Changing Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities Using Public Media: An Experimental Study

Abstract

This study explored the change in viewers’ explicit and implicit attitudes toward people with disabilities (PWDs) after they watched person-centered videos, which focused on real-life experiences of PWDs and/or their perspectives toward disability. Fifty-three undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two groups. In the control group, participants had their explicit and implicit attitudes measured before and after three body-scan sessions. In the experimental group, participants took the same tests before and after watching three videos. The results showed that participants’ explicit attitudes became more positive, and implicit attitudes became more negative in the experimental group, while there was no change in attitudes in the control group. These results have unique implications for using person-centered videos to change attitudes toward PWDs in undergraduate education and rehabilitation counseling education. Suggestions for future research are provided.