Trust, Ethnic Diversity, and Personal Contact: A Field Experiment

Henning Finseraas, Torbjørn Hanson, Åshild Johnsen, Andreas Kotsadam and Gaute Torsvik

No 7515, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We study how close personal contact with minorities affects in-group and out-group trust in a field experiment in the armed forces. Soldiers are randomly assigned to rooms with or without ethnic minorities. At the end of the recruit period, we measure trust by using a trust game. Results indicate that close personal contact with minorities increases trust towards a generic immigrant. We replicate the result that individuals coming from more ethnically diverse areas trust minorities less, but random assignment to interact with minority soldiers removes this negative correlation. We conclude that social integration involving personal contact can reduce negative effects of ethnic diversity on trust.

Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

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Journal Article: Trust, ethnic diversity, and personal contact: A field experiment (2019)
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