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

经济学博士论文研究：打破泡沫——接触的决定因素和影响

• 批准号: 2315456
• 负责人: Muriel Niederle
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315456&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Economics; Breaking

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.

在过去的几十年里，在美国和其他民主国家，政治团体之间的脱节迅速加剧，持有不同政治观点的人们之间的不信任日益影响着一个人对朋友、合作伙伴和工作场所的选择。与跨党派界限的社会隔离密切相关可能会对民主制度的运作构成威胁，现有的研究表明，不同的政治观点的人很少互动，不同的党派群体之间缺乏接触可能会导致对观点不同的个人的不准确的刻板印象。来自我们自己的；人们可能会该项目旨在回答两个研究问题：在什么情况下接触政治对手会导致党派不信任的持久减少？哪些因素决定了党派与个人接触的兴趣。为了回答这些问题，该项目利用了几项大规模的现场实验，以促进反对派支持者之间的对话。这项研究的结果也将为旨在减少社会群体之间歧视的干预措施提供信息。一系列现场实验来检验接触之间的因果效应在实验中，随机选择的一组参与者进行长达两个小时的在线对话，对话的因果效应及其持续时间是通过六个月内进行的一系列调查来估计的。这些调查包括政治态度、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方法来研究解释接触的因果效应的机制。作为指定合作伙伴的属性，合作伙伴的目标该项目揭示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。因此，该项目将通过确定促使人们有兴趣与持有不同观点的个人进行接触的因素，从而在各种治疗条件下进行接触，从而为未来的干预措施提供信息。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并具有通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。