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

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加剧。持不同政治观点的人之间的不信任日益影响着一个人对朋友、伙伴和工作场所的选择。这些趋势似乎与跨党派的社会隔离密切相关，可能对民主体制的运作构成威胁。现有的研究表明，持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人产生不准确的刻板印象；人们可能会越来越多地将他们支持的政党视为他们的社会群体。这个项目旨在回答两个研究问题：在什么情况下，与政治对手接触会导致党派不信任的持久减少？哪些因素决定了党派人士与持不同观点的人接触的兴趣？为了回答这些问题，这个项目利用了几个大规模的现场实验来促进对立党派支持者之间的对话。这项研究的结果还将为旨在减少社会群体之间歧视的干预措施提供信息。研究小组进行了一系列实地实验，以检验政治对手之间接触的因果关系。在实验中，随机选择一组参与者进行长达两小时的在线对话。在干预后的六个月里，通过一系列调查来评估谈话的因果效应及其持续时间。这些调查包括对政治态度、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中，如指定伴侣的属性，互动的目标，以及引导谈话主题的推动，来检查解释接触因果效应的机制。因此，该项目阐明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，研究团队使用激励相容的方法，诱导受试者在不同治疗条件下进行接触的意愿。因此，该项目将通过确定促使人们对与持有不同观点的人接触感兴趣的因素，为未来的干预提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.