The digitization of communication not only makes it possible to connect yourself with people we know from offline contexts, but also to get in touch - often incidentally - with those we see as the “outgroup.” Prejudices, stereotypes and possibly discriminatory tendencies may exist in advance with regard to these. This raises the question of the extent to which encounters with outgroups enabled by online communication have desirable cognitive and behavioral effects (e.g., by improving attitudes toward the outgroup). To this end, we are interested in the following questions:

• How can different social media contents contribute to increasing knowledge about the stigmatization of social groups?
• Which psychological factors promote the reduction of prejudice when using digital media?

Neubaum, G., Sobieraj, S., Raasch, J., & Riese, J. (2020). Digital destigmatization: How exposure to networking profiles can reduce social stereotypes. Computers in Human Behavior, 112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106461

Neubaum, G., Krämer, N. C., & Alt, K. (2019). Psychological effects of repeated exposure to elevating entertainment: An experiment over the period of 6 weeks. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000235

Krämer, N. C., Eimler, S. C., Neubaum, G., Winter, S., Rösner, L., & Oliver, M. B. (2017). Broadcasting one world – How watching elevating online videos can trigger a sense of universal orientation and a reduction of social stereotypes. New Media & Society, 19, 1349–1368. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816639963a