Imagine Me and You, I Do: Effects of imagined intergroup contact on anti‐fat bias in the context of job interviews

Stephanie Merritt; Cari Gardner; Kelli Huber; Breanna Wexler; Christina M. Banister; Amy Staley

doi:10.1111/jasp.12492

Imagine Me and You, I Do: Effects of imagined intergroup contact on anti‐fat bias in the context of job interviews

Stephanie Merritt, Cari Gardner, Kelli Huber, Breanna Wexler, Christina M. Banister, Amy Staley

University of Missouri-St. Louis

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

<div class="line" id="line-7"> <span style='color: rgb(28, 29, 30); font-family: "Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;'> Imagined intergroup contact (IIC) has been demonstrated to alleviate prejudice toward social groups as a whole, but the extent to which it prevents biases in ratings of individual job candidates has not yet been examined. This study uses a simulated employment interview where a female candidate either higher or lower in body fat is rated by participants who have undergone an IIC or a control manipulation. IIC successfully alleviated discrimination in ratings of interviewee competence but had no significant effect on ratings of warmth. Competence ratings fully mediated the effect of the two&hyphen;way interaction of IIC and interviewee body fat on a dichotomous hiring recommendation provided 1 week later. IIC may be an effective and inexpensive intervention for reducing bias in job interview contexts. </span></div>

Original language	American English
Journal	Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Volume	48
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12492
State	Published - Feb 2018

Disciplines

Psychology

Access to Document

10.1111/jasp.12492License: Unspecified

Cite this

@article{c1f9dbf0b45d45aba873e8ef6b0c3d47,

title = "Imagine Me and You, I Do: Effects of imagined intergroup contact on anti‐fat bias in the context of job interviews",

abstract = " Imagined intergroup contact (IIC) has been demonstrated to alleviate prejudice toward social groups as a whole, but the extent to which it prevents biases in ratings of individual job candidates has not yet been examined. This study uses a simulated employment interview where a female candidate either higher or lower in body fat is rated by participants who have undergone an IIC or a control manipulation. IIC successfully alleviated discrimination in ratings of interviewee competence but had no significant effect on ratings of warmth. Competence ratings fully mediated the effect of the two&hyphen;way interaction of IIC and interviewee body fat on a dichotomous hiring recommendation provided 1 week later. IIC may be an effective and inexpensive intervention for reducing bias in job interview contexts. ",

author = "Stephanie Merritt and Cari Gardner and Kelli Huber and Breanna Wexler and Banister, {Christina M.} and Amy Staley",

note = "Imagined intergroup contact (IIC) has been demonstrated to alleviate prejudice toward social groups as a whole, but the extent to which it prevents biases in ratings of individual job candidates has ...",

year = "2018",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1111/jasp.12492",

language = "American English",

volume = "48",

journal = "Journal of Applied Social Psychology",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Imagine Me and You, I Do: Effects of imagined intergroup contact on anti‐fat bias in the context of job interviews

AU - Merritt, Stephanie

AU - Gardner, Cari

AU - Huber, Kelli

AU - Wexler, Breanna

AU - Banister, Christina M.

AU - Staley, Amy

N1 - Imagined intergroup contact (IIC) has been demonstrated to alleviate prejudice toward social groups as a whole, but the extent to which it prevents biases in ratings of individual job candidates has ...

PY - 2018/2

Y1 - 2018/2

N2 - Imagined intergroup contact (IIC) has been demonstrated to alleviate prejudice toward social groups as a whole, but the extent to which it prevents biases in ratings of individual job candidates has not yet been examined. This study uses a simulated employment interview where a female candidate either higher or lower in body fat is rated by participants who have undergone an IIC or a control manipulation. IIC successfully alleviated discrimination in ratings of interviewee competence but had no significant effect on ratings of warmth. Competence ratings fully mediated the effect of the two&hyphen;way interaction of IIC and interviewee body fat on a dichotomous hiring recommendation provided 1 week later. IIC may be an effective and inexpensive intervention for reducing bias in job interview contexts.

AB - Imagined intergroup contact (IIC) has been demonstrated to alleviate prejudice toward social groups as a whole, but the extent to which it prevents biases in ratings of individual job candidates has not yet been examined. This study uses a simulated employment interview where a female candidate either higher or lower in body fat is rated by participants who have undergone an IIC or a control manipulation. IIC successfully alleviated discrimination in ratings of interviewee competence but had no significant effect on ratings of warmth. Competence ratings fully mediated the effect of the two&hyphen;way interaction of IIC and interviewee body fat on a dichotomous hiring recommendation provided 1 week later. IIC may be an effective and inexpensive intervention for reducing bias in job interview contexts.

UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jasp.12492

U2 - 10.1111/jasp.12492

DO - 10.1111/jasp.12492

M3 - Article

VL - 48

JO - Journal of Applied Social Psychology

JF - Journal of Applied Social Psychology

ER -

Imagine Me and You, I Do: Effects of imagined intergroup contact on anti‐fat bias in the context of job interviews

Abstract

Disciplines

Access to Document

Other files and links

Cite this