Random Roommates, Broader Minds: Why Higher Ed Should Invest in Intergroup Contact

As U.S. campuses grow more diverse, university policy choices determine whether cross-group encounters produce connection or division. Drawing on decades of intergroup contact research, this paper highlights randomized roommate assignments as a scalable institutional policy to increase meaningful cross-group contact. We show that intergroup contact decreases prejudice, increases belonging, and boosts cognitive benefits to both students in the roommate pair (e.g., creativity, perspective-taking) only when structured under conditions of equal status, shared goals, and institutional support. Using empirical evidence and case examples, we recommend concrete policy choices to maximize benefits and mitigate harms: match students based on shared interests, implement living–learning communities, provide facilitated intergroup dialogue and intercultural training for students and resident advisors, maintain clear roommate reassignment pathways, and sustain public commitments to multicultural inclusion. When accompanied by such supports, randomized roommate policies can reduce intergroup bias, strengthen student retention and belonging, and foster a campus culture of equity. Thoughtful implementation, not contact alone, determines whether diversity becomes a catalyst of inclusion or a source of strain.

Duke Scholars

Author Sarah Elizabeth Gaither Psychology & Neuroscience