Abstract
Somewhat paradoxically, numerous scholars in various disciplines have found that religion induces negative attitudes towards immigrants, while others find that it fuels feelings of compassion. We offer a framework that accounts for this discrepancy. Using two priming experiments conducted among American Catholics, Turkish Muslims, and Israeli Jews, we disentangle the role of religious social identity and religious belief, and differentiate among types of immigrants based on their ethnic and religious similarity to, or difference from, members of the host society. We find that religious social identity increases opposition to immigrants who are dissimilar to in-group members in religion or ethnicity, while religious belief engenders welcoming attitudes toward immigrants of the same religion and ethnicity, particularly among the less conservative devout. These results suggest that different elements of the religious experience exert distinct and even contrasting effects on immigration attitudes, manifested in both the citizenry's considerations of beliefs and identity and its sensitivity to cues regarding the religion of the target group.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 203-221 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | American Political Science Review |
| Volume | 109 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 23 Apr 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:For invaluable advice and support at different stages of the project, we are grateful to Gadi Bloom, Amnon Cavari, Jack Citrin, Emre Erdogan, Ted Jelen, David Sears, Eser Sekercioglu, the journal's editors, and four anonymous reviewers, as well as participants at the 2013 annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, the International Society of Political Psychology, the Israel Political Science Association, and the 2014 “Religion, Democracy and Law” International Conference in London Metropolitan University. For help with data collection, we would like to thank Gul Arikan Akdag, Rick Battistoni, Joe Cammarano, Efe Mehmet Carlik, Haggai Elkayam, Bill Hudson, Mark Hyde, Julia Jordan- Zachary, Susan McCarthy, Gokay Ozerim, Jeff Pugh, Tamir Sheafer, and Shaul Shenhav. Finally, the first author gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF Grant No. 676/13). Any errors or omissions are, of course, our own. Correspondence regarding the article should be directed to Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom at pazit.bennun@mail.huji.ac.il. 23 04 2015 05 2015 109 2 203 221 Copyright © American Political Science Association 2015 2015 American Political Science Association
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Political Science Association.
