Replication Data for: The Effect of Interpersonal Interaction on the Expression of Anti-Foreign Sentiment: Evidence from a Parallel Survey in the United States and China

What drives anti-foreign sentiment among the public? Existing scholarship focuses on foreign policy events or elite manipulation as primary sources of such sentiment. We contribute to the existing studies by exploring the effect of interpersonal interaction on the expression of anti-foreign sentiment. In a parallel survey conducted simultaneously in the United States and China, we ask respondents in the control group to report how favorably they view the other country without any preface. In the treatment group, respondents are told that they are participating in a parallel survey and paired with a foreign counterpart in China or the United States who can see their responses. We find that awareness of a foreign counterpart, even an unidentified one, leads to a more humanized perspective of the foreign country. Our treatment increases the percentage of respondents with favorable opinions toward the other country by 7.96 percent in the American sample and 9.14 percent in the Chinese sample. However, the effect becomes negative if the counterpart is revealed to already harbor a negative view of the other country. We show that the expression of anti-foreign sentiment is context-dependent: An interpersonal and humanized setting holds the potential of reducing public hostility toward a disfavored country.