Why do people support promoting human rights? Common explanations center on the characteristics of states or individuals, particularly ideology. In this study, I focus on the role of empathy for outgroups. Contact theory suggests that intergroup contact reduces prejudice and increases support for outgroup members. I argue that empathy for outgroups increases support for defending the rights of foreigners abroad. Testing this argument is challenging given selection biases and the potential confounding effects of high prejudice and alternative norms. I use geocoded public opinion data from 35 African countries to study the level of contact with outgroups and its impact on preferences for promoting rights overseas. I use the geographic distance to the nearest international border and border crossing as a novel measure of contact with outgroups and find that the closer an individual is to an international land border or an international crossing point, the higher their support for preventing human rights abuses in other countries. These results are robust to a battery of covariates, robustness checks, and model specifications. In addition, the study shows that border hardening reduces support for human rights policies, while proximity to international borders is not correlated with other potential confounders such as concerns about security and migration. Overall, this study provides evidence that border zones, despite being the edge of sovereignty, generate stakeholders for human rights.

中文翻译：

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绘制宣传支持图：与外群体的地理邻近性和人权促进


为什么人们支持促进人权？常见的解释集中在国家或个人的特征，特别是意识形态上。在这项研究中，我重点关注对外群体的同理心的作用。接触理论表明，群体间接触可以减少偏见并增加对外群体成员的支持。我认为，对外群体的同情会增加对捍卫海外外国人权利的支持。考虑到选择偏差以及高度偏见和替代规范的潜在混杂影响，检验这一论点具有挑战性。我使用来自 35 个非洲国家的地理编码舆情数据来研究与外群体的接触程度及其对促进海外权利偏好的影响。我使用到最近的国际边界和过境点的地理距离作为与外群体接触的新衡量标准，发现一个人距离国际陆地边界或国际过境点越近，他们对防止侵犯人权的支持就越高。其他国家。这些结果对于一系列协变量、稳健性检查和模型规范来说是稳健的。此外，研究表明，边境强化会减少对人权政策的支持，而靠近国际边界与其他潜在的混杂因素（例如对安全和移民的担忧）无关。总体而言，这项研究提供的证据表明，尽管边境地区是主权的边缘，但它却产生了人权利益攸关方。