Using Electronic Contact to Reduce Homonegative Attitudes, Emotions, and Behavioral Intentions Among Heterosexual Women and Men: A Contemporary Extension of the Contact Hypothesis

Journal of Sex Research
Fiona A WhiteAngus Kervinen

Abstract

The current study experimentally examined the potential for a contemporary extension of the contact hypothesis, known as electronic contact, or E-contact, to reduce sexual prejudice, intergroup anxiety, and avoidant behavioral intentions among heterosexuals. It also extended the sexual minority contact literature by examining the role of participant and interaction partner sex as a possible boundary condition of this contact-prejudice relationship. To test our hypotheses, 140 heterosexual female and male university students were randomly allocated to interact with a homosexual or heterosexual, female or male E-contact partner, in a collaborative and text-only online interaction before completing the outcome measures. Overall, the results demonstrated that interacting online with a female, as opposed to a male, homosexual E-contact partner reduced heterosexual men's feelings of intergroup anxiety, which in turn was associated with lower sexual prejudice and outgroup avoidance. For heterosexual women, however, E-contact did not influence the outcome variables. In the context of sexual prejudice, these results suggest that E-contact may be particularly useful as a prejudice-reduction strategy among individuals who typically requir...Continue Reading

References

Mar 4, 2006·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Nick Haslam, Sheri R Levy
Jun 2, 2006·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology·Thomas F Pettigrew, Linda R Tropp
Sep 12, 2006·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Jennifer J RatcliffCeleste J Snyder
May 9, 2007·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology·Christiana VonofakouAlberto Voci
Sep 22, 2012·Annual Review of Psychology·Gregory M Herek, Kevin A McLemore
Apr 24, 2014·Journal of Sex Research·Sebastian E BartoşPeter Hegarty
Sep 13, 2016·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Ashley LytleBonita London

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Citations

Apr 19, 2019·The Journal of Social Psychology·Rachel D MaunderFiona A White

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Software Mentioned

contact
AJAX
SPSS

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