Chris Blattman

Chris Blattman

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Conversations with openly gay canvassers about gay equality changes people’s opinions. Contagiously.

A close family member, who shall remain nameless, supports gay rights because he had a great gay hairdresser for 10 years. Turns out, all he needed was one haircut.

From Michael LaCour and Don Green in Science, a nice example of the contact hypothesis in action:

Can a single conversation change minds on divisive social issues, such as same-sex marriage? A randomized placebo-controlled trial assessed whether gay (N=22) or straight (N=19) messengers were effective at encouraging voters (N=972) to support same-sex marriage and whether attitude change persisted and spread to others in voters’ social networks.

The results, measured by an unrelated panel survey, show that both gay and straight canvassers produced large effects initially, but only gay canvassers’ effects persisted in three-week, six-week, and nine-month follow-ups.

We also find strong evidence of within-household transmission of opinion change, but only in the wake of conversations with gay canvassers. Contact with gay canvassers further caused substantial change in ratings of gay men and lesbians more generally.

These large, persistent, and contagious effects are confirmed by a follow-up experiment. Contact with minorities coupled with discussion of issues pertinent to them is capable of producing a cascade of opinion change.

Next issue, Science will publish the conservative response/experiment: sending NAMBLA door to door.

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