Lee and Cunningham (2014), presented the first study that examined the effects of imagined contact applied in a sports context. Their research adds to the few studies that have looked at imagined contact, and/or the potential cross-cultural differences, within a sports context and outside of it. The researchers aimed to measure the relationship among sport-related imagined intergroup contact with an out-group—a gay man. They measured intergroup anxiety, sexual prejudice, and how the relationships varied across cultures. The researchers present evidence supporting that contact and imagined contact can reduce prejudice and discrimination to strongly support their hypotheses. However, the Introduction and Method sections still have some key weaknesses
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In simpler terms, groups whom have more exposure to the out group will preform worse than a group who has not had as much exposure. The researchers went to South Korea to gather a sample that has had little contact with gay men. In South Korea this is due to the widespread conservative religious teachings and strong opposition to homosexuality. They hypothesize that because homosexuality is seemingly less present in South Korea compared to the US, the South Koreans will be less prejudiced after the imagined contact because they could more easily change attitudes. The researcher’s argument for how this supports their study and hypotheses is good, however they don’t take one thing into account. The fact that homosexuality and our society’s views are very clear here in the US is the exact reason for why an in-group closer to the out-group responds worse. It makes sense that the in-group that has closer contact with the out-group has more opinions developed previously than the intergroup further removed. Thus the findings that show further removed groups really don’t carry much weight. This can be easily explained by people’s ingrained opinions and …show more content…
For one, they state that sport related imagined contact is ideal for many reasons such as it being a hyper-masculine environment. But they do not acknowledge at any point that those exact reasons that make it an ideal setting could easily work against it. This could lead to the imagine contact being negative because people view sports for masculine men and not gay men. Also, the researchers present evidence for sports bringing people together and bridging racial barriers. However, they don’t present evidence that this works for imagined contact. They did not provide evidence to back that we would see the same results of actual contact (in sports) in the imagined contact scenario. The actual contact scenario is discussed about football teams. Those athletes spend countless hours together, thus the results of reducing prejudice fall in line with contact theory. But the researchers take this evidence and develop a five-minute imaginary basketball activity for the participants. Yes sports may being people together, but they present no evidence that his is achievable by imagined contact within such a short amount of time (five
In simpler terms, groups whom have more exposure to the out group will preform worse than a group who has not had as much exposure. The researchers went to South Korea to gather a sample that has had little contact with gay men. In South Korea this is due to the widespread conservative religious teachings and strong opposition to homosexuality. They hypothesize that because homosexuality is seemingly less present in South Korea compared to the US, the South Koreans will be less prejudiced after the imagined contact because they could more easily change attitudes. The researcher’s argument for how this supports their study and hypotheses is good, however they don’t take one thing into account. The fact that homosexuality and our society’s views are very clear here in the US is the exact reason for why an in-group closer to the out-group responds worse. It makes sense that the in-group that has closer contact with the out-group has more opinions developed previously than the intergroup further removed. Thus the findings that show further removed groups really don’t carry much weight. This can be easily explained by people’s ingrained opinions and …show more content…
For one, they state that sport related imagined contact is ideal for many reasons such as it being a hyper-masculine environment. But they do not acknowledge at any point that those exact reasons that make it an ideal setting could easily work against it. This could lead to the imagine contact being negative because people view sports for masculine men and not gay men. Also, the researchers present evidence for sports bringing people together and bridging racial barriers. However, they don’t present evidence that this works for imagined contact. They did not provide evidence to back that we would see the same results of actual contact (in sports) in the imagined contact scenario. The actual contact scenario is discussed about football teams. Those athletes spend countless hours together, thus the results of reducing prejudice fall in line with contact theory. But the researchers take this evidence and develop a five-minute imaginary basketball activity for the participants. Yes sports may being people together, but they present no evidence that his is achievable by imagined contact within such a short amount of time (five