Social interaction impact on attitudes: Native Swedes' attitudes towards labour immigrants and guest workers after hurricane Gudrun

Abstract

We make use of a natural experiment, hurricane 'Gudrun', and investigate the impact of human social interaction on attitudes towards guest workers on the labour market. Comparing attitudes between one group of Swedish forest owners that had interacted with guest workers and one that had not, differences in attitudes towards guest workers are identified concerning their labour market performance and work morale. Those who had interacted have a more positive attitude than those who had not. The experimental setting makes it possible to claim that this observed difference in attitudes was an effect of social interaction.