An experimental study of contact effects and their persistence on Malawian shopkeepers’ willingness to spend future time with their Chinese counterparts

The last decade has seen a massive influx of Chinese migrants to sub-Saharan Africa, where many have opened small businesses to compete amongst local merchants. These Chinese have often met resistance from the local competition, resulting in a sharp social divide. The current paper draw’s on Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis theory and reports on the results of two experimental studies that examined the effects of direct and imagined contact on indigenous Malawian shopkeepers’ willingness to spend future time with their Chinese counterparts. Results show that direct contact led to Malawians’ greater willingness to spend time with their Chinese counterparts, and this effect persisted over a time period of ten days, when a follow up survey was conducted. In contrast, imagined contact did not change Malawians’ willingness to spend future time with Chinese. Implications of these results for China’s ambitions to introduce its development model into Africa are discussed.