Back to search

FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam

Field Experiments to Identify the Effects and Scope Conditions of Social Interactions

Alternative title: Felteksperimenter for å identifisere effekter og betingelser for sosiale interaksjonseffekter.

Awarded: NOK 8.2 mill.

The project addresses theoretical and empirical challenges related to the study of social interactions. Using field experiments, the project identifies causal effects of exposure to out-groups on prejudice, discrimination, political attitudes, and behaviors. Together the experiments allow for theoretical advancement in showing when and how social interactions occur and individually they answer questions at the research frontier in their respective fields. The main goal of the project has been to push the research frontiers of the study of social interactions in Economics, Sociology, and Political Science. We believe we have succeeded, but that is of course subjective. Measured more objectively in terms of publications in the top journals of these disciplines, the project has excelled. For instance, the project has led to publications in the top three journals in the disciplines: The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The American Journal of Sociology, and the American Journal of Political Science. We here give a short description of these papers. In the article "Does integration change gender attitudes? The effect of randomly assigning women to traditionally male teams.", by Dahl, Kotsadam and Rooth in The Quarterly Journal of Economics (2021), we examine whether integrating men and women in a traditionally male-dominated environment can change men's attitudes about mixed-gender productivity, gender roles, and gender identity. Our context is the military in Norway, where we randomly assigned female recruits to some squads but not others during boot camp. We find that living and working with women for eight weeks causes men to have more egalitarian attitudes. Moreover, men in mixed-gender teams are more likely to choose military occupations immediately after boot camp that have a higher fraction of women in them. But these effects do not persist once treatment stops. Treated men’s attitudes converge to those of the controls in a six-month follow-up survey, and there is no long-term effect on choosing fields of study, occupations, or workplaces with a higher fraction of women after military service ends. These findings provide evidence that even in a highly gender-skewed environment, gender stereotypes are malleable and can be altered by integrating members of the opposite sex. But they also suggest that without continuing intensive exposure, effects are unlikely to persist. The article "Rearranging the Desk Chairs: A Large Randomized Field Experiment on the Effects of Close Contact on Interethnic Relations", by Elwert, Keller and Kotsadam in the American Journal of Sociology (Forthcoming), uses many insights from the project to develop theories of contact in addition to its empirical contribution. Contact theory predicts that interethnic exposure reduces anti-minority discrimination. By contrast, conflict theory predicts that interethnic exposure worsens discrimination. The scope conditions for both theories are vague; prior evidence is mostly correlational; and supportive field experiments for contact theory have largely accrued in rarified settings. This begs the question how interethnic contact affects interethnic relations in everyday situations. We test the causal effect of interethnic exposure on discrimination under quotidian conditions in a pre-registered randomized field experiment involving 2,395 students in 39 Hungarian schools. We find that neither manipulating the closeness of interethnic exposure between students within classrooms, nor variation in ethnic composition across grade levels, affects anti-minority discrimination. This shows that the domains of contact and conflict theory are much less expansive than previously thought. Interethnic contact may not affect discrimination either way in many everyday settings. The article "How Settlement Locations and Local Networks Influence Immigrant Political Integration", by Bratsberg, Ferwerda, Kotsadam, and Finseraas in American Journal of Political Science (2021), investigates peer and neighborhood effects in voter turnout for refugees. We argue that the initial neighborhoods immigrants settle in establish patterns of behavior that influence subsequent political participation. Using Norwegian administrative register data, we leverage quasi-exogenous variation in the placement of refugees to assess the consequences of assignment to particular neighborhoods. We find that the difference in turnout between refugees initially placed in different neighborhoods is large. To assess the mechanism, we draw on individual-level data on all neighbors present at the time of each refugee’s arrival and then evaluate the relative impact of neighborhood characteristics and available social networks. Our findings suggest that while neighborhood socioeconomic factors play a limited role, early exposure to politically engaged neighbors and peer cohorts increases immigrants’ turnout over the long run. The project has also led to several other publications and findings.

Prosjektet hadde som hovedformål å flytte forskningsfronten for studier av sosiale interaksjonseffekter i Samfunnsøkonomi, Sosiologi, og Statsvitenskap. Vi mener at vi klart dette. For eksempel har vi publisert i topp-tidsskriftene for disse fagene så som: The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The American Journal of Sociology, and the American Journal of Political Science. Se det engelske sammendraget for mer informasjon.

The project outlines an ambitious and bold research agenda, addressing theoretical and empirical challenges related to the study of social interactions. Using field experiments, the project aims to identify causal effects of exposure to out-groups on prejudice, discrimination, political attitudes, and behaviors such as voter turnout, occupational choice, and field of study. Together the experiments will allow for theoretical advancement in showing when and how social interactions occur and individually they answer questions at the research frontier in their respective fields. The project is innovative as it extends state-of-the art econometric methods and combines data from large administrative registers, field-, and laboratory experiments. The close collaboration with institutions outside of academia enables us to conduct or exploit field experiments across different environments including the army, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and during elections. The project has strong policy relevance. As societies are becoming more diverse, there is need for evidence-based policies to improve interethnic relations and avoid conflicts. Gender discrimination, and insight into how to reduce it, is of importance to our partnering organizations and to society. Harmonious relations and cooperation across socio-economic classes is paramount for an efficient society. High and equal voter turnout is a foundation for democracy and there is political consensus that the Norwegian decline in turnout should be reversed. The project is interdisciplinary and draws on theories from different fields of the social sciences. The ultimate goal is to push the research frontiers of political science, sociology, and economics. The project team consists of top national and world leading international scholars from these disciplines and the project leader actively publishes well in all three disciplines. We expect that the project will produce top publications in several disciplines.

Publications from Cristin

No publications found

No publications found

Funding scheme:

FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam