📊 What Was Tracked and How

This study asks whether exposure to a high-profile, visibly Muslim celebrity can reduce prejudice. The case focuses on Mohamed Salah, a visibly Muslim elite soccer player, and examines changes after he joined Liverpool F.C.

• Analysis includes police hate crime reports across England, a dataset of 15 million tweets from British soccer fans, and an original survey experiment.
• A synthetic control design compares Liverpool’s local area to a weighted combination of other areas to estimate causal changes in hate crime.

🔎 Key Findings

Clear behavioral and attitudinal shifts followed Salah’s rise at Liverpool:

• Hate crimes in the Liverpool area fell by 16% relative to the synthetic control after Salah joined Liverpool F.C.
• Liverpool F.C. fans halved their rates of posting anti-Muslim tweets compared with fans of other top-flight clubs.
• A survey experiment shows that making Salah’s Muslim identity salient helped positive feelings toward Salah generalize to Muslims more broadly.

❗Why This Matters

Findings provide empirical support for the parasocial contact hypothesis: positive exposure to an out-group celebrity can translate into measurable reductions in prejudice, both online and in real-world behaviors. The results highlight a pathway—through popular culture and sports—by which public figures can influence intergroup attitudes and potentially reduce hate-motivated behavior.