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Experiment 1

In Experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis that imagining intergroup contact would increase people’s tendency to approach the out-group. [...]

Participants The participants in Experiment 1 were 36 British high school students (19 male, 17 female) who were aged 16 and 17. They were randomly allocated to either the imagined-contact condition or a control condition.

Procedure We created two sets of instructions, which were designed to either evoke participants’ imagination of a detailed interaction with an out-group member, or their imagination of an encounter with an unspecified individual. Participants who were assigned to the imagined-contact condition were shown a picture of an asylum seeker.Male participants were shown a picture of a young man (“Tarafa”), while female participants were shown a picture of a young woman (“Sandra”). The participants were then instructed as follows: [Verbal Stimulus A]. In the control condition, male participants were shown a picture of “Tom,” while female participants were shown a picture of “Sarah.” Participants were then instructed as follows: [Verbal Stimulus B]. Participants in both conditions were given 2 min to imagine the scenario [...]. [...]

Measures Following this manipulation, participants completed a short social attitudes questionnaire. Items on the scale were rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much). To assess out-group attitude, participants completed a feeling thermometer measure, in which they were asked to indicate on a scale of 0 to 100 how positive they felt toward asylum seekers in general. To measure out-group trust, participants were asked,“I would be able to trust an asylum seeker stranger as much as any other stranger,” and “I would be able to trust an asylum seeker with personal information about myself ”. The items used to measure approach behavioral tendencies [...]. Participants were asked to indicate agreement with the following statements:“In general,when thinking of asylum seekers, I want to . . .” which was followed with (a) talk to them; (b) find out more about them; and (c) spend time with them [...]. [...]

Experiment 2

[...] First, we wanted to investigate the strength of out-group trust and attitude as mediators while including intergroup anxiety [...]. [...] In order to understand the impact of imagined contact on behavioral tendencies in more depth and, given that we believe that imagined contact should help to prepare people for direct contact by eliminating negative expectations, as well as generating positive expectations, we also measured tendencies to avoid the out-group. [...] Third, to investigate whether our findings would generalize to different intergroup contexts, we used a different participant group (i.e., university students) and a different target out-group (i.e., gay people). Finally, we adapted the imagined contact task slightly: we asked participants to imagine contact that involved a common interest.

Participants Study participants were 41 undergraduate students (14 male, 27 female) who identified themselves as straight. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 21 years, and they were randomly assigned to the imagined contact condition or the control condition.

Procedure We created two sets of instructions, designed to either invoke participants’ imagination of a detailed interaction with an out-group member, or their imagination of an encounter with an unspecified individual. [...] After listing three interests, the participants were then asked to put a star beside their favorite of these three activities. Participants were then instructed, [Verbal Stimulus A]. In the control condition, participants were asked, [Verbal Stimulus B]. [...]

Measures Following this manipulation, participants completed a short questionnaire on social attitudes.Out-group attitude and outgroup trust [...] were measured as in Experiment 1, but with gay people as the target out-group. The intergroup anxiety measure was adapted from Stephan and Stephan (1985). [...] Approach behavioral tendencies were measured as in Experiment 1, but with gay people as the target group [...]. [...] Participants were asked to indicate agreement with the following statements: “In general, when thinking of gay people, I want to . . . ,” which was followed by the items “avoid them,” “keep them at a distance,” and “have nothing to do with them.” These items were rated on a 7-point scale [...]. [...]