Delivering Tolerance

How Unintended Institutional Inclusion Reduces Prejudice

A new theory of prejudice reduction, supported by rigorous evidence, arguing that public institutions and the people within them can improve intergroup relations in conflict-ridden societies

Decades of social science research focuses on reducing prejudice, which is considered an impediment to intergroup cooperation. Reducing prejudice is notoriously challenging, however, because it is durable and because it motivates avoidance of experiences that would improve intergroup relations. In Delivering Tolerance, Chagai Weiss develops a theory of prejudice reduction through public institutions. Weiss argues that instrumental, and often unintended, minority inclusion in public institutions that provide essential servicesincluding schools, hospitals, and police forcescan facilitate various forms of exposure to out-group service providers that reduces prejudice at scale