Colloquium: Contagious Prejudice: The Marocchinate

Abstract:
Why do people harbor prejudicial feelings against groups they havenever encountered? We study the contagion of prejudice through a unique historical lens. During World War II, French Moroccan troops performed numerous acts of (sexual) violence against theItalian population (known in Italy as the Marocchinate). We show that these acts triggered a persistent far-right voting potential that could only be unleashed in conjunction with non-white migration to Italy. Survey evidence corroborates a dislike towards migrants from Syria but not Albania specifically due to fear of sexual violence in people whose ancestors have been exposed to the Marocchinate. Another survey disentangles the effects of preference transmission from the role of collective memory.