Intergroup Avoidance: A Fly-on-the-Wall Study

Intergroup dynamics and social avoidance in public spaces fundamentally shape democratic societies by influencing civic interactions essential for building trust across difference, yet methodological challenges have limited systematic observation of naturalistic behavior. Democratic theory suggests that everyday spatial segregation may undermine cross-group encounters necessary for sustaining democratic trust and participation. The proposed protocol presents a Fly-on-the-Wall Study---a large-N, probability-based research design---to first document the baseline likelihood of intergroup contact between strangers and then to examine subsequent social avoidance patterns on public transit platforms in Seattle, Washington. The study systematically codes interpersonal spacing behaviors between the first two individuals arriving on train platforms, analyzing how social distance varies with demographic characteristics including sex, age, race-ethnicity, skin color, and class. This approach enables systematic adjudication between competing theoretical mechanisms---statistical discrimination, intergroup contact, racial threat, and social identity theories---by capturing how avoidance patterns vary across demographic combinations and environmental contexts. By establishing whether systematic avoidance patterns exist in everyday public encounters that constitute civic life, this research provides the empirical foundation for understanding how micro-level spatial behaviors may fragment democratic community. Results would advance theoretical understanding of intergroup dynamics in naturalistic settings, while null results would challenge assumptions about concealed bias and suggest greater potential for democratic trust-building.