Segregation & Intergroup Relations: A Natural Experiment with U.S. College Students

• In Event: New Approaches for Prejudice Reduction and Depolarization

Abstract

How does segregation affect attitudes toward other social groups? This topic is crucial to our understanding of the formation of intergroup attitudes and the effect of (a lack of) intergroup contact, but causal identification is difficult because of self selection. We overcome this difficulty by analyzing a natural experiment with race- and ethnicity-based theme floors in a university in the United States. These theme floors provide an important space for racial and ethnic minorities to live with other members of their group; at the same time, first-year students who live near but not in these theme floors experience an unanticipated environment of segregation that their peers who live further away do not. Using surveys before and after students' first year, we find that living near a segregated community has an effect on these students' attitudes toward the racial and ethnic groups represented in those communities. This result has important implications for our understanding of how segregation affects attitudes toward other social groups.

Authors

• David Alexander Romney, Brigham Young University

• Ryan D. Enos, Harvard University

• Richard Nielsen, MIT