Building social cohesion between Christians and Muslims through soccer in post-ISIS Iraq

Abstract

Can intergroup contact build social cohesion after war? I randomly assigned Iraqi Christians displaced by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to an all-Christian soccer team or to a team mixed with Muslims. The intervention improved behaviors toward Muslim peers: Christians with Muslim teammates were more likely to vote for a Muslim (not on their team) to receive a sportsmanship award, register for a mixed team next season, and train with Muslims 6 months after the intervention. The intervention did not substantially affect behaviors in other social contexts, such as patronizing a restaurant in Muslim-dominated Mosul or attending a mixed social event, nor did it yield consistent effects on intergroup attitudes. Although contact can build tolerant behaviors toward peers within an intervention, building broader social cohesion outside of it is more challenging.

Team and Nation: Sports, Nationalism, and Attitudes Toward Refugees

“…In such situations, cross-cutting identities may be useful avenues to engender affinity. In the realm of sports, others have suggested that teams or clubs can be a useful cross-cutting tie to highlight and playing sports with out-group members can improve certain behaviors and attitudes toward them (Alrababa'h et al, 2019;Dawes & Rubenson, 2020;Lowe, 2021;Mousa, 2020).…”

“…This paper adds to the growing number of studies using sports to explore dynamics of intergroup relations. Some researchers vary "contact" with outgroup members through sports activities to measure the effect of sportsrelated cooperation on attitudes and behaviors (Lowe, 2021;Mousa, 2020). Other studies consider how sports team "fandom" generates cross-cutting, potentially unifying identities (Dawes & Rubenson, 2020) and how celebrity players of diverse backgrounds can help reduce prejudice (Alrababa'h et al, 2019).…”

Investigating the Links Between Cultural Values and Belief in Conspiracy Theories: The Key Roles of Collectivism and Masculinity

“…Masculinity predicts CTs through increased competitiveness, specific interventions focusing on increasing social cohesion -such as promoting group activities and intergroup contact (Pagotto, Visintin, De Iorio, & Voci, 2013;Mousa, 2020) -or prosocial traits among the target public might indirectly affect CTs.…”

Beyond direct contact: The theoretical and societal relevance of indirect contact for improving intergroup relations

“…In fact, several experimental studies conducted in the laboratory manipulated direct contact but are unlikely to generalize to real‐world settings (e.g., Mendoza‐Denton & Page‐Gould, 2008) and few studies have manipulated direct contact in the field. Realizing meaningful manipulations in real‐world contexts is difficult and, when it is done, results may be weaker than those obtained in the laboratory (Moussa, 2020). The generalizability of findings obtained with experimental procedures in the laboratory is limited and also impacts the likelihood of realistically implementing direct contact (see Blascovich et al., 2002, for a discussion of more ecologically valid, laboratory‐based approaches).…”