Promoting Support for Public Health Policies Through Mediated Contact: Can Narrator Perspective and Self-Disclosure Curb In-Group Favoritism?

An online 2 × 2 factorial experiment (N = 203) examined the effect of parasocial contact on support for public health policies in the context of opioid addiction. We hypothesize that because of an intergroup dynamic, individuals are less likely to engage with an outgroup character than an in-group character featured in a news magazine article. Results support the in-group favoritism hypothesis. The study examines two narrative devices for overcoming this tendency: the narrator’s perspective and amount of insight into the character’s inner world through character self-disclosure. We find support for the narrator perspective but not for the self-disclosure effect. Finally, the study compares the effects of different types of character involvement with the in-group and the out-group character on support for social policies. The results indicate that readers identify with an in-group character to assist the out-group rather than empathizing with the out-group directly. Keywords: parasocial contact, character identification, parasocial relationships, opioid addiction, public health policies According to the intergroup contact theory, direct experience with members of other, lower-status social groups can improve intergroup relationships, reduce social uncertainty, and counteract prejudice (Allport, 1954). Moreover, intergroup contact is hypothesized to foster support for social policies that benefit the marginalized group. For instance, research has found that White individuals who have interacted with Black individuals and cisgender people who have met a transgender person report more favorable attitudes toward compensatory and preferential policies benefiting these groups (Brockman & Kalla, 2016; Dixon et al., 2010). In a similar vein, among non-Muslim Americans, reliance on information from personal contact with Muslims decreases support for military action in Muslim countries and civil restrictions on Muslim Americans (Saleem, Riva Tukachinsky: Emily Brogan-Freitas: Tessa Urbanovich: Date submitted: 2019‒06‒03 1 This work was supported by the School for Communication