Social Contact and Political Attitudes: Field Experimental Evidence from Nigeria

• In Event: Experiments Involving Norms and Trust

Abstract

Can positive social contact between members of antagonistic groups increase support for political inclusion and social integration across group lines? To answer this question, we draw on an education-based, randomized field experiment---the Urban Youth Vocational Training program (UYVT)---with 849 randomly sampled Christian and Muslim young men in the riot-prone city of Kaduna, Nigeria. This paper investigates whether 16 weeks of positive social contact across religious lines can alter subjects' attitudes about the importance of inter-religious power-sharing at various levels of government, norms of equal political treatment and local social integration in a setting of ongoing violent conflict.

Authors

• Alexandra Scacco, New York University

• Shana Warren, New York University