E-contact facilitated by conversational agents reduces interethnic prejudice and anxiety in Afghanistan

Abstract

Intergroup contact occurring through indirect means such as the internet has the potential to improve intergroup relationships and may be especially beneficial in high conflict situations. Here we conducted a three-timepoint online experiment to ascertain whether the use of a conversational agent in E-contact platforms could mitigate interethnic prejudices and hostility among Afghanistan’s historically segregated and persistently conflictual ethnic groups. 128 Afghans of Pashtun, Tajik, and Hazara backgrounds were assigned to one of four E-contact conditions (control with no conversational agent and three experimental groups that varied in the conversational agent settings). Participants in the experimental conditions contributed more ideas and longer opinions and showed a greater reduction in outgroup prejudice and anxiety than those in the control group. These findings demonstrate that E-contact facilitated by a conversational agent can improve intergroup attitudes even in contexts characterized by a long history of intergroup segregation and conflict.