Social Inequality and Super-diversity: The Impact of Minority-Contact on Political Preferences, a Field Experiment with Text-as-Data Insights

• In Event: Diversity and Inequality

Abstract

How does minority-outgroup contact shape political tolerance and solidarity? Despite the large number of studies on the well-known contact hypothesis, the current literature lacks experimental field evidence and behavioral results. In this project, I examine this connection in an online environment, a venue where polarizations are particularly extreme. In collaboration with a non-governmental organization, English-speaking participants are randomly assigned to Zoom-conversations with a person from a presumed minority group, varying in religion, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, physical or mental health. In a world of increasing social inequalities and super-diversity, this research component aims to examine how this contact intervention changes political preferences on tolerance and solidarity via the mechanism of prejudices, perceptions of inequality and deprovincialisation.

Author

• Sandra Morgenstern, University of Mannheim