Facing the Far Right: Contact, Attention, and Elite Behavior in Parliament
Political elites' responses to outgroups shape how democratic institutions work, yet evidence on how contact changes behavior comes almost entirely from ordinary citizens. We study the entry of the far-right AfD into the German Bundestag and use an indivisibility in committee-seat allocation that varies how many AfD colleagues mainstream legislators work with. Using more than 23,000 plenary speeches with video, audio, and text aligned word by word, we measure whether legislators name the AfD and look toward its benches, how they gesture, and how they use their voice. Moving from the least- to the most-exposed committee portfolio lowers mainstream legislators' probability of naming the AfD by about 40 percent of its post-entry mean and reduces visible attention toward its benches. The decline is concentrated in negative mentions, and more-exposed legislators also take the floor less often. The mentions that remain are not delivered more calmly, and legislators still turn toward the AfD right after one of its members has spoken. This pattern points toward strategic avoidance rather than habituation. At the same time, the delivery of more-exposed legislators moves toward the AfD's vocal and gestural profile.