Once upon a time…: Using fairy tales as a form of vicarious contact to prevent stigma‐based bullying among schoolchildren

Abstract

We conducted a vicarious contact intervention with the aim of promoting bystanders' intentions to react to stigma-based bullying among schoolchildren. Participants were Italian primary schoolchildren (N = 117 first to third graders); the outgroup was represented by foreign children. Vicarious contact was operationalized with story reading, creating fairy tales on stigma-based bullying where minority characters were bullied by majority characters. Once a week for 3 weeks, participants were read fairy tales in small groups by an experimenter and engaged in reinforcing activities. Results revealed that the intervention increased intergroup empathy (but not intergroup perspective-taking) and anti-bullying peer norms and fostered contact intentions. The intervention also had indirect effects via intergroup empathy on helping and contact intentions and on bystanders' reactions to stigma based-bullying.We discuss theoretical and practical implications, also in terms of the relevance of the present results for school policy.

Your team can make you a better person: Team cohesion is associated with off‐field prosocial behaviour via fairplay team norms and empathy in rugby union

“…Understanding social dynamics in sport as a social context that offers occasions to engage in positive or negative behaviour towards others may lead to explaining how to transfer prosocial behaviour from on‐field to off‐field, that is, from sport to daily life. The present study not only provides an important theoretical and empirical contribution in this direction but, feeding into a small line of applicative research (e.g., Cocco et al, 2024), it provides indications for psychologists and practitioners on which underlying mechanisms might be key to transfer prosocial behaviour from the field to the general community, which is especially relevant in contexts where sports participation is strong. Research in this setting can offer valuable insights into how sport influences not only physical health, but also social interactions and community cohesion, thereby providing evidence to inform public health strategies, educational policies, and community development programs.…”

Let's stay close: An examination of the effects of imagined contact on behavior toward children with disability

“…The present findings contribute to a consistent line of research showing that imagined contact, and indirect contact more generally, can reduce prejudice in educational contexts and can therefore inform social policy on social inclusion (Di Bernardo et al., 2017; Turner & Cameron, 2016; White et al., 2021). This can be done in the form of indirect contact interventions that can be easily integrated into school curricula (Cameron, Rutland, Turner, et al., 2011; Tercan et al., 2021), allowing to tackle specific problematic phenomena such as group‐based bullying (Cocco, Bisagno, Visintin, et al., 2021: Vezzali et al., 2020; Vezzali & Stathi, 2021).…”

Editorial: Challenging injustice: Understanding upstanding, civic action, and bystander intervention to promote justice

“…In terms of research on bullying and bystander intervention, Cocco et al (2023) report outcomes of a vicarious contact intervention with Italian first to third‐grade children using fairy tales about stigma‐based bullying of foreigners. Compared to the control condition, children in the intervention condition reported greater intergroup empathy and anti‐bullying norms.…”