Interventions Highlighting Hypocrisy Reduce Collective Blame of Muslims for Individual Acts of Violence and Assuage Anti-Muslim Hostility

Abstract

Collectively blaming groups for the actions of individuals can license vicarious retribution. Acts of terrorism by Muslim extremists against innocents, and the spikes in anti-Muslim hate crimes against innocent Muslims that follow, suggest that reciprocal bouts of collective blame can spark cycles of violence. How can this cycle be short-circuited? After establishing a link between collective blame of Muslims and anti-Muslim attitudes and behavior, we used an “interventions tournament” to identify a successful intervention (among many that failed). The “winning” intervention reduced collective blame of Muslims by highlighting hypocrisy in the ways individuals collectively blame Muslims—but not other groups (White Americans, Christians)—for individual group members’ actions. After replicating the effect in an independent sample, we demonstrate that a novel interactive activity that isolates the psychological mechanism amplifies the effectiveness of the collective blame hypocrisy intervention and results in downstream reductions in anti-Muslim attitudes and anti-Muslim behavior.

Reducing Discrimination and Fostering Prosociality Towards Ex‐Prisoners in Nigeria and the United States

“…Prior efforts to reduce discrimination have focused on interventions that change people's perception of the targets of discrimination. Such attempts include decreasing perceived outgroup homogeneity and hence proclivity for collective blame and stereotyping (Aboud & Fenwick, 1999;Bruneau, Kteily, & Falk, 2018). Other attempts include perspective taking (Chung & Slater, 2013;Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000;Vescio, Sechrist, & Paolucci, 2003) and elicitation of empathy towards the outgroup (Batson et al, 1997), the use of positive, counter-stereotypic exemplars to change perceptions of the outgroup and reduce prejudice (Blair, Ma, & Lenton, 2001;Columb & Plant, 2011;Columb & Plant, 2016;Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001;Plant et al, 2009), as well as training in non-stereotypic responding (Gawronski, Deutsch, Mbirkou, Seibt, & Strack, 2008;Kawakami, Dovidio, & van Kamp, 2007;Kawakami, Dovidio, Moll, Hermsen, & Russin, 2000).…”

Psychological Barriers to Resolving Intergroup Conflict: An Extensive Review and Consolidation of the Literature

“…The first domain relates to research that we might broadly describe as work on social cognition . This body of research, exemplified by the work of Cikara et al (); Kteily, Hodson, and Bruneau (); and Bruneau, Kteily, and Falk (), focuses primarily on how individuals view other groups. Some of the barriers in this domain are dehumanization (Gubler et al ; McDonald et al ; Kteily and Bruneau ; Bruneau, Jacoby et al ), prejudice (Er‐Rafiy and Brauer ; De Freitas and Cikara ; Kteily et al ; Orosz et al ), and failures of perspective taking at the intergroup level, as when people exhibit lower empathy for out‐group versus in‐group members (Saguy and Kteily ; Cikara et al ; Zaki and Cikara ; Bruneau, Cikara, and Saxe ).…”

“…While much of the research on psychological barriers has sought to identify them or to evaluate their impact, there have also been numerous efforts aimed at identifying the means by which these barriers might be overcome (Gayer et al ; Paluck ; Paluck and Green ; Shnabel et al ; Bruneau and Saxe ; Vasiljevic and Crisp ; Hameiri and Halperin ; Bruneau, Kteily, and Falk ; Hameiri, Bar‐Tal, and Halperin ). While many articles (directly or incidentally) provide theoretical or conceptual guidance on how to address the problem of psychological barriers, here we review the empirical literature.…”

“…Harder‐to‐scale attenuation techniques are the kind that require significant attention and effort by the targets of the intervention—as in the case of guided thought exercises and skills training (Cohen, Aronson, and Steele ; Bruneau and Saxe ; Bustamante and Chaux ; Goldenberg et al ; Bruneau, Kteily, and Falk ; Bruneau, Lane, and Saleem ). Other techniques, however, require only that participants consider a brief written, visual, or auditory stimulus (Gayer et al ; Halperin et al ; Er‐Rafiy and Brauer ; Ginges and Atran 2013; Cohen‐Chen et al 2014; Bruneau, Cikara, and Saxe ; Harth and Shnabel ; Wohl et al, ; Hameiri et al ; Kimel et al ; Cehajić‐Clancy and Bilewicz ; De Freitas and Cikara ; Hameiri and Nadler ).…”

“…In turn, Palestinian militant groups began a wave of suicide bombings within Israel (Pressman ). Interventions that decrease the propensity of groups to engage in collective blame (e.g., Cikara ; Bruneau, Kteily, and Falk ) or to view the out‐group as a homogeneous entity (e.g., Er‐Rafiy and Brauer ) could help take the wind out of the spoiler’s sails.…”