Effects of Negative Meta-Stereotype on the Doctor–Patient Relationship: The Role of Imagined Intergroup Contact

This study aims to explore the relationship between negative meta-stereotypes, intergroup anxiety, doctor–patient trust, and doctor–patient relationships and investigate the intervention impact of imagined intergroup contact through two experiments. Study 1 examined whether intergroup anxiety and doctor–patient trust sequentially mediate the effect of negative meta-stereotypes on the doctor–patient relationship. Two hundred participants were randomly assigned to a negative meta-stereotype activation or control group, and completed measures of intergroup anxiety, doctor–patient trust, and doctor–patient relationship quality. Study 2 built on these findings by testing imagined intergroup contact as a potential intervention. Following negative meta-stereotype activation, 184 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: no imagination, imagined landscape, imagined contact with a professionalism-focused physician, or imagined contact with a care-focused physician. Study 1 revealed that negative meta-stereotype activation significantly increased intergroup anxiety, decreased doctor–patient trust, and impaired the doctor–patient relationship. Importantly, intergroup anxiety and doctor–patient trust played a chain mediating role in this relationship. Study 2 demonstrated that only imagined contact with a caring physician (but not a purely professional one) significantly reduced intergroup anxiety, enhanced doctor–patient trust, and improved the doctor–patient relationship. These findings provide evidence consistent with a serial emotional-cognitive pathway from intergroup anxiety to doctor–patient trust through which negative meta-stereotypes may impair the doctor–patient relationship, and by pinpointing emotional care as the core component that makes imagined intergroup contact effective in this context.