By Andrew Nonnemacher and Andy Baker
Many political scientists go their entire careers without publishing once in the聽. The APSR聽is the discipline's most prestigious and selective journal, publishing fewer than 5% of the papers that scholars submit to it. But CU Political Science Assistant Professor聽聽has already managed to publish three times in the APSR--and she only completed her Ph.D. four years ago! Alex agreed to talk to us about one of these articles, which is on the compelling topic of soccer and prejudice. In聽鈥溾��, Alex and her coauthors find that fans of a British soccer team grew less Islamophobic after a Muslim player became a superstar on their team. It seems that sports really can reduce prejudice! Alex answers our questions below.听听听听听听
What was the article about?
"Our article explores how exposure to celebrities from stigmatized groups can reduce prejudice. We focus on the case of Mohamed Salah, an elite soccer player who brought a great deal of success to Liverpool Football Club. Salah is noteworthy not only for his skill on the soccer field, but also for his highly visible Muslim identity. For example, he is well-known for praying on the field after scoring. As Salah rose to fame, some pundits speculated that his success was causing a decrease in Islamophobia among Liverpool fans. We tested this proposition scientifically, drawing on UK hate crimes data,聽more than 15 million tweets written by followers of prominent soccer clubs in the English Premier League, and an original online survey experiment of over 8,000 Liverpool F.C. fans."
What about your research interest led you to write the article?
"One strand of my research focuses on prejudice reduction, and I am particularly interested in real-world approaches to reducing prejudice. Decades of social science literature highlight the potential for positive intergroup contact to reduce prejudice, but opportunities for this kind of contact are quite limited in practice. We can expose members of different racial or religious groups to one another in a laboratory setting or by recruiting them to participate in studies for short periods of time, but most people live in segregated neighborhoods, have homogenous networks of friends and coworkers, and have little opportunity to interact with members of different groups (known as 鈥渙utgroups鈥�) in their day to day lives. Studying the effect of Mo Salah on Islamophobic attitudes and behaviors was a real-world opportunity to test the parasocial contact hypothesis--that exposure to a celebrity or a fictional character from a member of a stigmatized outgroup can reduce prejudice towards members of that group as a whole."
What are the main takeaways from the article, and why are they important?
"We find that after Salah joined Liverpool F.C., hate crimes in the Liverpool area dropped by 16%, and Liverpool F.C. fans halved their rates of posting anti-Muslim tweets. The results of our survey experiment suggest that the visibility of Salah鈥檚 Muslim identity enabled positive feelings toward Salah to generalize to Muslims more broadly. While there is a tendency to dismiss research that's about entertainment or leisure activity as unserious or overly exceptional, exposure to outgroup celebrities is very common, so understanding its impact has important policy implications for reducing prejudice in diverse contexts."
Why write the article when you did?聽
"As long-time fans of Mo Salah, my coauthors and I were inspired to write this article watching Liverpool supporters popularize chants such as 'If he scores another few, then I鈥檒l be Muslim too'聽or 'If he鈥檚 good enough for you, he鈥檚 good enough for me. Sitting in a Mosque, that鈥檚 where I want to be!'聽It was extraordinary to see mostly white UK soccer fans chanting messages that praised and promoted Salah鈥檚 Muslim identity. As scholars of prejudice reduction, we saw this as an opportunity to test the parasocial contact hypothesis in a natural setting where we could measure the impact of exposure to Mo Salah on prejudicial behaviors such as hate crimes and hate speech."
Do you think the findings discovered in your research apply to other minority celebrities? 聽
"The 'Salah effect'聽is likely not unique to Salah. Celebrities with role-model-like qualities have long been thought to shape social attitudes. While more research is needed, we expect that exposure to celebrities reduces prejudice when several conditions are met. First, the visibility of the celebrity鈥檚 identity is crucial. When we analyze the effects of exposure to Sadio Mane, another Muslim player whose Muslim identity is less well-known, we find much more limited effects. Second, communications literature suggests the 'Salah effect'聽likely requires positive media coverage, which Salah enjoyed throughout the period under study. Third, we expect exposure to reduce prejudice when the celebrity is particularly successful. Many minority elite soccer stars have noted that support from fans is often conditional. As Mesut Ozil, a soccer player of Turkish descent formerly on the German national team, has noted, 鈥淚 am a German when we win and an immigrant when we lose.鈥� Finally, we expect that prejudice reduction may be less likely when celebrities take political stances--particularly on social justice issues. Salah is well-known for avoiding politics and celebrity activism is often met with backlash. However, such efforts often enable celebrities to use their platforms to raise awareness of important social and political issues, and their effects require further study."
Do you plan to continue doing research specific to this field and if so how?
"We are currently in the process of conducting a follow-up study to understand the scope of the 鈥淪alah effect.鈥� We are particularly interested in studying the conditions under which players from underrepresented minority groups are more likely to be stigmatized by fans and the media."