Inaugural Award Recipients  - Stephanie Chan, Tanika Raychaudhuri, and Ali Valenzuela

The recipients of the inaugural award in 2020 were Stephanie Chan, Tanika Raychaudhuri, and Ali Valenzuela of Princeton University for, "Group Threat or Contact? The Effects of Local Immigration Primes on Policy Views."

The award committee issued the following citation:

The research presented in this poster addresses a substantively important topic and utilizes innovative methods to evaluate competing theories. The authors examine how the local immigrant community affects individuals' attitudes toward immigration policy (including pathways to citizenship). The authors evaluate two competing channels: a threat hypothesis where a larger local immigrant population leads to less support for pro-immigration policies, and a contact hypothesis where the same variable leads to support for pro-immigration policies. To test their hypotheses, the authors did a large survey experiment of 2500 respondents. The treatment asks respondents to reflect on the size and change in the size of the immigrant population. They find support for the contact hypothesis: reminding people about the local immigrant community leads to increased support for pro-immigration policies.  Text analysis of open-ended responses suggests support for the contact mechanism. In terms of presentation, the poster is very easy to read and understand. Figures are used well to display key findings.

The award committee members were: Paul MacDonald (Wellesley College), chair, Tobin Grant (Southern Illinois University), and Erica Owen Palmer (University of Pittsburgh).