Antidiscrimination Interventions, Political Ads on Transgender Rights, and Public Opinion: Results From Two Survey Experiments on Adults in the United States.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Two randomized survey experiments
PubMed 34489831 · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729322
What was done
Two demographically representative survey experiments were conducted in United States adults (Study 1: n = 1,291; Study 2: n = 1,587). Participants engaged in one of two scalable antidiscrimination exercises—describing a personal narrative of discrimination or perspective-taking—and were subsequently shown political advertisements either favorable or opposed to transgender rights to evaluate whether the exercises moderated receptivity to the messages.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical estimates, effect sizes, or confidence intervals. Descriptively, recalling discriminatory experiences did not reduce exclusionary attitudes and induced negative attitudes in a subset of participants. Perspective-taking showed some positive effects, particularly among participants who fully complied, while participants who refused perspective-taking held more negative attitudes. Political advertisements favorable toward transgender rights consistently resulted in more positive attitudes toward transgender people.
Why it matters
This study highlights the risk of backfire effects and non-compliance in brief antidiscrimination exercises, while demonstrating that direct, positive political messaging can reliably shift public opinion toward marginalized groups.
Limits
The abstract reports no numerical data, baseline measures, or effect sizes. Outcomes were restricted to immediate self-reported attitudes in online survey environments, with no evaluation of long-term persistence or real-world behavioral changes.