"Soha Ne Ítélj Meg Egy Másik Embert, Míg Egy Mérföldet Nem Jártál A Cipőjében!”: A Perspektívaváltás Hatékonyságának Mérése A Romaellenesség és A Szexizmus Csökkentésében

Measuring Effectiveness Of Perspective-Taking Interventions To Decrease Anti-Roma Attitudes and Sexism

Abstract

Background and aims: Prejudice has been identified as a key cause for intergroup conflicts, and accordingly, its reduction has been a core concern for social scientists. One effective method of prejudice reduction is the perspective-taking intervention, during which participants are required to take another person’s point of view. Because there has been few studies about the impact of such interventions in Hungary, we tested the effectivity of perspective-taking in reducing anti-Gypsyism and sexism.
Method: We conducted two online experiments relying on student samples (Study 1, N = 326, Study 2: N = 353). Participants were randomly assigned to perspective-taking or control conditions. In Study 1, the treatment group took the perspective of a young Roma man in a so called Gypsy-maze exercise, and in Study 2, of a job-seeking woman, after which they reported their level of prejudice and collective action intentions.
Results: In Study 1, the treatment group indicated more positive attitudes toward the Roma and higher intentions to engage in collective action than the control group. However, in Study 2, we did not identify any difference between the two groups in the area of sexism. Post-hoc analysis revealed that people who resisted taking the perspective of the woman were also characterized by higher level of modern sexism.
Discussion: While the Gypsy-maze has been successful in increasing positive affect toward the Roma and collective action intentions, we did not find a similar effect on sexism. In this case, not only was the intervention unsuccessful, we could identify those who showed reactance to the intervention which resulted in an increase in hostile sexism. These results suggest that when designing an intervention, it is not sufficient to focus on the problem, but the specific characteristics of participants also need to be accounted for.