Religious Leaders as Promoters of Peace? Experimental evidence from Sierra Leone and Togo

Our study is an experiment with 2000 Muslims and Christians in Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Lomé (Togo). In the experiment, we test in a between-subject design whether video messages of religious leaders pointing at similarities between Christians and Muslims in each country impact (1) interreligious and interethnic cooperation as well as (2) the willingness for interreligious contact differently than 'non-leaders' conveying the same message. A control group does not see a video. We also study whether being exposed to a video message from a religious ingroup or outgroup leader makes a difference. Interreligious and interethnic cooperation are measured via a 2-player public goods game. In the public goods game, we randomly vary the identity of the other player to be either of the religios and ethnic in- or outgroup. Willingness for intergroup contact is measured by survey questions asking participants to indicate how likely they are to participate in two different hypothetical interreligious contact situations (i.e. (1) an interreligious prayer; (2) a birthday party of a religious outgroup member).