WISE INTERVENTIONS

Congolese participants listened to four scenes in a radio drama in which ethnically diverse characters discussed community grievances (e.g., corruption, poverty, exploitation and child labor, scapegoating of outgroups) and planned collective action to address them (e.g., writing petitions, organizing protest marches). As compared to a control condition in which the video represented the same grievances but focused on their severity and did not plan a collective response, participants in the treatment condition later expressed more collective efficacy to make changes and greater readiness to participate in collective action but less tolerance of different perspectives and more negative intergroup attitudes (Experiment 1). In a second study, the radio drama was followed by a group discussion. Those in the collective action condition focused less on grievances, less on a lack of agency, and more on action and efficacy for social change and on positive injunctive norms. Following the group discussion, there were not strong effects on individual level outcomes.