Decomposing Mediated Intergroup Contact: Exploring the Activity-Specific Mechanisms and Role of the Intercultural Competence

Abstract

Positive mediated intergroup contact improves intergroup relations. Based on this idea, I argue that exposure to outgroup media characters engaging in various activities affects outgroup perceptions via activity-specific mechanisms. I investigated whether watching a video featuring a cultural outgroup character engaging in a musical or language learning activity evokes music-specific (empathy) or language-specific (perceived knowledge) mediators. Furthermore, I propose that more (vs. less) culturally competent viewers experience these activity-specific mechanisms more intensely. Hence, I investigated whether the connection between the activities and their corresponding mediators is moderated by viewers’ level of intercultural competence in domains related to each activity. I conducted a pretest-posttest experiment and employed a multiple-message design approach to improve the generalizability of research findings. Results indicated that intergroup activities matter in terms of understanding the process of mediated contact effects (e.g., empathy mediates the effect of mediated musical activities on outgroup perceptions). However, intercultural competence did not moderate the activity-specific mechanisms. I discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.