Does proximity increase acceptance?

Question

Do you think being close to or having a personal relationship with certain people can make you more accepting or "change your mind"?

Example: a friend of mine has very religious parents who used to be very against homosexuality. Then one of their neighbors children, who they had known his entire life, came out. Since then, both of his parents have become more accepting of homosexuality in general.

Obviously not everyone has acceptance issues to begin with, so this question is more talking about people who do/did have an issue with certain people/groups.

Answer

Yes, exposure helps a lot. That's why big cities trend more liberal because there's more diversity while small towns that only have straight white people (or the HUGE majority are) trend more conservative and are typically less accepting.

Answer

YES YES YES! I grew up in a big city where being white was actually the minority and in my teens I moved to this hick town with the majority being white with only a couple black families and the attitude towards not them, but the rest of the black community outside of the town was very racist and it made me sad that those people grew up so ignorantly. It was difficult being friendly with people who were otherwise nice but made blatantly racist remarks when a hip hop song came on the radio. So glad to be out of there 👌

Answer

People are afraid of things they know nothing about or something they've been lied to about. Either way people have a mind of their own. I've never understood why religious people are obsessed with sexuality and other people's sexuality. I was raised in a religious family. I thought everyone was weird for being homophobic or hateful. Mainly bc their feelings went against what I read in the Bible. There is no place for hatred or fear in loving others.

Answer

It depends on what it is. In a quite different situation, as a pagan with a mormon MIL, being in her proximity has actually decreased my acceptance of the LDS, not because of her, but because of how the others treat her (they watched her ex husband emotionally and physically abuse her for years, and turned a blind eye or sided with him). I'm sure they're not all like that, but I'm wary of them in general because of this.

Answer

People hate or fear what they don't understand.

Being close to those things and being educated on them increases understanding - and as a result, acceptance/tolerance.

Answer

There was a study done - I learned via podcast- This American Life- that had people vote on abortion laws. Then those people who voted absolutely against it, got visited by a well educated, kind and friendly woman who spent some time with them. When she told her story about her choice to abort, a surprising number changed their vote the next time and voted something along the lines of "it depends" or "it's ok". 
Not having exposure leads to assumptions based on fear. That's every major topic.

Does proximity increase acceptance?

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