Contact, Psycho-Social Support, and Refugee-Native Integration in Lebanon

• In Event: Integration and Bias in Ethnically Diverse Societies

Abstract

Can intergroup contact improve native-refugee relations? Are any positive effects of contact amplified when combined with empathy-building education? We address these questions using a large-scale field experiment that brings together 1000 Syrian refugee and native Lebanese teenagers for several months of psycho-social support (PSS) programming in Lebanon, where refugees make up 25% of the population. In a two by two design, we randomly assign participants to a heterogeneous (mixed Syrian-Lebanese) or homogenous (all Lebanese or all Syrian) PSS classroom, and to a curriculum that emphasizes empathy and conflict management or a curriculum that emphasizes health and nutrition. This design allows us to assess the independent and joint effects of contact and programming that explicitly promotes intergroup empathy and cooperation. We ask whether contact and empathy-oriented educational programming of this form independently or jointly reduce prejudiced attitudes, increase empathy, and shift norms and behavior toward outgroup members. We also evaluate whether the contact and the PSS programming (in either the health and nutrition or empathy and conflict management forms) improves social and psychological integration among Syrian refugees. This study thus tests the potential of contact and educational programs to build social cohesion between refugees and host populations, in a context of pervasive prejudice and distrust.

Authors

• Alexandra Scacco, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

• Salma Mousa, University of California, Los Angeles