Identification with the American South and Anti-Muslim Attitudes

ABSTRACT

The number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the U.S. nearly tripled between 2015 and 2016. In addition, the number of hate crimes committed against members of the religion jumped 67% in 2015 alone. Addressing the rise in anti-Muslim prejudice is critical. We examined (N = 406) the role of regional identification in predicting anti-Muslim attitudes. That is, identification with the American South, a more conservative and religious part of the country with a history of slavery and violent secession movements, predicted anti-Muslim attitudes. This relationship was mediated by conservation values. For Southerners who strongly identified with “the South”, the endorsement of values related to a general resistance to change led to greater anti-Muslim attitudes. Anti-Muslim bias may lie in perceptions of threat: for strongly identified Southerners, the Muslim faith is viewed as a societal threat.

KEYWORDS:

• Regional identity
• American South
• Social identity
• prejudice

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/kuqb6/?view_only=20c4bdcd855c4e06a139eb406699c08d

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/kuqb6/?view_only=20c4bdcd855c4e06a139eb406699c08d

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In this study we used the old and new south maps to define Southern States (see Woodward, 1981). In this study, Southern states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

2. In response to a reporter’s question regarding how Muslims would actually register in a database, Trump responded, “It would be just good management. What you have to do is good management procedures and we can do that.”