The “Islamized Stranger”: On “Chronic” Versus “Contextual” Salience in the Measurement of Anti-Muslim Prejudice

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate whether anti-Muslim prejudice in Western countries is more widespread than prejudice towards other ethno-cultural groups or general ethnic prejudice. Previous research used different methodologies and yielded contradictory results. In this article, we combine a population-based split-sample survey experiment (N = 1,323), where half of the respondents judged items about Muslims and the other half statements about strangers, with an open question probing which groups respondents thought of when thinking about “strangers.” We furthermore extend previous research by not only focusing on general ethnic prejudice, but to differentiate between perceived trustworthiness, economic, cultural, and security threat. Our results strongly support the idea that the difference between the “chronic” and “contextual” salience of the target of prejudice should be taken into account.