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Not only Whom you Know but also How you Know them Matters:<br/>How the Structure of Social Networks affects Racial Prejudice

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Social networks and racial prejudice

A recent EU-funded project has explored how the structure of a person's social network impacts interethnic prejudice, supporting research on intergroup contact and racial or interethnic prejudice.

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The EU-funded NETWORKS & PREJUDICE (Not only whom you know but also how you know them matters: how the structure of social networks affects racial prejudice) project applied the latest techniques from sociological network analysis to study intergroup contact and prejudice. It focused particularly on cultural diversity as a consequence of migration, and how this relates to discrimination in terms of interethnic prejudice. More specifically, the project studied how structural features of networks influence the impact of contact on prejudice, looking as well at how networks shape the causal relationship between contact and prejudice. It also examined whether the impact of indirect contact with people from other ethnic or racial groups on prejudice depends on the structure of the social network within which the contact takes place. To achieve its aims the team used multi-trait multi-method structural equation models to highlight that the best measure of racial prejudice should comprise multiple indicators. It then analysed ego-centred network data and found that the structure of the social network in which intergroup contact takes place does indeed moderate the effect of contact on prejudice. In addition, the project team developed and applied complex stochastic actor-based models for longitudinal social network analyses. This revealed that prejudiced individuals have fewer contacts with members of other groups because the network structure offers fewer opportunities, and not because of their negative attitudes. Project work also involved the development a new measurement tool in form of software for ego-centred networks in online surveys. The team then developed a better approach which proved popular and easier for users to measure prejudice and enhance the quality of data collected. The new software tool showed that the potential of indirect or extended contact for prejudice reduction may have been exaggerated by previous research that did not consider the network structure. This could change the direction of research related to intergroup contact, possibly invalidating previous interpretations on the topic. The project’s results were presented at conferences, articles and notable journals.

Keywords

Social networks, NETWORKS & PREJUDICE, racial prejudice, cultural diversity, migration, discrimination

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