How Will & Grace changed prejudice – study

the 2006 study, “Can One TV Show Make a Difference?” That’s not surprising as

which ran on NBC from 1998 to 2006, brought two charming gay men into millions of American living rooms – the first gay leads on a hit sitcom in history. But as the series returns next Thursday, what can its impact be in a world where gay marriage is legal and New York’s Pride parade sponsors include T-Mobile, Walmart and the Walt Disney Company?

The 2006 study conducted by Edward Schiappa, Peter Gregg and Dean Hewes was groundbreaking –not for its conclusion – but because it discovered how prejudices were reduced.

The big news, according to Schiappa, was this finding quoted from his study: “For those viewers with the fewest direct gay contacts, exposure to appears to have the strongest potential influence on reducing sexual prejudice, while for those with many gay friends, there is no significant relationship between the levels of prejudice and their exposure to the show.”

Schiappa, the head of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, explained in an email: “That is what persuaded us that exposure to gay men on TV was functioning in the same manner as interpersonal contact.”

Their new theory – the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis – has been cited 399 times and counting in subsequent publications.

The team confirmed the theory with follow-up studies on

and Schiappa explains: “Our INFORMATIVE: The new season of Eric McCormack, left, Debra Messing study found the show educated viewe