Tolerant discourse in the United States has responded to heightened stereotyping of Muslims as violent by countering that not all Muslims are terrorists. This subtyping of Muslims–-as some radical terrorists among mostly peaceful moderates –-is meant to protect a positive image of the group but leaves the original negative stereotype unchanged…

Conflict-resolution interventions based on the paradoxical thinking principles, that is, expressing amplified, exaggerated, or even absurd ideas that are congruent with the held conflict-supporting societal beliefs, have been shown to be an effective avenue of intervention, especially among individuals who are adamant in their views. However,…

In this dissertation, I explored how mass mediated contact‚s effects on intergroup bias would change in the multi-group context. The dissertation suggested parasocial outgroup-outgroup contact as a new form of multi-group contact, and tested its impact on intergroup bias. Parasocial outgroup-outgroup contact is contact between members of two…

This experiment examined the effects of pattern of disconfirming information (concentrated vs. dispersed) and processing instructions (focus on similarities vs. differences vs. control) on stereotype change. If subtyping and perceived typicality are central to the stereotype change process, then processing instructions designed to affect these…

In an effort to identify effective strategies for reducing prejudice, this research tested whether stigmatized individuals can evoke a common identity to deflect discrimination. In an initial survey, gay/lesbian/bisexual participants reported a preference for evoking common identity in intergroup interactions. In two experiments, straight male…

Individuals often conform to the intergroup attitudes and behaviors modeled by their peers in a given situation. To what extent does peer influence on intergroup prejudice 1) diffuse across a social network of peers and 2) affect attitudes and behavior across time? Student leaders (“Peer Trainers”) were trained to confront expressions of…

Past research has demonstrated the powerful influence other people have on the thoughts and behaviors of individuals. However, the study of intergroup attitudes has focused primarily on the influence of direct exposure to out-group members as determinants of stereotypes and prejudice. Two experiments tested the hypothesis…

Within the framework of an intergroup relations paradigm, three studies analysed the role of in-group threat in intergroup discrimination and the influence of in-group norms on intergroup discrimination. The first study showed that perceived socio-economic threat underlies Swiss nationals' prejudice and discrimination toward foreigners in…

This article explores the neglected issue of how attempts to change perceived variability might positively, or adversely, affect attempts to change central-tendency measures of stereotyping. Two studies investigated the impact of group variability on stereotype change. Study 1 crossed pattern of disconfirming information (concentrated/dispersed…

Perceived variability is a relatively unexplored prejudice reduction approach. We developed a new intervention and tested it in two pre-registered experiments–-in field and online laboratory settings. Across both experiments, we found that the intervention did not reduce prejudice. As expected, higher perceived variability correlated with lower…