resources, broadening their perspectives, and increase competency to ultimately optimize their ability to thrive in their environment. It was developed in 1986 by Arthur Aron and Elaine Aron to provide a framework for the underlying experience and behavior in close relationships. The model has two distinct but related core principles: the motivational principle and the inclusion-of-other-in-self principle. The motivational principle refers to an individual's inherent desire to improve their self-efficacy and adapt, survive, and reproduce in their environment. The inclusion-of-other-in-self principle posits that close relationships serve as the primary way to expand our sense of self as we incorporate the identities, perspectives, resources, and experiences of others as our own through these relationships.
The imagined contact hypothesis is an extension of the contact hypothesis, a theoretical proposition centred on the psychology of prejudice and prejudice reduction. It was originally developed by Richard J. Crisp and Rhiannon N. Turner and proposes that the mental simulation, or imagining, of a positive social interaction with an outgroup member can lead to increased positive attitudes, greater desire for social contact, and improved group dynamics. Empirical evidence supporting the imagined contact hypothesis demonstrates its effectiveness at improving explicit and implicit attitudes towards and intergroup relations with a wide variety of stigmatized groups including religious minorities, the mentally ill, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and obese individuals. Researchers have identified a number of factors that influence the effectiveness of the imagined contact hypothesis including vividness of the imagery and how typical the imagined outgroup individual is. While some researchers question the effectiveness of the imagined contact hypothesis, empirical evidence does suggest it is effective at improving attitudes towards outgroups.
Intergroup anxiety is the social phenomenon identified by Walter and Cookie Stephan in 1985 that describes the ambiguous feelings of discomfort or anxiety when interacting with members of other groups. Such emotions also constitute intergroup anxiety when one is merely anticipating interaction with members of an outgroup. Expectations that interactions with foreign members of outgroups will result in an aversive experience is believed to be the cause of intergroup anxiety, with an affected individual being anxious or unsure about a number of issues. Methods of reducing intergroup anxiety and stress including facilitating positive intergroup contact.
Patricia Grace Devine is a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was the psychology department chair from 2009 to 2014. She was also the 2012 president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
There is a great deal of research on the factors that lead to the formation of prejudiced attitudes and beliefs. There is also a lot of research on the consequences of holding prejudiced beliefs and being the target of such beliefs. It is true that advances have been made in understanding the nature of prejudice. A consensus on how to end prejudice has yet to be established, but there are a number of scientifically examined strategies that have been developed in attempt to solve this social issue.
Anthony Edward Schiappa, Jr. is an American scholar of communication and rhetoric, currently Professor of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he holds the John E. Burchard Chair of Humanities; from 2013 to 2019, he also served as the program's Head. Previously, he spent seventeen years in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Minnesota, the last seven of which he served as chair. He is the author of numerous books and articles that have appeared in classics, communication, English/Composition, philosophy, psychology, and law journals.
Group threat theory, also known as group position theory, is a sociological theory that proposes the larger the size of an outgroup, the more the corresponding ingroup perceives it to threaten its own interests, resulting in the ingroup members having more negative attitudes toward the outgroup. It is based on the work of Herbert Blumer and Hubert M. Blalock Jr. in the 1950s and 1960s, and has since been supported by multiple studies. Other studies have not found support for the theory. Its predictions are contrary to those of the contact hypothesis, which posits that greater proximity between racial/ethnic groups under appropriate conditions can effectively reduce prejudice between majority and minority group members.
Intergroup relations refers to interactions between individuals in different social groups, and to interactions taking place between the groups themselves collectively. It has long been a subject of research in social psychology, political psychology, and organizational behavior.
In social psychology, a metastereotype is a stereotype that members of one group have about the way in which they are stereotypically viewed by members of another group. In other words, it is a stereotype about a stereotype. They have been shown to have adverse effects on individuals that hold them, including on their levels of anxiety in interracial conversations. Meta-stereotypes held by African Americans regarding the stereotypes White Americans have about them have been found to be largely both negative and accurate. People portray meta-stereotypes of their ingroup more positively when talking to a member of an outgroup than to a fellow member of their ingroup.
Diversity ideology refers to individual beliefs regarding the nature of intergroup relations and how to improve them in culturally diverse societies. A large amount of scientific literature in social psychology studies diversity ideologies as prejudice reduction strategies, most commonly in the context of racial groups and interracial interactions. In research studies on the effects of diversity ideology, social psychologists have either examined endorsement of a diversity ideology as individual difference or used situational priming designs to activate the mindset of a particular diversity ideology. It is consistently shown that diversity ideologies influence how individuals perceive, judge and treat cultural outgroup members. Different diversity ideologies are associated with distinct effects on intergroup relations, such as stereotyping and prejudice, intergroup equality, and intergroup interactions from the perspectives of both majority and minority group members. Beyond intergroup consequences, diversity ideology also has implications on individual outcomes, such as whether people are open to cultural fusion and foreign ideas, which in turn predict creativity.
Fiona A. White is an Australian academic. She is a professor of social psychology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and director of the Sydney University Psychology of Intergroup Relations (SUPIR) Lab., and degree coordinator of the Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science (BLAS). She has been a lead author on four editions of Developmental Psychology: From Infancy to Adulthood. White is known as the developer of the E-contact intervention, a synchronous online tool that has been found to reduce anxiety, prejudice, and stigma.
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