Interventions Highlighting Hypocrisy Reduce Collective Blame of Muslims for Individual Acts of Violence and Assuage Anti-Muslim Hostility

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Departmental Papers (ASC)
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
collective blame
collective responsibility
vicarious retribution
prejudice
Islamophobia
intervention
Cognition and Perception
Communication
Community Psychology
Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication
Mass Communication
Personality and Social Contexts
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social Influence and Political Communication
Social Psychology
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Bruneau, Emile
Kteily, Nour
Contributor
Abstract

Collectively blaming groups for the actions of individuals can license vicarious retribution. Acts of terrorism by Muslim extremists against innocents, and the spikes in anti-Muslim hate crimes against innocent Muslims that follow, suggest that reciprocal bouts of collective blame can spark cycles of violence. How can this cycle be short-circuited? After establishing a link between collective blame of Muslims and anti-Muslim attitudes and behavior, we used an “interventions tournament” to identify a successful intervention (among many that failed). The “winning” intervention reduced collective blame of Muslims by highlighting hypocrisy in the ways individuals collectively blame Muslims—but not other groups (White Americans, Christians)—for individual group members’ actions. After replicating the effect in an independent sample, we demonstrate that a novel interactive activity that isolates the psychological mechanism amplifies the effectiveness of the collective blame hypocrisy intervention and results in downstream reductions in anti-Muslim attitudes and anti-Muslim behavior.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2018-03-01
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection