Over the last few years there has been an increase in anti-trans rhetoric and violence towards transgender individuals, the consequences of which continue to adversely affect transgender people’s lives. Given these societal ramifications, it is crucial to explore how transprejudice (prejudice against transgender people) might be ameliorated. Research within social psychology has repeatedly shown intergroup contact to reduce various forms of outgroup prejudice, but little extant research has tested this association for prejudice related to transgender identity. We conducted three cross-sectional studies which tested the relation between contact (quantity and quality) with transgender people, trans-related knowledge (i.e., participants’ self-reported level of knowledge about experiences of transgender people), and transprejudice (cognitive and affective). Across the three studies, we found that contact quantity and contact quality significantly mediated the negative relationship between knowledge and transprejudice (although contact quality was a more consistent mediator). Those with more trans-related knowledge had more frequent and better-quality contact with trans people, and in turn showed less prejudice towards transgender people. We found less consistent support for an alternative mediation model with prior knowledge mediating the contact to transprejudice link. These findings demonstrate the importance of the role of both knowledge about and contact with transgender people as a means of transprejudice reduction, with wide-reaching implications for creating environments that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

在过去的几年里，针对跨性别者的反跨性别言论和暴力行为有所增加，其后果继续对跨性别者的生活产生不利影响。考虑到这些社会影响，探索如何改善跨性别偏见（针对跨性别者的偏见）至关重要。社会心理学领域的研究一再表明，群体间接触可以减少各种形式的外群体偏见，但现有的研究很少测试这种与跨性别身份相关的偏见的关联。我们进行了三项横断面研究，测试了与跨性别者的接触（数量和质量）、跨性别相关知识（即参与者自我报告的关于跨性别者经历的知识水平）和跨性别偏见（认知和情感）之间的关系。 ）。在这三项研究中，我们发现接触数量和接触质量显着调节了知识与跨偏见之间的负向关系（尽管接触质量是更一致的调节因素）。那些拥有更多跨性别相关知识的人与跨性别者的接触更频繁、质量更高，反过来对跨性别者的偏见也更少。我们发现，对于利用先验知识调解接触与跨偏见链接的替代调解模型的支持不太一致。这些发现表明，了解跨性别者并与其接触作为减少跨性别偏见的一种手段的重要性，对于创造多样化、公平和包容的环境具有广泛影响。