Shocking racial attitudes: Black G.I.s in Europe

David Schindler, Mark Westcott

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Can attitudes towards minorities, an important cultural trait, be changed? We show that the presence of African American soldiers in the UK during World War II reduced anti-minority prejudice, a result of the positive interactions which took place between soldiers and the local population. The change has been persistent: in locations in which more African American soldiers were posted there are fewer members of the UK’s leading far-right party, less implicit bias against blacks and
fewer individuals professing racial prejudice, all measured around 2010. We show that persistence has been higher in rural areas and areas with less subsequent in-migration.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)489-520
JournalReview of Economic Studies
Volume88
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2021

Keywords

  • African American Soldiers
  • Culture
  • Implicit attitudes
  • Persistence
  • Racism
  • World War II

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