Replication Data for: "How Social Context Affects Immigration Attitudes"

Selection bias represents a persistent challenge to understanding the effects of social context on political attitudes. We attempt to overcome this challenge by focusing on a unique sample of individuals who were assigned to a new social context for an extended period, without control over the location to which they were sent: missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We interviewed a sample of 1,804 young people before and after their mission service in a diverse set of locations around the world, and find strong evidence that the policy views of respondents became more tolerant toward undocumented immigrants when respondents were assigned to places where contact with immigrants was more likely. Within the U.S., missionaries who served in communities with larger Hispanic populations, and those assigned to speak a language other than English, experienced the largest increases in pro-immigrant attitudes.

选择偏差（selection bias）是解析社会情境对政治态度的影响时长期存在的研究难题。为攻克这一挑战，本研究聚焦于一类独特的研究样本：耶稣基督后期圣徒教会（The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints）的传教士——他们被指派前往全新的社会情境开展长期传教工作，且无法自主选择派遣目的地。我们对全球多个不同地区执行传教任务前后的1804名年轻传教士受访者进行了访谈，结果发现强有力的实证证据表明：当受访者被派遣至更易接触移民的地区时，其对无证移民的政策态度会变得更为包容。在美国境内，被派往西班牙裔人口更集中社区的传教士，以及被指派使用非英语开展工作的传教士，其支持移民的态度增幅最为显著。