Does Intercultural Contact Increase Anti-Racist Behavior on Social Network Sites?

Chiara Imperato, Brian T. Keum and Tiziana Mancini
Additional contact information
Chiara Imperato: Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma, 43121 Parma, Italy
Brian T. Keum: Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Tiziana Mancini: Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma, 43121 Parma, Italy

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: Empirical attention on online intercultural contact and prejudice reduction are increasing. Nevertheless, still little is known on processes that could influence the contact–prejudice relation as well as the relation between online contact and anti-racist behavior. Based on literature on intergroup contact, the present study aims to fill these gaps, focusing on online intergroup relationships between people from different countries. Specifically, it examines whether and to what extent empathic feelings and online community commitment mediate the relationship between online intergroup contact and both perceived ethnic discrimination and anti-racist behavior on Facebook. We collected data from a predominantly Italian sample of 1018 Facebook users ( M age = 30.03, SD age = 11.09; females: 80.01%); participants filled in an online questionnaire. A semi-full Structural Equation Modeling was used to test hypotheses. The results confirmed that when intergroup contact was established, such contact was able to increase the sense of being committed to the online community, which increased the perception of online discrimination towards ethnic and racial minorities, which in turn was able to increase the anti-racist behavior. The ambivalent role of the empathy in online contexts will be discussed.

Keywords: online intergroup contact; emphatic feeling; community commitment; perceived discrimination; anti-racist behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/6/207/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/6/207/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:6:p:207-:d:567064

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().