The Effect Of Imagine Contact On The Different Types Of Intergroup Threat:The Role Of Self-disclosure

In a social of limited resources,the two groups will compete for their own survival and development,and when the other groups to achieve their own goals seriously hinder this group,the members will experience intergroup threat.Threats are believed to be a major cause of conflict as well as an impediment to peace and reconciliation.When the group members feel the threat of intergroup will produce a series of negative emotion,cognitive and behavioral responses,which will aggravate the conflict between groups..Zhang Qi et al.,divided intergroup threat into three categories: realistic threat,culture threat,and identity threat.How to reduce the negative impact of intergroup threat has always been a concern of psychologists and sociologists.Intergroup contact has been one of the strategies to reduced intergroup threat.Imagine contact as the intergroup contact theory provides a new perspective for the highly isolated intergroup contact social environment.Previous studies have shown that imagine contact can significantly reduce intergroup bias,improve intergroup attitudes,increase intergroup contact intention and reduce intergroup threat.But is imagine contact will still effective in reducing cultural threat and identity threat? This is the purpose of this study.Experiment one mainly discusses the influence of imagine contact on the realistic threat.The single factor between subjects design was used in this experiment,the independent variables have two levels: imagine contact and ordinary imagination.The in-group members are the graduates of Sichuan Normal University;the out-group members are the other graduates who come to Chengdu for jobs.Then we measured the level of realistic threat and self-disclosure.The experimental results show that neutral imaginary contact can significantly reduce the realistic threat;And self-disclosure plays an intermediary role between the imagine contact and the realistic threat.Experiment two mainly discusses the influence of imagine contact on cultural threat.The single factor between subjects design was used in this experiment,the independent variables have two levels: imagine contact and ordinary imagination.The in-group members are the people over the age of 50 who have traditional view of marriage and love,the out-group members are the young people above 20 years old who have open view of marriage and love.Then we measured the level of cultural threat and self-disclosure.The results show that: The imagine contact can significantly reduce the cultural threat;And self-disclosure plays an intermediary role between the imagine contact and the cultural threat.Experiment three mainly discusses the influence of imagine contact on identity threat.The single factor between subjects design was used in this experiment,the independent variables have levels: imagine contact and ordinary imagination.The in-group members are the college students who seek psychological counseling but worrying about stigmatized;the out-group members are the ordinary people.Then we measured the level of identity threat and self-disclosure.The results showed that: imagine contact can significantly reduce the identity threat;And self-disclosure plays an intermediary role between imagine contact and identity threat.