Humanizing information helps most after bad experiences with outgroups

What is it about?

When people read or hear negative things about a group, it's tempting to assume the damage is done. This research tested a more hopeful possibility: that simply describing an outgroup in a humanizing way, emphasizing their emotions, thoughts, and inner life, can repair some of that damage, especially for people who've had the most negative experiences with that group. Across two studies, one in Switzerland with 135 people focused on immigrants, and one in Kosovo with 300 people focused on the Roma, we gave participants either a humanizing news article about the outgroup, a positive-but-not-humanizing article, or (in the Kosovo study) no information at all. We also measured how much negative direct contact each person had previously had with that outgroup. The results were consistent across both studies: people who reported a lot of negative past contact responded strongly to the humanizing information, showing less anxiety, more empathy (in the Kosovo study), and more willingness to act supportively toward the outgroup. People who had little negative past contact showed almost no difference between conditions, their attitudes were already stable. Reduced anxiety and increased empathy were the specific reasons humanizing information worked for the high-negative-contact group.

Featured Image

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Negative intergroup contact is common and tends to do more damage to attitudes than positive contact does good, yet most interventions are designed without considering who has actually had bad experiences with the outgroup in question. This research shows that a brief piece of humanizing information, something as simple as a short news article, can specifically help repair attitudes among the people who need it most: those carrying negative direct experience with that group. This has practical value for media organizations, educators, and anyone designing public communication about immigrants, refugees, or stigmatized minorities, since it suggests the way a group is portrayed matters most precisely for the audience members who are hardest to reach through generic positive messaging.