Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19106;
Evidence in Governance and Politics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Aug 13;116(33):16274-16279. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1820146116. Epub 2019 Jul 29.
Ingroup bias and outgroup prejudice are pervasive features of human behavior, motivating various forms of discrimination and conflict. In an era of increased cross-border migration, these tendencies exacerbate intergroup conflict between native populations and immigrant groups, raising the question of how conflict can be overcome. We address this question through a large-scale field intervention conducted in 28 cities across three German states, designed to measure assistance provided to immigrants during everyday social interactions. This randomized trial found that cultural integration signaled through shared social norms mitigates-but does not eliminate-bias against immigrants driven by perceptions of religious differences. Our results suggest that eliminating or suppressing ascriptive (e.g., ethnic) differences is not a necessary path to conflict reduction in multicultural societies; rather, achieving a shared understanding of civic behavior can form the basis of cooperation.
群体内偏见和群体外偏见是人类行为的普遍特征，促使各种形式的歧视和冲突的产生。在跨境移民增加的时代，这些趋势加剧了本地人口和移民群体之间的群体间冲突，提出了如何克服冲突的问题。我们通过在德国三个州的 28 个城市进行的大规模实地干预来解决这个问题，该干预旨在衡量在日常社会互动中向移民提供的帮助。这项随机试验发现，通过共同的社会规范来体现文化融合，可以减轻——但不能消除——由于宗教差异而产生的对移民的偏见。我们的研究结果表明，在多元文化社会中，消除或压制先赋性（如种族）差异并不是减少冲突的必要途径；相反，形成对公民行为的共同理解可以成为合作的基础。
