Imagined contact with strongly identified outgroup members: Do religious trappings make the man?

This research examined the interactive effects of imagined contact and the characteristics of the imagined person on intergroup anxiety and prejudice, among two groups in Israel: Jewish majority and Arab‐Muslim minority. In total, 128 Jewish and 128 Arab‐Muslim participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions. They were exposed to an outgroup person wearing either casual clothing or religious‐ethnic trappings. Then they were required to imagine either a pleasant conversation with that person at a cafeteria or a pleasant hike in which the outgroup person was just seen strolling around. Finally, participants filled out questionnaires of intergroup anxiety and prejudice. For Jewish participants in the hiking conditions, higher intergroup anxiety was found after imagining a strongly identified outgroup person rather than a weakly identified person. This effect was eliminated after imagining a pleasant conversation with the outgroup member in the cafeteria conditions. In addition, Jewish participants reported more outgroup prejudice following imagined scenarios which included the strongly identified person compared to scenarios involving the weakly identified person. For Arab‐Muslim participants, however, no effects were found. This study highlights the importance of considering the characteristics of outgroup counterparts in the field of imagined contact. Furthermore, the implications of imagined contact with individuals wearing religious‐ethnic trappings are discussed.