Taking advantage of direct contact intercultural videos to implement vicarious contact: A school-based intervention

Although direct, face-to-face contact between groups is more and more frequent in multicultural societies, phenomena of ethnic re-segregation and practical and organizational difficulties make interventions based on direct contact impractical. However, recent research showed that also observing ingroup members interacting with outgroup individuals is sufficient to improve outgroup attitudes. Based on these premises, we implemented a vicarious intergroup contact intervention, using stimuli created with a previous direct intergroup contact intervention. The aim was to create an engaging intervention for schools, where videos of direct contact at school would inform a subsequent vicarious contact intervention. Participants belonged to both the ethnic majority (Italian) and the ethnic minority group (immigrant), and were all high-school students. In the preparatory direct contact phase, participants took part in a competition for the best video on intercultural friendships. This way, we obtained the stimuli for the second phase. In the vicarious contact phase, videos created in the first phase were shown to participants who had not taken part in the direct contact phase. Results showed that vicarious contact, compared with a control condition, improved outgroup attitudes, reduced negative outgroup stereotypes, and increased intentions to have contact with outgroup members. Interestingly, these effects only emerged when intercultural friendships in the videos were clearly noticeable. The effects were mediated by inclusion of the other in the self, thus confirming the role of this variable in explaining vicarious contact effects. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings.