December 7, 2022
We started off trying to answer:
Answers to these questions vary across contexts, but we have three sets of tools to explain:
Ethnicity takes a variety of forms:
Electoral incentives to win votes of ethnic out-group leads parties to limit violence against them. (Wilkinson 2004; Nellis, Weaver & Rosenzweig 2016)
Rules/procedures that ensure fair distribution of state “goodies” limits incentives for ethnic conflict (Chandra 2004)
Constitutional/electoral rules that encourage vote-pooling, limits consequences of losing elections reduce conflict (Horowitz 1985)
Contact Hypothesis: Allport (1954)
prejudice/negative stereotypes of other groups may be reduced by personal contact with members of the group when that contact…
Paluck, Green, and Green 2019
Focus on results of studies where contact is randomly assigned and prejudice measured at least 1 day later.
Overall:
Caste in Rural India
Race in the United States:
Does participation in TFA reduce racial prejudice, increase empathy with racial outgroup?
As-if random assignment to TFA…
Do these psychological findings have an effect at a larger scale?
Need to investigate whether structural changes can reduce conflict.
Mohamed Salah, Muslim star for FC Liverpool
Medieval Trade in India and Hindu-Muslim Violence
Medieval port cities (Muslim traders) had fewer riots in 19th-20th century:
Civil War and Black Freedom
In places with more soldiers support for Black voting rights \(\uparrow\)