Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Breaking the Bubble - The Determinants and Effects of Contact

经济学博士论文研究：打破泡沫——接触的决定因素和影响

• 批准号: 2315456
• 负责人: Muriel Niederle
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315456&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Economics; Breaking

The disconnect between political groups has grown rapidly in the last decades, in the United States and in other democracies. The mistrust between people holding different political views increasingly affects the selection of one’s friends, partners, and workplace. These trends, which appear to be closely linked to social segregation across party lines may pose a threat to the functioning of democratic institutions. Existing research suggests that individuals with different political opinions rarely interact. This lack of contact between distinct groups of partisans may lead to inaccurate stereotypes about individuals whose views differ from our own; and people may increasingly think of the political party they support as their social group. This project aims to answer two research questions: under which circumstances does exposure to political opponents lead to durable reductions in partisan mistrust? Which factors determine partisans’ interest to get in contact with individuals holding different views? To answer these questions, this project draws on several large-scale field experiments that facilitate conversations between supporters of opposing parties. The findings from this study will also inform interventions aimed at reducing discrimination between social groups.The research team conducts a series of field experiments to examine the causal effect of contact between political opponents. In the experiments, a randomly selected treatment group of participants is matched for up to two-hour long online conversations. The causal effect of conversations and its persistence is estimated using a series of surveys administered over the course of six months after the intervention. The surveys include incentivized measures of political attitudes, partisan labor-market discrimination, and other relevant metrics. The research team examines the mechanisms that account for the causal effects of contact by randomizing participants into several treatments that vary features of the intervention, such as attributes of the assigned partner, the goal of the interaction, and nudges to guide conversation topics. This project thereby sheds light on the underpinnings of the link between contact and partisan mistrust and paves the way for a better design of future interventions aimed at reducing partisan mistrust. Finally, the research team elicits subjects’ willingness to engage in contact under various treatment conditions using incentive-compatible methods. This project will thereby inform future interventions by pinning down the factors driving people’s interest in making contact with individuals holding views different from their own.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在过去几十年里，在美国和其他民主国家，政治团体之间的脱节迅速增长。持不同政见的人之间的不信任越来越影响到一个人对朋友、伴侣和工作场所的选择。这些趋势似乎与跨党派的社会隔离密切相关，可能对民主机构的运作构成威胁。现有的研究表明，具有不同政治观点的人很少互动。不同党派之间缺乏联系可能会导致对观点与我们不同的个人的不准确的刻板印象;人们可能会越来越多地认为他们支持的政党是他们的社会群体。这个项目旨在回答两个研究问题：在什么情况下暴露于政治对手导致持久减少党派不信任？哪些因素决定了党派人士有兴趣与持不同观点的人接触？为了回答这些问题，该项目借鉴了几个大规模的实地实验，以促进反对党支持者之间的对话。本研究的结果也将为旨在减少社会群体之间歧视的干预措施提供参考。研究小组进行了一系列实地实验，以检查政治对手之间接触的因果关系。在实验中，随机选择的一组参与者进行长达两小时的在线对话。使用一系列的调查管理的过程中，六个月的干预后，估计会话的因果关系及其持久性。这些调查包括政治态度、党派劳动力市场歧视和其他相关指标的激励措施。研究小组通过将参与者随机分配到不同干预特征的几种治疗方法中，来研究解释接触的因果效应的机制，这些干预特征包括指定合作伙伴的属性，互动的目标以及引导对话主题的轻推。因此，该项目揭示了接触与党派不信任之间联系的基础，并为更好地设计旨在减少党派不信任的未来干预措施铺平了道路。最后，研究小组使用激励相容的方法，在各种治疗条件下，评估了受试者的接触意愿。因此，该项目将通过确定促使人们有兴趣与持不同观点的个人接触的因素，为未来的干预提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。