Salvador Alvidrez

Queen's University Belfast | QUB · School of Psychology

This Project continues the research lines developed by the Group of Excellence in Research in Castilla y León, Observatorio de los Contenidos Audiovisuales (OCA, Observatory for Audiovisual Contents) (GR319), also a Research Group acknowledged by the University of Salamanca. Particularly, it focuses on two of the main research lines of the Group, namely Media, immigration and prejudice, and Narrative persuasion. The projects Chief Researcher (IP), Juan José Igartua, is Professor in Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, and heads the OCA since its creation in 2005. Researcher Magdalena Wojcieszak, Lecturer at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (Amsterdam University) has joined the Project, since we have been working with her on these topics over the past year. OCA has secured stable funding over the last decade and, with this Project, the aim is to enhance and consolidate the international presence of the Group through research nets that have been developed through the years. As a whole, the team is composed of senior and junior researchers with a common career in research (both together and on the same fields). The project focuses on a very much current issue in our country and in the rest of the European Union: Prejudice and the techniques employed to reduce it through the use of narrative formats. Thus, it links two of the main challenges in European Society, as stated by the report Spanish position on Horizon 2020, issued by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government: (a) Health, demographic change and wellbeing; and (b) Secure societies (integrating, inclusive and secure societies). Our project aims to press on the research on narrative persuasion processes; i.e. the knowledge on mechanisms that explain how narratives impact on attitudes and beliefs. Particularly, our goal is to provide causal evidence on the variables that influence the identification with characters and, indirectly, they impact on attitudes and beliefs related to a narrative topic (in our case, narratives designed to reduce prejudice toward immigrants). Furthermore, the project will be able to theoretically connect two research lines that, up to date, have been independent: research on narrative persuasion and psycho-social research on imagined contact, and the techniques employed to reduce prejudice against socially stigmatized groups. All this will affect and improve the design of campaigns against racism and xenophobia in the European Union. In other words, the knowledge of basic processes of narrative persuasion will allow the design of more efficient strategies based on empiric evidence. Three experimental researches will be carried out in two contexts where immigration is a relevant topic in public agendas: Spain and the Netherlands. We will work with written narratives and photographic material in order to reduce prejudice. Each study will use a 2 x 2 between-subject factorial design and will access a sample of the general population randomly selected. The field work will be carried out by QUALTRICS. The results given, at least two Doctoral dissertations will be tutored and presented, and will provide material for several presentations in congresses, symposia and conferences and publications in international peer-reviewed high-impact journals.