To accept or not to accept: Level of moral concern impacts on tolerance of Muslim minority practices

Living with diversity requires that we sometimes accept outgroup practices that we personally disapprove of (i.e., tolerance). Using an experimental design, we examined Dutch majority group members’ tolerance of controversial practices with varying degrees of moral concern, performed by a culturally dissimilar (Muslims) or similar (orthodox Protestant) minority group. Furthermore, we examined whether arguments in favour or against (or a combination of both) the specific practice impacted tolerance. Results indicated that participants expressed less tolerance for provocative practices when it was associated with Muslims than orthodox Protestants, but not when such practices elicit high degrees of moral concern. This indicates that opposition towards specific practices is not just a question of dislike of Muslims, but can involve disapproval of specific practices. Argument framing did not have a consistent effect on the level of tolerance for the practices

Intolerance of Transgressive Protest Actions: The Differential Roles of Deontological and Utilitarian Morality

The current research examines intolerance of protest actions by focusing on two major questions: (a) How intolerant are people of transgressive protest actions of their least-liked versus most-liked groups? and (b) how do individual differences in deontological and utilitarian moral predisposition relate to intolerance of transgressive protest actions by these two groups? In two survey-embedded experiments using nationally representative samples from two West European countries (Germany, Netherlands), we found that people were overwhelmingly intolerant of morally transgressive protest actions by both their most-liked and least-liked groups, although slightly less so for the former. In addition, deontological moral predisposition was related to increased intolerance of protest actions regardless of whether it was committed by a most-liked or least-liked group. Individual difference in utilitarian moral predisposition was related to increased acceptance of protest actions regardless of group, but especially when the actions were perceived as serving the greater good

Testing the Asymmetry Hypothesis of Tolerance: Thinking About Socially Disruptive Protest Actions

Under the asymmetry hypothesis, political tolerance and intolerance differ in their underlying psychology, making it easier to persuade the tolerant to become less tolerant than to convince the intolerant to become more tolerant. Using a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 546), we examined this hypothesis for people’s tolerance or intolerance of socially disruptive protest actions of their least-liked group. Focusing on the relevant contrasting values of freedom of speech and public order, we found empirical evidence for the asymmetry of political tolerance: it was easier to persuade the tolerant to become less tolerant than to convince the intolerant to become more tolerant. In fact, we found a backlash effect among the intolerant participants with them showing higher intolerance as a result. These findings support the notion that tolerance is more fragile than intolerance because of the required self-restraint that involves psychological discomfort and uneasiness. However, tolerance is indispensable for our increasingly polarized liberal democratic societies making further research on the social psychology of tolerance and intolerance topical and urgent

Distinguishing Active and Passive Outgroup Tolerance: Understanding Its Prevalence and the Role of Moral Concern

Tolerance, the acceptance of disapproved conduct of others, is considered an indispensable feature of diverse societies. Yet tolerance can be expressed in one of two distinct ways, which is not reflected in the literature. In one way, tolerance is passive and involves suppressing the inclination to interfere with the disapproved conduct of others. In the other way, tolerance is active and involves endorsing the ability of others to engage in a disapproved practice. Using two nationally representative samples of Dutch majority members and eight scenarios involving real-world debates about the accommodation of Muslim minority practices, we find that while a significant minority of people engage in passive tolerance toward disapproved outgroup practices, very few people are willing to engage in active tolerance by proactively supporting disapproved practices. Furthermore, we also find that people who have stronger moral concerns about particular minority practices are less willing to engage in either active or passive tolerance. These results emerged both in contexts where Muslim minority practices had a direct impact on one's personal life as well as those that impacted on society as a whole. Collectively, these results illustrate two different forms of tolerance and the influence of moral concern in tolerance

The social psychology of intergroup tolerance and intolerance

Living with cultural, religious, and ideological diversity inevitably creates situations where people are confronted with beliefs, values, or practices that they disapprove of. In such situations, people may consider reasons to nevertheless tolerate what they disapprove of (i.e., forbearance tolerance), or reject these (i.e., intolerance). In the current review, we consider empirical research on the processes of intergroup tolerance and consider different manifestations of (in)tolerance. Then we discuss recent work on the dual process model of tolerance, which considers intuitive versus deliberative objections to cultural, religious, and ideological differences, and how these can be overridden to produce tolerance. We then review literature on the boundaries of tolerance including the role of moralization and moral values, before considering individual difference factors and situations of threat that can hamper intergroup tolerance. We conclude by considering five areas ripe for future exploration on the social psychology of intergroup tolerance and intolerance

Political tolerance and the golden rule: Reciprocity increases acceptance of normative protest actions of disliked groups

The golden rule is a widespread moral guide for preventing conflict across cultures and religions, and reciprocity is foundational to political tolerance. This raises the question of whether the golden rule has an impact on one's willingness to tolerate political protest actions of disliked ideological groups. In the current research, we examined whether making salient golden rule reciprocity impacts on political tolerance of one's least-liked groups. Data from two experiments (N = 950) revealed that participants who watched a 3-min video highlighting the golden rule showed significantly more tolerance of normative protest actions of their least-liked group relative to watching a control video. By contrast, the golden rule video had no significant impact on tolerance of non-normative protest actions of one's least-liked group. Additionally, the golden rule video had no impact on one's attitudes or willingness to engage in contact with the least-liked group indicating that increased political tolerance of normative protest actions was not due to changing attitudes towards the least-liked group. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that reminders of the principle of reciprocity and the golden rule can increase political tolerance with benefits for liberal democracy. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement

Right-wing political orientation, national identification and the acceptance of immigrants and minorities

This paper examines the intriguing possibility that higher national identification commonly found among political conservatives can make them more, rather than less, accepting towards immigrants and minorities. This possibility is based on the theoretical reasoning that national attachment, net of national narcissism, provides a secure and stable sense of national belonging that forms a basis for a more open attitude towards outgroups. In two studies using three nationally representative samples from Germany and Netherlands (N = 4440), we show that stronger political conservatism predicts more positive outgroup attitudes and higher tolerance through stronger national attachment, specifically when partialling out national narcissism. These findings indicate that higher national identification from politically more conservative individuals can provide a confident basis for positive outgroup attitudes

From humanitarian aid to humanization:When outgroup, but not ingroup, helping increases humanization

Dehumanization and infrahumanization involve decreasing the humanity attributed to others. Despite the existence of a large body of work on these topics, little is known about how to increase outgroup humanization. Across two experiments, we examined the effects of intergroup and intragroup helping on dehumanization and infrahumanization. In Study 1, we showed that news of an outgroup helping the ingroup after a natural disaster reduced infrahumanization, but not dehumanization. Reduced infrahumanization emerged regardless of the amount of aid given by the outgroup. By contrast, learning about ingroup helping the outgroup following a natural disaster did not decrease dehumanization or infrahumanization, regardless of amount of aid offered by the ingroup. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings by demonstrating that only intergroup helping by the outgroup to the ingroup reduced dehumanization. Intragroup helping, by either the ingroup or outgroup had no influence on outgroup perceptions. We report all measures, manipulations, and exclusions in each study. Implications of recent research on intergroup helping as a means to outgroup humanization are considered

With rhyme and reason: Recognizing reasons for disliked practices increases tolerance

Disapproval of others’ beliefs and practices is an inevitable consequence of living with diversity, and the ability to tolerate, or put up with, these differences is crucial to maintain a functional society. Considering reasons to condone what one disapproves of is considered a key aspect of tolerance. Across three national samples (N = 1,708), the current research examines how recognizing arguments to support practices that one disapproves of increases tolerance. Studies 1–2 demonstrate that when participants generate arguments to support Muslim minority practices (Study 1) and Orthodox Protestant minority practices (Study 2), they disapprove of, they show increased tolerance towards such practices in society. In Study 3, the importance of considerations is experimentally extended by demonstrating that perceiving objectionable behaviour as more reasonable increases tolerance. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the importance of engaging in and perceiving reasonable considerations to enhance tolerance of dissenting beliefs or practices