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

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.