Islamophobia: Social Distance, Avoidance, and Threat

Abstract

A sample of undergraduate college students (N = 610) enrolled in Introductory Sociology courses participated in a study exploring attitudes toward and social distance from persons who are Arab, Pakistani, and Muslim vis a vis other ethnic and religious groups. Data were collected between 2010 and 2016 using the Bogardus Social Distance scale and a 16-item Islamophobia scale. Respondents positioned Arabs, Pakistanis, and Muslims at the bottom of a closeness hierarchy. In multiple regression analyses where race, religion, political affiliation and preferred news source are regressed on Islamophobia scores we find that being Christian, being a Republican and watching Fox News, separately and together, significantly influence negative attitudes toward Muslims and persons from those regions, while knowing someone Muslim diminishes these views. The persistence of these sentiments is explored.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Bilal Ahmed for prompting this research and to my Introductory Sociology students for participating in this study.

Notes

1 Another study conducted by Randall and Delbridge (2005) found a far higher mean SD score for Arabs, but their study had a much smaller convenience sample of 285 adults (mean age 35). These researchers hypothesized that in the community where the study was conducted Mexicans would command the greatest social distance, yet Arab scores were higher than those of Mexicans. The mean for Arabs was 4.36, substantially higher than the mean for Mexicans of 3.41 and the overall mean of 1.64.

2 In trials not shown, other political and religious groups and other sources of news were tested as excluded categories. Results were inconsistent and less stable. Excluding the categories of interest allowed us to show the difference between them and other categories at once, facilitating interpretation of results.

3 Also interesting is the lack of effects for “other news.” Originally designed as a catch-all category, few respondents selected it, and it proved insignificant in every analysis. It is possible that between 2011 and early 2016, social media news feed was less widespread, compelling or persuasive than it is today. Future studies should examine “other” sources of news more explicitly.

4 Interaction terms (Republican * Christian, Republican * Fox News, Christian * Fox News) were constructed and tested. In trials not shown, no significant interaction effects were found, nor were the main effects considerably altered.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Terri A. Winnick

Terri A. Winnick earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is currently an associate professor at Mansfield campus of The Ohio State University. She is interested in stigmatization, and has examined anticipated public reaction to ex-convicts and sex offenders, and (with Mark Bodkin) perceptions of stigma and stigma management, especially race differences on these dimensions, among incarcerated men. Winnick has also conducted research in medical sociology, investigating the established medical profession’s reaction to complementary and alternative medicine, the management of mental illness by family practitioners, and the role of language in obstetrical practice.