National Service Reduces Advantage Bias? TFA Study Offers Surprising Insight.

education Political Behavior @APSR 17 R files 3 Stata files 23 datasets Dataverse

Did National Service Change Perspectives?

This study examines whether advantaged Americans can gain insight into inequality through programs like Teach For America (TFA). Using a unique quasi-experimental design, it analyzes how two years of engagement with disadvantaged communities affects the beliefs of TFA corps members.

Data & Methods

Analyzed over 32,000 original survey responses from TFA applicants during cycles 2007-2015.
Employed regression discontinuity design leveraging TFA's selection criteria.

Key Findings

Prolonged intergroup contact in service contexts reduced advantaged individuals' perspective gap with the disadvantaged.
These results suggest national service programs can effectively foster empathy and understanding across socioeconomic divides.

Why It Matters

These findings challenge assumptions about inequality perception by demonstrating that structured, long-term engagement can bridge previously unbridgeable differences.

Article card for article: When Do the Advantaged See the Disadvantages of Others? A Quasi-Experimental Study of National Service

When Do the Advantaged See the Disadvantages of Others? A Quasi-Experimental Study of National Service was authored by Cecilia Hyunjung Mo and Katharine Conn. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2018.