Anti-Muslim behavior in everyday interaction: evidence from a field experiment in Paris

International audienceNo other form of group antagonism affects the fate of so many people in France as anti-Muslim racism. While negative attitudes toward Muslims and Muslims’ experience of discrimination are well documented, studies of anti-Muslim behavior are rare, especially in the context of everyday interpersonal encounters. To fill this void, we conducted a field experiment on platforms of the Paris metro (n=270) in which a bearded confederate asked for help to randomly selected passengers giving additional indirect cues of being Muslim in the experimental condition. The outcomes under investigation were the probability of helping the confederate and various behaviors indicative of interpersonal warmth or involvement. Interactions were videotaped, the outcomes objectively measured, and the data analyzed using Generalized Linear Models estimated with Bayesian inference. Passengers were found to offer help less often and to show lower interpersonal warmth in the experimental condition. Also, when considered in isolation the young turn out to discriminate but not the middle-aged. Given that these negative effects were observed despite the use of a minimal stimulus, the results probably underestimate the actual level of anti-Muslim discrimination that Muslim men face in their everyday dealings with non Muslims

Responses to the islamic headscarf in everyday interactions depend on sex and locale: a field experiment in the metros of Brussels, Paris, and Vienna on helping and involvement behaviors

International audienceThe Islamic headscarf has been in the middle of heated debates in European society, yet little is known about its influence on day-to-day interactions. The aim of this randomized field experiment (n=840) is to explore how the generally negative views that surround the hijab in Europe manifest in the behavior that people direct to hijab-wearing women in everyday situations. Using a helping scenario and videotapes of the resulting interactions, we measured whether passengers offered assistance and also various details of behavior that indicate interpersonal involvement. We predicted that in interaction with the covered confederate less help would be offered, that women’s level of nonverbal involvement would increase but men’s decrease, and that responses would be stronger in Paris, intermediate in Brussels, and weaker in Vienna. We analyzed the data using Generalized Linear Models estimated with Bayesian inference. While the headscarf does not produce concluding differences in “overt” helping, it does affect “subtle” cues of interpersonal involvement. In response to the hijab, women across sites increase, but men in Paris decrease, the level of involvement that they show with their nonverbal behavior