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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chakravarti, Arjun; Menon, Tanya; Winship, Christopher
• 署名单位: Illinois Institute of Technology; University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2014.0905
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 1216-1233
• 关键词: Field experiments; networks; diversity; group structure

摘要

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.