Ameliorating transnegativity: assessing the immediate and extended efficacy of a pedagogic prejudice reduction intervention

ABSTRACT

We demonstrate that pedagogic interventions utilising mediated contact and the parasocial contact hypothesis provide an effective means of instantiating both an immediate and long-term reduction in prejudice towards transgender people. Through application of the parasocial contact hypothesis, our quasi-experiment demonstrates that exposure to the combined intervention of a panel presentation and a trans-themed film resulted in a significant reduction of self-reported prejudice immediately after exposure and this effect persisted up to 6 weeks later in a sample of 66 female university students. In addition to testing this effect, we also assess the relationship between prejudice towards transgender people and other forms of prejudice, including old-fashioned and modern prejudice towards gay men and lesbian women. In doing so we demonstrate that prejudice towards trans people appears to be conceptually related to prejudice towards gay men and not lesbian women. Limitations and directions for future research are explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnegativity
• transphobia
• parasocial contact
• prejudice reduction
• pedagogic interventions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daragh T. McDermott

Daragh McDermott is principal lecturer of social & LGBTQ Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. His research focusses on prejudice towards sexual and gender minorities and the development of prejudice reduction interventions.

Ashley S. Brooks

Ashley Brooks is a social psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. His primary interests are in societal attitudes towards and stereotypes about gender and sexual minorities, gender and sexual minority identity development, and psychometric scale development with a particular reliance on mixed methods.

Poul Rohleder

Poul Rohleder is a reader in clinical psychology at the University of East London, London, UK. He is predominantly a qualitative researcher, taking a critical psychology approach, with research interests in sexuality, sexual health, diversity, and mental health.

Karen Blair

Karen Blair is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and director of KLB Research. Dr. Blair studies the role that social support for relationships plays in the development, maintenance and dissolution of relationships, LGBTQ Psychology, and the connections between relationships, social prejudices and health. Dr. Blair’s work has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the SocialScience and Humanities Research Council, the American Institute of Bisexuality, the Gay and Lesbian MedicalAssociation’s Lesbian Health Fund, Patreon, and Experiment.com.http://www.drkarenblair.com

Rhea Ashley Hoskin

Rhea Ashley Hoskin is a SSHRC-CGS doctoral candidate at Queen’s University Ontario (Canada) in the Department of Sociology. Rhea’s research applies an intersectional lens to the topics of femme theory, femme identity, gender identity, social determinants of health and feminist theory. http://www.ashleyhoskin.ca

Lorraine K McDonagh

Lorraine K. McDonagh is a Research Associate at the research department of primary care and population health at University College London. She is a specialist in sexual health and well-being, psychometrics, and sexual minority issues. Her research interests include sexually transmitted infections, digital health (eHealth), behaviour change, and intervention development.