Challenge your stereotypes! Human Library and its impact on prejudice in Poland

Abstract

Human Library is a public event aimed at reducing stereotypes and prejudices, in the form of an interactive, contact‐based intervention. It employs the logic of a regular library yet with readers “borrowing” Living Books, which are real people representing various minority groups. Readers engage in 30‐min conversations, during which they can challenge their stereotypes and widen their scope of knowledge and understanding. This pre‐post intervention study examined the effectiveness of the Human Library (held in Wrocław, Poland) in reducing social distance towards Roma, Muslims, dark‐skinned, and transgender people, as well as in decreasing homonegativity. Also, we measured whether participation in the Human Library changes individual attitudes towards diverse workgroups. We found that the Human Library decreased social distance towards Muslims. Also, the more Living Books that the participants “read,” the bigger the shift in their social distance towards Muslims. Furthermore, we observed an increase in positive affective attitude towards working in diversified groups, as a result of participation in the event. The study serves as partial support for the effectiveness of the Human Library in altering one's attitude towards minority groups and diversity. The intervention is discussed as a promising but not yet entirely understood tool to improve intergroup relations.

Effect of human library intervention on mental health literacy: a multigroup pretest–posttest study

“…The MANOVA results showed that the human library was effective at reducing stigma and social distance, but did not affect knowledge acquisition. This study confirmed previous data showing that human library intervention promotes inclusion by reducing stigma and social distance [ 14 , 15 ]. However, the results of this study showed that participants in neither of the three groups demonstrated a significant improvement in the acquisition of knowledge about mental health.…”

“…Their results suggested that prejudice towards Roma and LBGT people reduced significantly as a consequence of the human library intervention. Another study examined the effectiveness of a human library intervention at reducing social distance from Roma, Muslim, dark-skinned, and transgender people and homonegativity [ 15 ]. Groyecka et al (2019) found that participating in the human library significantly changed the preferred social distance from Muslims, but did not significantly change homonegativity.…”

Can Information about Pandemics Increase Negative Attitudes toward Foreign Groups? A Case of COVID-19 Outbreak

“…In the second part of the study, we measured the participants' attitudes toward four nationalities (i.e., Hungarian, Italian, Mongolian, and Chinese), presented in a random order. We used the Bogardus social-distance scale [30,31], a measure commonly used to assess prejudice [32,33] that consists of three questions (i.e., whether participants would mind if a member of a given group was their co-worker, neighbor, and a part of their family). Participants responded to each question on a seven-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = definitely would not mind to 7 = definitely would mind).…”

“I Have Served to Tell”: A Qualitative Study of Veterans’ Reactions on Participating in a Living Library Project

“…Furthermore, their study indicated that the perceived prejudice of one's peers did not seem to fundamentally alter the effectiveness of the LL intervention. Groyecka, Witkowska, Wrobel, Klamut, and Skrodzka (2019) hypothesized in their study of a LL event in Wroclaw, Poland that talking to Books would affect social distance, homonegativity, and attitudes about diversity towards gays and lesbians, transgender individuals, Muslims, darkskinned people, and Roma. Online surveys following the event elicited responses from 87 Readers.…”