The challenge
Hostile, exclusionary attitudes toward unauthorized immigrants and transgender people.
The case
Researchers Joshua Kalla and David Broockman ran three pre-registered field experiments with community groups. In the first, ahead of the 2018 midterms, groups including the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition and the Orange County Congregation Community Organization canvassed voters about unauthorized immigrants. The other two, run in 2016 with LGBT groups in four cities, focused on transgender people, one at the door and one by phone. In total, 230 canvassers talked with 6,869 voters across seven US locations. In the immigration study, arguments alone had no effect on policy views or prejudice, but adding a non-judgmental exchange of personal stories reduced exclusionary attitudes for at least four months (d = 0.08). The transgender studies replicated this (ds = 0.08, 0.04).
Why it worked
The active ingredient was listening and trading personal stories, not facts or arguments, which gives groups a tested, scalable script, though effects per conversation are modest.
Sources
- Kalla, J. & Broockman, D. (2020). Reducing Exclusionary Attitudes through Interpersonal Conversation: Evidence from Three Field Experiments. American Political Science Review.
- Yale PRISE. Canvassing to Curtail Prejudice.
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