Intergroup contact and social norms

Studies show that intergroup contact (face-to-face, virtual, or mediated) can reduce prejudice and discrimination in several contexts, but it can also exasperate intergroup relationships. Based on a critical literature analysis, I argue that two competing mechanisms are most likely responsible for the conflicting evidence: persuasion and social norms. Persuasion directly affects individual behavioral decisions: an individual exposed to an outgroup changes their private beliefs, attitudes, and political preferences about that outgroup; thus, their behavior changes coherently. Social norms, in turn, does not require a change in private beliefs but instead a change in social expectations. In this study, I conduct a field experiment in a school setting to test the reduction of discrimination towards LGBTQIA* people. In the experiment, the treatment conditions are varied to allow us to "switch on and off" the social norms mechanism. During the experiment, students are assigned either to watch a video of an interview of a LGBTQIA* person under the condition of collective treatment; that is, individuals are aware that the other participants of the experiment are watching the same video about the transgender person or to watch the same video under the condition of individual treatment, that is individuals are aware that the other students are watching a different video, or watching a placebo video. To measure preferences and attitudes, at the end of the experiment, participants are invited to fill an online survey.