On Thursday, June 27th at 10am EDT, Ala’ Alrababa’h of the Immigration Policy Lab (IPC) joins the M&E Thursday Talks to lead a discussion on “The Mo Salah Effect: Can Exposure to Celebrities Reduce Prejudice?”

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Can exposure to successful celebrities from stigmatized groups reduce prejudice towards them? Ala’ Alrababa’h, and fellow IPC colleagues, explored this question in their recently published study of the phenomenal rise of Liverpool star Mohamed Salah. Using hate crime observations, social media, and various experimental tools, they causally estimated the effect of Salah joining Liverpool on Islamophobic attitudes and behaviors of their fans. Ala’ will elaborate on their methods and findings, which revealed that Merseyside County (home to Liverpool) experienced a reduction in hate crimes and anti-Muslim tweets among fans.

How can these findings be best utilized by the peacebuilding, development, and humanitarian communities? Participants will be asked to explore this question, and how positive exposure to outgroup role models can change behaviors and attitudes.