Vicarious contact via positive storytelling to reduce prejudice in Greek Cypriot children

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of an indirect contact intervention via positive storytelling in Greek Cypriot children to enhance attitudes, behavioural intentions and trust towards Turkish Cypriots and other groups (secondary transfer effects) and to reduce intergroup anxiety. The sample comprised of 112 Greek Cypriot children aged 9-12. The participants were randomly assigned into an intervention and a control group. The participants in the intervention condition took part in a 3-week intervention that involved reading cross-group friendship stories between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot children. The findings indicated that there was a significant interaction effect of the intervention in reducing intergroup anxiety for the intervention group, but not for the control group. Moreover, there was a significant main effect for increasing behavioural intentions over time, but for both groups. However, there was no significant main effect of the indirect contact intervention in improving attitudes, outgroup trust and secondary transfer effects. This study has implications in designing an educational intervention as the study did not replicate the effectiveness of the extended contact intervention in the Greek Cypriot community indicating that interventions might not work for all communities and different factors need to be taken into consideration.