Role-Play Simulations and Changing Perceptions of the Other: Model UN, Model Arab League, and Student Views of the Muslim World

Abstract Role-play simulation can both enhance knowledge and favorably affect perceptions of others in global politics. This article tests these hypotheses in two quasi-experimental pretest/post-test surveys of student perceptions of Muslims, Arabs, and the countries of the Middle East. Students engaging in Model UN and Model Arab League simulations representing Arab and Muslim countries demonstrated improved knowledge of the countries they represented and, more importantly, positive changes in perceptions of Muslims and the Muslim countries they represented. A control group demonstrated no such change in images of the Muslims, Arabs, and countries of the Middle East. This preliminary study shows the potential importance of role-play simulations in fostering cross-national and cross-cultural understanding in the fraught relationship between the Middle East and the West.