Can Exposure to Celebrities Reduce Prejudice? The Effect of Mohamed Salah on Islamophobic Behaviors and Attitudes

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3763151
AutoresAla Alrababah (0000-0001-5762-8892, Stanford University, autor correspondente), William Marble (0000-0001-9352-5540, Stanford University, autor correspondente), Salma Mousa (0000-0002-1482-4276, Yale University, autor correspondente), Alexandra A Siegel (0000-0003-0792-7813, University of Colorado System, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume115
Fascículo4
Páginas1111-1128
Data de publicação2021-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003055421000423
OpenAlexW3168073920
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas63
Referências citadas48

Can exposure to celebrities from stigmatized groups reduce prejudice? To address this question, we study the case of Mohamed Salah, a visibly Muslim, elite soccer player. Using data on hate crime reports throughout England and 15 million tweets from British soccer fans, we find that after Salah joined Liverpool F.C., hate crimes in the Liverpool area dropped by 16% compared with a synthetic control, and Liverpool F.C. fans halved their rates of posting anti-Muslim tweets relative to fans of other top-flight clubs. An original survey experiment suggests that the salience of Salah's Muslim identity enabled positive feelings toward Salah to generalize to Muslims more broadly. Our findings provide support for the parasocial contact hypothesis-indicating that positive exposure to out-group celebrities can spark real-world behavioral changes in prejudice

Elite · Prejudice (legal term · Salience (neuroscience · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Media Influence and Politics · Social and Intergroup Psychology