Role-Playing as Immigrants for Learning to Trust: Constructing a Theory of Experiential Contact

This research examined whether a computer-based role-playing game in which participants created immigrant characters from Mexico and took them through the process of naturalizing to the United States could be used to promote trust. A posttest-only experiment with a control group was conducted in Fall 2024 ( N = 98). Results indicate that participants who played the game had significantly higher levels of trust in immigrants in general, as well as those from Mexico, Central/South America, India, China, and the Middle East specifically, compared to the control condition. Parasocial connections to characters in game-based settings strengthened the effect of role-playing on trusting immigrants from Mexico. Half of the role-playing participants also saw a thank-you video from an outgroup representative, as a form of mediated indirect contact. The video condition appeared to drive the interaction between role-playing and sensing parasocial connections to characters in predicting Mexican immigrant trust. Results demonstrate the potential for role-playing games to foster trust between groups who may struggle to interact in person, along with the additive effect of mediated indirect contact at high levels of parasocial connection.