IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_11363.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Learning About Outgroups: The Impact of Broad Versus Deep Interactions

Author

Listed:
  • Anujit Chakraborty
  • Arkadev Ghosh
  • Matt Lowe
  • Gareth Nellis
  • Matthew Lowe

Abstract

We hypothesize that broad contact, involving brief interactions with multiple outgroup members, and deep contact, meaning longer interactions with a single outgroup member, play distinct roles in shaping intergroup relations. We set up a factory in India and recruited Hindu and Muslim men to work in pairs on joint production tasks. We randomly assigned participants to work either with the same ingroup or outgroup partner daily (deep contact), a different outgroup partner each day (broad contact), or to a control group. While deep contact strengthens social and economic ties with the outgroup partner interacted with, only broad contact reduces misperceptions about outgroup strangers. These findings align with a model in which independent sampling (observing multiple outgroup members) promotes learning about outgroups more than prolonged interaction with a single individual does. Nevertheless, neither type of contact changes behavior toward the wider outgroup.

Suggested Citation

  • Anujit Chakraborty & Arkadev Ghosh & Matt Lowe & Gareth Nellis & Matthew Lowe, 2024. "Learning About Outgroups: The Impact of Broad Versus Deep Interactions," CESifo Working Paper Series 11363, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11363
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11363.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leonardo Bursztyn & Alessandra L. González & David Yanagizawa-Drott, 2020. "Misperceived Social Norms: Women Working Outside the Home in Saudi Arabia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 2997-3029, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aycinena, Diego & Bogliacino, Francesco & Kimbrough, Erik O., 2024. "Measuring norms: Assessing the threat of social desirability bias to the Bicchieri and Xiao elicitation method," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 225-239.
    2. Falk, Armin & Boneva, Teodora & Chopra, Felix, 2021. "Fighting Climate Change: the Role of Norms, Preferences, and Moral Values," CEPR Discussion Papers 16343, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. repec:hal:journl:hal-03627187 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Francesco Fallucchi & Daniele Nosenzo, 2022. "The coordinating power of social norms," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-25, February.
    5. Carlotta Nani, 2024. "Perceived abilities and gender stereotypes within the household: experimental evidence from Bangladesh," IHEID Working Papers 19-2024, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    6. Avner Seror, 2021. "Social Roles," AMSE Working Papers 2134, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    7. Billur Aksoy & Christopher S. Carpenter & Dario Sansone, 2022. "Understanding Labor Market Discrimination Against Transgender People: Evidence from a Double List Experiment and a Survey," NBER Working Papers 30483, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Omar Al-Ubaydli & Faith Fatchen & John List, 2024. "Using Field Experiments to Understand the Impact of Institutions on Economic Growth," Natural Field Experiments 00787, The Field Experiments Website.
    9. Gonzalez-Eiras, Martín & Sanz, Carlos, 2021. "Women’s representation in politics: The effect of electoral systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    10. Roberto Galbiati & Emeric Henry & Nicolas Jacquemet & Max Lobeck, 2021. "How laws affect the perception of norms: Empirical evidence from the lockdown," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-14, September.
    11. Pascaline Dupas & Seema Jayachandran & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Pauline Rossi, 2024. "Negligible Effect of Free Contraception on Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Burkina Faso," Working Papers 327, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    12. Das,Smita & Delavallade,Clara Anne & Fashogbon,Ayodele Emmanuel & Ogunleye,Wale Olatunji & Papineni,Sreelakshmi, 2021. "Occupational Sex Segregation in Agriculture : Evidence on Gender Norms and Socio-Emotional Skills in Nigeria," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9695, The World Bank.
    13. Barboni, Giorgia & de Roux, Nicolás & Perez-Cardona, Santiago, 2024. "Perceived Social Acceptance and Migrants' Financial Inclusion," Documentos CEDE 21278, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    14. Sania Ashraf & Cristina Bicchieri & Upasak Das & Tanu Gupta & Alex Shpenev, 2024. "Learning from diversity: ``jati" fractionalization, social expectations and improved sanitation practices in India," Discussion Papers 24-01, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    15. Escamilla Guerrero, David & Lepistö, Miko & Minns, Chris, 2022. "Explaining gender differences in migrant sorting: evidence from Canada-US migration," Economic History Working Papers 117260, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    16. Estefanía Galván & Cecilia García-Peñalosa, 2021. "Interactions amongst gender norms: Evidence from US couples," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-15, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    17. Assefa, Thomas W. & Magnan, Nicholas & McCullough, Ellen & McGavock, Tamara, 2022. "Stifled by Stigma? Experimental Effects of Updating Husbands’ Beliefs on Participation in Women’s Household Work," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322470, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Bogliacino, Francesco & Aycinena, Diego & Kimbrough, Erik, 2024. "Eliciting normative expectations with coordination games allowing for neutral report," SocArXiv y3fha, Center for Open Science.
    19. Eugen Dimant, 2020. "Hate Trumps Love: The Impact of Political Polarization on Social Preferences," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 029, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    20. Alison Andrew & Andrea Smurra, 2024. "Seclusion and women's time: Descriptive evidence from India," IFS Working Papers W24/39, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    21. Lata Gangadharan & Tarun Jain & Pushkar Maitra & Joe Vecci, 2022. "Lab-in-the-field experiments: perspectives from research on gender," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 31-59, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    intergroup contact; social learning; religion; productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11363. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.