Seeing the World Through the Other's Eye: An Online Intervention Reducing Ethnic Prejudice

2017/11/07 by Gábor Simonovits, GÁBOR SIMONOVITS, GÁBOR KÉZDI +3 · 168 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Antipathy #Computer science #Ethnic group #Gender Politics and Representation #Intervention (counseling) #Law #Perspective (graphical) #Political Philosophy and Ethics #Political science #Prejudice (legal term) #Psychiatry #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Sample (material) #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology

paper · doi:10.1017/s0003055417000478

published in American Political Science Review 112(1), 186-193 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 2017/11/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

We report the results of an intervention that targeted anti-Roma sentiment in Hungary using an online perspective-taking game. We evaluated the impact of this intervention using a randomized experiment in which a sample of young adults played this perspective-taking game, or an unrelated online game. Participation in the perspective-taking game markedly reduced prejudice, with an effect-size equivalent to half the difference between voters of the far-right and the center-right party. The effects persisted for at least a month, and, as a byproduct, the intervention also reduced antipathy toward refugees, another stigmatized group in Hungary, and decreased vote intentions for Hungary's overtly racist, far-right party by 10%. Our study offers a proof-of-concept for a general class of interventions that could be adapted to different settings and implemented at low costs.

Citations

• Intergroup contact as a tool for reducing, resolving, and preventing intergroup conflict: Evidence, limitations, and potential.

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