Contact and Group Structure: A Natural Experiment of Interracial College Roommate Groups

Arjun Chakravarti (), Tanya Menon () and Christopher Winship ()
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Arjun Chakravarti: IIT Stuart School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60640
Tanya Menon: Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
Christopher Winship: Department of Sociology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Organization Science, 2014, vol. 25, issue 4, 1216-1233

Abstract: The contact hypothesis offers a tantalizing promise, suggesting that people of different races can build positive relationships through contact. The present research situates contact in its local social structure, showing how group size and racial composition shape contact. We analyze a natural experiment at Harvard University where incoming first-year students (freshmen) were randomly assigned to freshman roommates and months later chose their own second-year roommates. Interracial dyads within two-person groups and three-person groups without a white majority were as likely to dissolve as all-white dyads. However, interracial pairs disbanded more frequently when one East Asian lived with two whites. Using a context that is both experimental and naturalistic, the findings go beyond simple contact effects, showing how the local structure within which contact is situated determines its consequences.

Keywords: field experiments; networks; diversity; group structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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