Don't judge a book by its cover: The role of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice in conflict settings

We study the potential for pleasant and cooperative contact to reduce prejudice between religious groups in India. We randomly assign Hindu and Muslim participants into groups, in which they interact over the course of a week-long vocational training program. A novel feature of our study is that all of the participants were women. We find that intergroup contact reduces the prejudice of both Hindu and Muslim participants toward members of the other religion one week after the training program concluded. While we find that most of the positive effect of intergroup contact on reducing prejudice dissipates after six months, effects on Hindu attitudes toward Muslims are persistent.