Overcoming the Trust Deficit: Associational Life and Intergroup Contact in Iraq

• In Event: Intergroup Relations in the Shadow of Conflict: Evidence from the Middle East

Abstract

How can social trust be rebuilt after conflict? This study experimentally tests the potential for intergroup contact to reduce prejudice in a conflict setting for the first time. Iraqi Christians displaced by ISIS are randomly assigned to an all-Christian soccer team or to a team mixed with Sunni Arabs, who share the same ethno-religious background as ISIS. In the pilot, Christians assigned to mixed teams are 26.1 percentage points more likely to attend a social event open to Muslims three weeks after the intervention, 45.5 percentage points more likely to train with Muslims four months later, and 0.31 standard deviations more likely to believe that peaceful coexistence is possible. These initial findings suggest that cooperative contact may rebuild social trust over time. The full RCT scales up the pilot, measuring impacts up to one year later on participants’ attitudes and behaviors, as well as that of their households and of the local community at large.

Author

• Salma Mousa, Stanford University