« Nouvelle Laïcité » en France et Pression Normative Envers les Minorités Musulmanes [Secularism in France and Normative Pressure Against Muslim Minorities]

Abstract

Recent research has shown that French secularism (laïcité) could be linked to prejudice against ethnic and religious minorities (Kamiejski et al. 2012). This study provides an experimental test of this relation and investigates the impact of laïcité on the tendency to exert normative pressures on minority group members. 334 French participants with low or high prejudice against North Africans were asked, in Study 1, to report their intention to express normative pressure on a North African target adopting (or not) a deviant attitude regarding laïcité. In Study2, Muslim vs. Catholic target adopted a deviant attitude regarding laïcité. Results from Study 1 showed that people with strong prejudice evaluate more negatively and exert more normative pressure against the deviant target than against the normative target. Results from Study 2 showed that people with strong prejudice evaluate more negatively and exert more pressure against a Muslim target than against a Catholic target. These results support the idea that laïcité is likely to be mobilized by people who are high in prejudice in order to legitimize negative attitudes towards North Africans.