Improving inclusive peer relations through imagined contact

This study examined the efficacy of an intervention that combines an imagined contact task with positive information about hypothetical peers with vulnerabilities. The goal was to promote children's attitudes, stereotypes, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward target outgroups. These outgroups included a peer with visual disability, a peer with Autism Spectrum Disorder, a Moroccan peer, and a Roma peer. Moreover, it verified the efficacy of the intervention in promoting social interactions between students without and with vulnerabilities who were at high risk of social exclusion in their school contexts. A total of 184 Italian children were involved, 100 of whom were assigned to the experimental group and 84 to the control group. The analyses found that the intervention improved the experimental group's attitudes, stereotypes, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward hypothetical peers with vulnerabilities. Moreover, children with vulnerabilities at risk of social exclusion in the experimental group received more positive peer sociometric nominations and social behaviors from their classmates in the post-test. The study highlighted the intervention's potential to promote positive attitudes, stereotypes, feelings, and behavioral intentions among students towards classmates with vulnerabilities, and to enhance social interactions between students with and without vulnerabilities.