The Impact of Negative Parasocial and Vicarious Contact with Refugees in the Media on Attitudes toward Refugees

Abstract

Contact with members of outgroups is an important factor for ingroup members’ attitudes toward these groups. Ingroup members can also come into contact with outgroups in the media. This media contact can take different forms: parasocial contact, when the audience simply observes outgroups; or vicarious contact, when ingroup audience members witness fellow ingroup members interacting with outgroups. However, extant research does not test whether these two forms of media contact differ in their effects on outgroup attitudes. In addition, we lack empirical evidence on the negative media contact effects and the role of predispositions, such as previous personal contact with outgroups. In two experiments, we test the differential effects of negative parasocial and vicarious contact on audience members who differ in their previous personal contact with refugees. The results show that negative parasocial and vicarious contact increase negative outgroup attitudes (Studies 1 & 2). While study 1 shows that negative vicarious contact results in more negative attitudes toward refugees, especially for people with no or little contact, a replication study does not corroborate this finding. Overall, negative parasocial and vicarious contact with refugees increase prejudice toward refugees. Personal contact does not inoculate individuals against this mediated contact effect.

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Notes on contributors

Christian Schemer

Christian Schemer (Ph.D., University of Zurich, 2010) is a professor of communication in the Department of Communication at Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz. His research interests include media representations of social groups and the effects of media portrayals of social groups on intergroup attitudes.

Christine E. Meltzer

Christine E. Meltzer (Ph.D., University of Mainz, 2016) is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Communication at Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz. Her research interests include media effects in the context of migration and violence.