Reducing Prejudice Towards Transgender Individuals

Reducing Prejudice towards Transgender Individuals -reduced prejudice through online interaction promoting intergroup contact between trans and non-trans -assessed prior transgender contact and transgender stigma -group contact reduced stigma in cisgender men but not in women who already had a lower level of stigma Use of entertainment education to reduce prejudice - ‘We show that entertainment-education reduces prejudice and does so more effectively than several established prejudice reduction methods. In Experiment 1, participants exposed to an educational television sitcom with diverse, yet relatable Arab/Muslim characters had lower scores on implicit and explicit measures of prejudice than participants exposed to a control sitcom featuring an all White cast. The prejudice reduction effect persisted 4 weeks after exposure. In Experiment 2, viewing of a 4-minute music video that portrayed Arabs/Muslims as relatable and likable resulted in a larger reduction in prejudice against Arabs/Muslims than two established prejudice reduction methods (imagined contact exercise and group malleability article), which produced no improvements. In both experiments, increased identification with target group members was associated with greater prejudice reduction. Entertainment-education, in addition to being scalable, is likely to be one of the most effective methods for improving intergroup relations and promoting diversity. (Murrar and Brauer study, 2018) Our study -reducing trans prejudice but by using an entertainment method (trans superhero) -this is improving on the original as, through using an entertainment method this can be used to prevent trans prejudice from developing in children due to being age-appropriate and easily accessed (in everyday TV watching) -easier to implement as an intervention for young people than intergroup contact -group A would be exposed to entertainment including positive depiction of trans people -group B would watch a cisgender superhero (*just an idea, could be changed) How does it advance on the first study/ why is using entertainment better than e-contact? -moves towards a way to implement the intervention within society (through media) -allows to target younger individuals -is a less ‘direct’ way of promoting contact so more subtle and easier to carry out in reality -indirect particularly good if pandemic continues -can also be done more regularly than e-contact method -could also be used alongside the original study’s method, as Crisp and Turner (2009) proposed the idea of a continuum of contact and that different types of contact might be maximally effective at different stages of social integration Hypothesis: -exposure to entertainment positively depicting a transgender individual will reduce transgender prejudice in young people Method Design: -between subject experiment -IV: positive portrayal of transgender individual vs. of a cisgender individual -DV: transphobia reduction -conditions: positive media depiction vs. neutral condition Materials: -transgender superhero entertainment -neutral entertainment -Could think of how to improve the measure they used in original study (they used quite an explicit scale, e.g., I would not sit next to a transgender person on a bus). We could potentially use an implicit one? Controlling extraneous variables: -Have you had any contact with transgender individuals? Manipulation Check What do you think the true purpose of the study was? Procedure: -need a pilot study? -would we expose media at one point in time or longitudinally? -randomly assigned to either condition -complete transphobia measure before -exposure to media (how often?) -re-presented with transphobia measure -control questionnaire and debrief Data analysis: Normality assumptions No significant outliers Normally distributed in a bell curve Homogeneity of variances What analyses will be conducted to examine the hypothesis? Parametric = Independent t-test Non-parametric = Mann Whitney U Post – Hoc Analyses G* Power will be employed retrospectively to determine if the sample size obtained was sufficient. Data Exclusions: Individuals presenting with extremely transphobic attitudes (Quartile 3- Quartile 4) prior to exposure Individuals who have come into contact with an individual from the transgender community Results: Discussion: Rationale Why is the study needed? evidence that children are highly aware of social categories like ‘male’ and ‘female’ >gender roles are emphasised in children (e.g., boys vs. girls, dolls vs. cars, blue vs. pink) >children naturally like to maintain category norms >children showed preference for own race >Quinn et al, 2002: children showed a gender preference for the same gender as their caregiver (Implicit recognition) >shows importance of familiarity >children unfamiliar with the trans concept >Bigler 1995: -asked to say who liked least -boys said all girls in class (not just 5) -children with positive bias for own gender likely to play with same gender, increasing stereotypes External: Explicit attributions -children internalise stereotypical beliefs (e.g., boys don’t wear pink) reduced familiarity increases threat >children more fearful of different races’ face >preference for own social group >intergroup threat theory Stephan & Stephan, 2000: outgroup show symbolic threat (symbolically harmful) >group members who are relatively unfamiliar with the outgroup tend to be more susceptible to threat than those who have extensive knowledge of the outgroup (Chasteen, 2005; Corenblum & Stephan, 2001) threat increases prejudice attitudes >integrated threat theory (Stephan, Watler & Stephan, 2000) > Cottrell and Neuberg (2005): Different groups elicited different profiles of emotion and threat reactions. White college students reported fearing African Americans, being disgusted by gay men increased familiarity reduces threat and thus prejudice >intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954) evidence prejudice can be reduced through positive media portrayal of a group >prejudice reduction lecture also found that it’s most effective to target this at younger ages to intervene earlier and prevent development of attitudes >social learning theory >there’s a need for inclusive media: Movies (Robinson, Callister, Magoffin, & Moore, 2007) Weisbuch et al. (2009): Race biases can be subtly transmitted via televised nonverbal behaviour. >DePalma & Jennett, 2010: - heteronormativity is a cultural phenomenon underpinning recognisable acts of aggression -the institutional culture of school must be transformed as a whole, and this must begin at the beginning, as soon as children first walk through the school gate >’Create group learning environments which implement the necessary contact conditions as part of the day-to-day educational process’ (Johnson & Johnson, 2000)