Elizabeth Levy Paluck

Can the media help reconcile intergroup prejudice and conflict?
Evidence from a randomized field experiment in Rwanda

Tuesday, June 5, 2007 
Room  MC8-100 - Time: 12:30 - 2:00 pm

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Speaker:  Elizabeth Levy Paluck received her PhD in Social Psychology at Yale University in 2007.  She is interested in prejudice and conflict reduction, qualitative and quantitative methods in field research, the media and development in post-conflict countries.  She has conducted field experiments on media programming in Africa and on anti-bias programs in US high schools.

Discussant:  Sam Clark is a Social Development Specialist and works on the Justice for the Poor and Conflict and Development programs in the World Bank, Jakarta office, where he mostly focuses on operational research.  Recently, he has been working on reintegration, peace socialization, and political competition in Aceh.
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Can the media reduce intergroup prejudice and conflict? Despite the high stakes of this question, understanding of the mass media’s role in shaping prejudiced attitudes and behaviors is very limited. A year long field experiment in Rwanda tested the impact of a reconciliation radio soap opera designed to influence beliefs about intergroup prejudice, mass violence and trauma. Compared to communities who listened to a health radio soap opera, reconciliation listeners’ behaviors and their perceptions of social norms changed concerning some of the most critical issues for Rwanda’s post conflict society, such as intermarriage, open dissent, trust, and talking about personal trauma. The program did little to influence listeners’ beliefs about the radio program’s educational messages. Taken together, the results suggest that radio can communicate social norms and influence behaviors that contribute to intergroup tolerance and reconciliation.

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