We propose a communication analogue to Allport's Contact Hypothesis called the
Parasocial Contact Hypothesis (PCH). If people process mass-mediated parasocial
interaction in a manner similar to interpersonal interaction, then the socially beneficial …

Television has an opportunity to influence beliefs about groups with which individuals
typically may have little direct social contact. This study describes a synthesis of the Contact
Hypothesis and the concept of Parasocial Interaction to pose what we call the Parasocial  …

… s (2005) parasocial contact hypothesis by (a) integrating the effect into social cognitive theory …
testing links derived from that perspective (the identification hypothesis), (b) examining … than merely
outgroup representations, and (c) incorporating additional hypotheses derived from …

Does parasocial contact impact on inter-group bias? Widening the scope of Contact Theory,
this study aims at experimentally examine the impact of parasocial out-group presentation
on decisions in a two-person prisoner's dilemma game and social cognitive constructions of …

The benefits of direct, personal contact with members of another group are well established
empirically. This Special Issue complements that body of work by dem...

… Although direct interpersonal contact still constitutes the vast majority of contacts examined under
the theory, the concept has been … Third, an individual audience member can have indirect para-
social contact with an outgroup character by having parasocial interaction with …

… Para-social contact. Another, even less direct form of vicarious contact is 'contact' … Page 18. 18
Imagined contact. Work on extended and parasocial contact demonstrates that the … specifically
at these processes. While the effects of contact on prejudice may partly be due to …

In an experiment, participants exposed to depictions of an intergroup interaction between
a border patrolling US citizen and an illegal immigrant demonstrated...

… operate at a slightly lower level of personal involvement than my intergroup contacts right now …
For instance, developing a parasocial relationship with a specific outgroup character (Schiappa
et al., 2005 … Such contact is distant from the self and hence will be unlikely to trigger a …

… Most recently, Schiappa, Gregg, and Hewes (2005) found that parasocial contact and relationships
can change attitudes … yet more gen- eralized constructs, such as parasociability, a person's
likelihood to parasocially inter- act … Eyal and Cohen/PARASOCIAL BREAKUP 513 …