Seeing the World Through the Other’s Eye: An Online Intervention Reducing Ethnic Prejudice
by Gabor Simonovitis, New York University, Gabor Kezdi, University of Michigan and Peter Kardos, Bloomfield College
We report the results of an intervention that targeted anti-Roma sentiment in Hungary using an online perspective-taking game. We evaluated the impact of this intervention using a randomized experiment in which a sample of young adults played this perspective-taking game, or an unrelated online game. Participation in the perspective-taking game markedly reduced prejudice, with an effect-size equivalent to half the difference between voters of the far-right and the center-right party. It, also reduced antipathy toward refugees, another stigmatized group in Hungary and reduced vote intentions for Hungary’s overtly racist, far right party by 10%-points. Importantly, these effects persisted for at least a month, suggesting that our intervention led to genuine attitude change. Our study offers a proof-of- concept for a general class of interventions that could be adapted to different settings and implemented at low costs.
American Political Science Review, First View / Published online: 07 November 2017, pp. 1-8