The Effect of Similarity to a Transitional Role Model of an Entertainment–Education Narrative Designed to Improve Attitudes Toward Immigrants: Evidence from Three European Countries

ABSTRACT

This study addresses the factors that increase the persuasive impact of entertainment – education (EE) narrative messages designed to improve attitudes toward immigrants. Specifically, the effect of the demographic similarity between the protagonist of the narrative message (a transitional character) and the audience is studied. Three online experiments were carried out simultaneously in Greece (N = 286), Italy (N = 295), and Spain (N = 294) to evaluate the indirect effect of demographic similarity on identification with the protagonist through perceived similarity, as well as the specific indirect effects on attitude, perceived threat, intergroup anxiety, and prosocial behavior toward immigrants, while including perceived similarity, identification, meaningful affect, and cognitive elaboration as mediating mechanisms. The results obtained in the three countries were in accordance, indicating that demographic similarity increased perceived similarity and, in turn, identification. Furthermore, identification was associated with greater cognitive elaboration and meaningful affect, and both processes, in turn, were associated with more positive attitudes toward immigrants (in all three countries) and also with less perceived threat and more prosocial behavior (in two countries). The findings are discussed in relation to the reduction of prejudice using EE narratives that inspire audiences through cognitive and emotional processes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/95mts/ and https://osf.io/95m7s.

Notes

1. Note that we use the concept of attitude toward immigration in a broad sense. Psychosocial research on prejudice has found that attitudes toward immigration are associated with perceived threat, intergroup anxiety, and stereotypic beliefs (e.g., Cowling et al., 2019; Jedinger & Eisentraut, 2020; Stephan et al., 1998). It follows that any intervention designed to reduce prejudice should have an impact on attitudes, but also on those variables that are associated with a negative attitude toward the outgroup (such as perceived threat and intergroup anxiety). Indeed, experimental studies on prejudice reduction using EE narrative messages often use several measures as dependent variables, referred to as “outcome prejudice measures” (Murrar & Brauer, 2018, Experiment 1, p. 1059: feelings thermometers, modern racism scale, Implicit Association Test and behavioral measures of prejudice), “prejudice measures” (Murrar & Brauer, 2018, Table 1, p. 1063), “outgroup variables” (Murrar & Brauer, 2018, Table 1, p. 1063), “outgroup variables” (Dale & Moyer-Gusé, 2021, Figure 1, p. 8: willingness to interact with outgroup, African Americans, and attitudes toward outgroup, measured using a feelings thermometer), or “prejudice” (Siem et al., 2021, p. 53: prejudice toward Muslims on feelings thermometers, and attitudes toward Muslims on semantic differentials based on a modified version of the Modern Racism Scale). Likewise, research on the impact of inspirational messages designed to reduce prejudice has found that the intention of prosocial behavior represents an important outcome variable (Oliver et al., 2021). Exposure to inspirational content can orient people toward issues beyond themselves, promote greater connection with others, and stimulate altruistic behaviors (Raney et al., 2021). For example, Bartsch et al. (2018), in their work on reducing stigma toward persons with disabilities, included a measure on behavioral intentions toward persons with disabilities (e.g., participants’ willingness to engage in different behaviors to assist people with disabilities). In this context, our work employs a design with multiple dependent variables, including measures of attitudes (toward immigrants), but also measures of threat perception, intergroup anxiety, and prosocial behavioral intention. It is worth mentioning that the content of the EE narrative messages used in the present study was linked to these measures (see “Design and procedure” section and also the full description of the EE narrative message in Appendix 2, available via the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/95m7s/).

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this manuscript was developed within the framework of two funded research projects: (1) “Preventing Hate Against Refugees and Migrants (PHARM, https://pharmproject.usal.es/)” funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020. Grant Agreement number: 875217; (2) “Transitional Characters in Entertainment-Education Narratives Designed to Reduce Prejudice Against Immigrants: Attributes, Boundary Conditions and Explanatory Mechanisms” (TRANCHAR) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). Reference: PID2021-122655NB-I00.