Exploring how parasocial intergroup contact with transgender influencers on TikTok reduces transgender conspiracy beliefs

As harmful conspiracy beliefs against transgender people are becoming increasingly popular, three experiments examined how cisgender people's contact with transgender individuals might reduce these beliefs. In Study 1a (N = 222), positive parasocial contact with transgender creators on TikTok (vs. no contact) was found to increase perspective-taking, which was associated with lower transgender conspiracy beliefs when controlling for frequency of contact and prejudice. Study 1b (N = 302) replicated this effect when controlling for frequency of contact. Study 2 (N = 220) aimed to manipulate perspective-taking. Contrary to predictions, asking participants to actively perspective-take (vs. no perspective-taking) did not increase perspective-taking (manipulation check) or reduce conspiracy beliefs. However, as all the studies measured participants’ frequency of positive and negative contact with transgender people, we pooled the data to explore whether these forms of contact were also linked with perspective-taking and conspiracy beliefs (combined N = 743). A positive relationship between frequency of positive contact with transgender people and perspective-taking was found, which was then associated with lower transgender conspiracy beliefs when controlling for prejudice and experimental conditions. Our findings underscore the potential of positive contact, including via TikTok, to foster perspective-taking, which may mitigate conspiracy beliefs against transgender people.