The aim of this strategy is to reduce reliance on stereotypes to evaluate screen characters. The ingroup viewer watches an outgroup character who has an additional social identity, whether that is another outgroup or an ingroup. That addition creates a surprising combination that does not activate stereotypes in the viewer.

The two categories have to be very different to each other. Further, their combination must be perceived as unexpected by the viewer. This prompts the viewer to form a new impression about the character, which departs from possible stereotypes associated with either category. Thus, the social distance between ingroup and outgroup is reduced, which can also mitigate outgroup stigma.

For example, this Virgin Media advert starts with showing Aamira, a Muslim girl sitting alone in her dark room and admiring skateboarders on her laptop. Let’s assume that the ingroup viewer is non-Muslim, and the Muslim girl is their outgroup. Hence, her visible veil and the dark bedroom (in contrast to the light outside) are likely to activate stereotypes of young Muslim girls being oppressed and domesticated’.

But by the end of the clip, Aamira joins the skateboarding community and starts skateboarding herself.

This creates a surprising combination of ‘Muslim girl’ and ‘skateboarder’ for the ingroup viewer, who is probably not used to such media representations of Muslim girls. Therefore, the viewer needs to revise their impression and attitude towards the outgroup. This can reduce social distance and stigma.

Of course, it is important that the viewer does not hold a strong, negative attitude towards skateboarders. Equally, the identity combination must not reinforce stereotypes.

Read more about how and why surprising combinations can reduce prejudice in Chapter 9.

The next section looks at how a shared ingroup identity can reduce social distance, which can be combined with surprising identity combinations.