Storytelling as a Bridge: Examining the Psychological Processes of Fictional Writing on Intergroup Understanding

Abstract

Reading a positive story about an outgroup reduces prejudice, but can writing a story about the outgroup have similar effects? Three experiments examined whether and how writing a fictional story about an outgroup character can improve writers’ perceptions of the outgroup. Study 1 ( N = 727) showed that narrative writing increased warmth and competence perceptions of the character, regardless of whether writers described cooperating directly with the character, as characters themselves, to complete a positive task or wrote the story from the character’s perspective. Higher perceived warmth, but not competence, was associated with lower intergroup anxiety and stronger empathy toward the outgroup, which in turn predicted perceived dangerousness. Two follow-up experiments sought to replicate these findings using a different character (Study 2; N = 287) and a comparison with nonnarrative persuasive writing (Study 3; N = 343). The findings contribute to theories addressing the intersection of intergroup contact, creative writing, and narrative communication.