Perspective-taking to reduce prejudice: A Colombian field study
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2019-06-30
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en
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Abstract
The present study investigated whether perspective taking could positively affect Colombians’
evaluations of and behavioral intentions towards Venezuelan refugees. Another aim of this
project was to explore mediators of perspective-taking, namely increased empathy and trust as
well as reduced anxiety (Aberson & Haag, 2007; Tam et al., 2009). The results show that our
intervention was not significant but higher self-reported levels in perspective-taking lead to more
positive explicit evaluations and marginally more positive behavioral intentions. This effect was
mediated by empathy but the link to explicit evaluations was mediated by trust and anxiety as
well. Still, besides empathy, no mediators are well established in the scientific literature. Future
studies should try to replicate the discovered role of trust and anxiety in perspective-taking as
well as find other mediators that clarify how perspective-taking works. Knowledge on the
mechanism should help to improve perspective-taking interventions in future studies. Our study
shows that individual differences in perspective-taking play a significant role in reducing
prejudice towards out-group members so inducing higher levels of perspective-taking might help
in spreading more positive views on immigrants, refugees, and foreigners.
Keywords: prejudice, perspective-taking, intergroup conflict, Colombian, Venezuelan
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen