Contact and Group Structure: A Natural Experiment of Interracial College Roommate Groups
通过哈佛大学新生随机分配室友的自然实验，研究发现跨种族室友关系是否解散取决于群体规模和种族构成，例如当一名东亚学生与两名白人同住时，跨种族配对更容易解散。
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.