@article{ref1,
title=""treating" prejudice: an exposure-therapy approach to reducing negative reactions toward stigmatized groups",
journal="Psychological science",
year="2012",
author="Birtel, Michèle D. and Crisp, Richard J.",
volume="23",
number="11",
pages="1379-1386",
abstract="One of the ways in which therapists treat anxiety disorders is to expose patients to a fear-evoking stimulus within a safe environment before encouraging more positive stimulus-related thoughts. In the study reported here, we adapted these psychotherapeutic principles of exposure therapy to test the hypothesis that imagining a positive encounter with a member of a stigmatized group would be more likely to promote positive perceptions when it was preceded by an imagined negative encounter. The results of three experiments targeting a range of stigmatized groups (adults with schizophrenia, gay men, and British Muslims) supported this hypothesis. Compared with purely positive interventions, interventions in which a single negative encounter was imagined just prior to imagining a positive encounter resulted in significantly reduced prejudice. Furthermore, reduced anxiety uniquely derived from the mixed-valence imagery task statistically explained enhanced intentions to engage positively with the previously stigmatized group in the future.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0956-7976",
doi="10.1177/0956797612443838",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612443838"
}