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Journal Article
Interventions Highlighting Hypocrisy Reduce Collective Blame of Muslims for Individual Acts of Violence and Assuage anti-Muslim Hostility
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Author(s)
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 shortcircuited?
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.
Date Published:
2018
Citations:
Bruneau, Emile, Nour Kteily, Emily Falk. 2018. Interventions Highlighting Hypocrisy Reduce Collective Blame of Muslims for Individual Acts of Violence and Assuage anti-Muslim Hostility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. (3)430-448.