Chagai Weiss builds on existing theories in political science and psychology to study how people think about members of an ethnic group that is different than them.
Weiss, a PhD candidate in political science at UW–Madison, said that when public institutions such as schools, hospitals, and universities are diverse and more representative of a society’s population, they can be effective in shaping the way a majority group thinks about the outgroup in that society.
“If we really build on social scientific research and understand the underlying mechanisms that psychologists and political scientists have developed – and essentially try to design our institutions in ways that facilitate those mechanisms and processes – then we might be able to shape intergroup relations and reduce prejudice in a scalable, effective, and cost-effective fashion,” Weiss said.
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