In 1954 the social psychologist Gordon Allport developed a model for reducing stigma and prejudice by bringing ingroups and outgroups together to have contact with each other. This contact hypothesis explains that ingroup-outgroup contact can reduce prejudice and even stigmatisation if the following conditions are fulfilled:

1. The contact includes sustained and direct interaction between ingroup and outgroup.
2. This interaction involves both groups cooperating towards common goals.
3. Both groups have a sense of equal status.
4. The contact is sanctioned by higher authorities.

In 2005 communication scholars Edward Schiappa, Peter Gregg, and Dean Hewes developed the parasocial contact hypothesis, applying Allport’s model to media spectatorship. The idea is that an ingroup viewer experiences an outgroup screen character through media content.

For instance, the below image shows a non-disabled, white, European, middle-class, urban man watching a documentary about a disabled, black, African, working-class, rural woman. All these ingroup-outgroup binaries are likely to reinforce negative (exclusionary) attitudes in the viewer towards the character. This intersection of contrasting multiple social identities creates a parasocial distance between them. This distance likely makes the viewer perceive the character as the ‘abnormal’ Other.

The aim is to reduce the parasocial distance, which can result in reducing negative ingroup attitudes and the stigma towards one or multiple outgroups in this example. Schiappa, Gregg and Hewes argue that this distance can be reduced if the parasocial contact makes the viewer like and relate to the character. This can be achieved through, for example, the viewer taking the perspective of the character or sharing with them social identities and associated personality traits.

How can media represent outgroup characters as likeable and relatable? As we know, positive representations, such as the supercrip stereotype, can maintain disability stigma. So, purely positive representations are risky. Besides, real people have multi-layered personalities that rarely fit into clear categories, like ‘good’ (likeable, relatable) or ‘bad’ (unlikeable, unrelatable).

At the same time, certain media content purposefully has to touch on disability stereotypes. For instance, activist or current affairs documentaries often need to represent disabled people as victims of discriminatory policies and social practices. Such stories are also lived experiences and need to be told. And, they can raise awareness and funding to improve their situation. But, how can these stories represent disabled characters as being victims, and at the same time as being relatable to a non-disabled viewer? This is not an easy task!

Read the next sections about how parasocial contact can be achieved through a variety of strategies based on perspective-taking, surprising identity combinations, shared identity, extended intimacy, common identity and individual identity.

Watch this masterclass where Edward Schiappa and I discuss the parasocial contact hypothesis.

Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 go into more depth about these strategies.