Abstract: Imagining positive contact with outgroup members can improve intergroup attitudes and promote more positive intergroup relations. In the society, the implicit gender prejudice still exists among the opposite sex, which will lead to individual's unwillingness to have social contact with the opposite sex, even produce antagonistic reactions, and reduce or inhibit the communication and cooperation between the opposite sex. Many studies proved that imagined positive contact can improve the cooperation intention with outgroup members, but the future behavior intention of individuals may not be transformed into positive intergroup behavior. Therefore, this study conducted two experiments to explore the influence and mechanism of imagined intergroup contact on implicit gender prejudice and cooperative behavior by Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) and three cooperation paradigms. Experiment 1 examined the effect of imagined intergroup contact on implicit gender prejudice. Participants were 161 undergraduates (79 boys and 82 girls). Experiment 1 was conducted with a 2 (imagined contact: imagined positive contact, neutral imagined scene) × 2 (gender: male, female) between-subjects design. Participants were asked to finish the questionnaire of prior contact experience, imagine positive contact (experimental condition) or unrelated situations (control condition), and complete the task of SC-IAT. The results show that: (1) Imagined positive contact can significantly reduce the implicit gender prejudice of the opposite sex ( F(1, 156)=11.23, p<.01, η2=.07 ); (2) There is no significant gender difference in the implicit gender prejudice of the opposite sex. These findings suggest that imagined intergroup contact can effectively reduce the implicit prejudice by arousing individual's positive emotional experience. Experiment 2 examined the effect of imagined intergroup contact on cooperative behavior and the mediating role of implicit gender prejudice. Participants were 100 undergraduates (37 boys and 63 girls). Experiment 2 was conducted with a 2 (imagined contact: imagined positive contact, neutral imagined scene) × 2 (gender: male, female) between-subjects design. The previous process was the same as Experiment 1. Finally, participants were asked to complete three cooperation paradigms, namely prisoner's dilemma, public resources dilemma and public goods dilemma. The results show that: (1) In the prisoner's dilemma, imagined positive contact can significantly increase the cooperative behavior between the opposite sex ( F(1, 95)=10.13, p<.01, η2=.10 ), and implicit gender prejudice plays a partial mediating role ( 95%CI [.004, .062] ); (2) In the public resource dilemma, imagined positive contact only reduces the cooperative behavior of boys ( M positive contact -M control condition =12.29, p<.05 ); (3) In the public goods dilemma, there was no significant effect of imagined intergroup contact on the cooperative behavior. These findings suggest that imagined intergroup contact has different effects on intergroup cooperation in different social situations. These results support that imagined positive intergroup contact can not only change the intergroup attitudes, but also affect the cooperative behavior in the process of real contact.

Key words: imagined intergroup contact, implicit gender prejudice, cooperative behavior, college students

摘要： 为考察想象性群际接触对内隐性别偏见与合作行为的影响，采用单类内隐联想测验（SC-IAT）和三种合作范式进行了两个实验。结果发现：与对照组相比，（1）积极想象性接触能显著降低不同性别个体对异性的内隐性别偏见。（2）积极想象性接触仅能显著增加个体在囚徒困境中的合作行为，内隐性别偏见起部分中介作用。结果表明，积极想象性接触既能减少个体对异性群体的内隐性别偏见，并可进一步促进两人情境中与异性间的合作行为。

关键词: 想象性群际接触, 内隐性别偏见, 合作行为, 大学生