4.4 Article

Shocking Racial Attitudes: Black GIs in Europe

Journal

REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
Volume 88, Issue 1, Pages 489-520

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdaa039

Keywords

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

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Funding

  1. Evidence-Based Economics International Doctoral Program of the Elite Network of Bavaria

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The presence of African American soldiers in the UK during World War II reduced anti-minority prejudice, with persistent effects observed around 2010. This change is attributed to intergenerational transmission from parents to children.
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 and voters for the UK's leading far-right party, less implicit bias against blacks and fewer individuals professing racial prejudice, all measured around 2010. Our results point towards intergenerational transmission from parents to children as the most likely explanation.

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