Measuring and Countering Prejudice between Ethnic Groups

在本提案中，我们制定了以下计划：(i)利用全国范围的实地实验全面衡量奥地利和德国对难民的歧视；（ii）利用代表性调查和实地实验室实验引出对难民的隐性和显性偏见；（iii）并评估消除偏见策略的潜力，以减少歧视和偏见。目前的建议以一个现有项目为基础，我们在该项目中编制了奥地利社区一级歧视难民的全国性实验指数。为此，我们进行了一项实地实验，向私人和公共机构发送了大约2.5万封标准化电子邮件，随机选择了本地或国外的发件人。我们利用社区层面回应率的差异来构建一个全国性的歧视指数。这种对歧视的实地实验测量的优势在于，它是在一个自然的、同时又受到严格实验控制的环境中引出的。在这项建议的第一个支柱中，我们建议将这一指数扩大到德国，从而为建立一个更大的歧视数据库奠定基础。第二个支柱包括在两国进行的调查和实地实验室实验，以衡量对难民的显性和隐性偏见。此外，我们将包括评估更普遍的对难民的信念和态度的模块。特别是，我们计划引出对难民的原籍国、宗教和教育背景、难民人数和难民犯罪活动倾向的看法，我们还将衡量对他们的一般态度（即，他们是被视为负担还是收益）。这些数据将被地理编码，并合并到揭示的（电子邮件）歧视措施，以及大量社会经济协变量和其他背景特征。除其他外，我们还将把有关难民分配的数据与我们的数据联系起来，以估计接触和接触难民对歧视的影响。这种方法可以检验Allport（1954）最初提出的“接触假设”（CH）。其主要思想是，在某些条件下，群体之间的接触可以减少偏见和敌意。在本提案的第三个支柱中，我们旨在测试消除偏见干预措施在减少歧视和偏见方面的有效性。在这些干预中，我们让受试者接触到有关他们自己偏见的信息。这些信息处理使我们能够研究信念的因果效应，并评估消除偏见的信念是否可能有助于减轻反难民情绪。

In this proposal, we lay out plans to (i) comprehensively measure discrimination against refugees in Austria and Germany using nation-wide field experiments, (ii) elicit implicit and explicit bias against refugees using representative survey and lab-in-the-field experiments and (iii) and assess the potential of de-biasing strategies to reduce discrimination and prejudice. The current proposal builds on an existing project in which we compiled a nation-wide experimental index of discrimination against refugees at the community level in Austria. We have done so by conducting a field experiment in which we sent out around 25,000 standardized e-mails to private and public institutions, randomizing the name of the sender as either local or foreign. We use differences in response rates at the community level to construct a nation-wide index of discrimination. The strength of this field experimental measurement of discrimination is that it is elicited in a natural, yet at the same time tightly experimentally controlled, context. In the first pillar of this proposal, we propose to extend this index to Germany and thus lay the foundation for a larger database on discrimination.The second pillar consists of survey and lab-in-the-field experiments, administered in both countries, which measure explicit and implicit biases against refugees. In addition, we will include modules to assess stated beliefs and attitudes towards refugees in more general. In particular, we plan to elicit beliefs about the country of origin, religious and educational background of refugees, their number and the propensity of criminal activities of refugees and we will also measure general attitudes towards them (i.e., whether they are perceived as a burden or as a gain). These data will be geo-coded and merged to the revealed (e-mail) measure of discrimination and to a large battery of socio-economic covariates and other background characteristics. Among others, we will also link data on the allocation of refugees to our data to estimate the effect of exposure and contact to refugees on discrimination. Such an approach allows for the testing the “Contact Hypothesis” (CH) originally proposed Allport (1954). The main idea is that contact between groups can, under certain conditions, reduce prejudice and hostility.In the third pillar of this proposal, we aim to test the effectiveness of de-biasing interventions in the reduction of discrimination and prejudice. In these interventions, we expose subjects to information about their own biases. These information treatments allow us to study the causal effect of beliefs and evaluate whether de-biasing beliefs could potentially contribute to the mitigation of anti-refugee sentiments.