Intergroup Contact & Attitudes: A Natural Experiment in Israeli Medical Clinics

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

Abstract

In many societies, even when segregation or conflict are pronounced, brief intergroup contact in busses, markets, shops and hospitals is prevalent. Such contact is often theorized as a force influencing intergroup attitudes as well as voting behavior and violence. Despite the prevalence of such intergroup contact, and despite the prominent role of contact in multiple theoretical frameworks of ethnic politics, there is little evidence regarding its causal effects. Exploiting the random assignment of patients to doctors in medical clinics in Israel, and leveraging a treatment evaluation survey, I introduce a natural experiment suited to identify the causal effects of intergroup contact between Jewish (Palestinian) patients and Palestinian (Jewish) doctors. I further explore how doctors’ quality and patients’ partisan affinity moderate the effects of contact.

Author

• Chagai Weiss, University of Wisconsin - Madison