Masking Prejudice? Facial Coverings, Trait Evaluations, and Hiring Decisions

• In Event: Oppression of Religious Minorities

Abstract

Face coverings have become a highly charged political issue in Western countries, raising issues of religious intolerance in the case of Muslim niqabs and objections over personal liberty in the case of medical masks to curb the spread of Covid-19. To investigate questions of prejudice concerning the niqab and attitudes towards health compliance concerning medical mask wearing, we conducted a single factor between-subjects experiment in Israel using an online panel of 400 non-Arab participants. Participants were shown one of three treatment conditions featuring the same, neutral expression ethnically ambiguous female model (equally rated in a pre-test for being Israeli Jew or Israeli Arab) either wearing a niqab face covering, a medical mask, or a ski scarf. In all three conditions, only her eyes and a portion of her face were visible. A control condition featured the same model with her entire face showing. Participants were each shown one stimulus image to evaluate, along with five distractor images of different female models. Respondents rated the images on a series of trait evaluations and whether they would hire the person as a store manager.

Preliminary analyses indicate lower ratings for niqab and head scarf wearing compared to medical mask and maskless conditions. These findings are consistent with the literature on religious prejudice, which shows a common tendency to negatively judge members of religious out-groups, yet are inconsistent with the information deficit literature, which would predict that the medical mask condition would be evaluated negatively because the judgment is based on incomplete information (i.e., only a partial view of the model’s face). To tease out these conceptually conflicting results, further analysis will delve into contextual factors influencing the overall ratings, including such consequential moderators as religious values, trust in government, trust in health authorities, and proximity to Arab neighbors and coworkers.

Authors

• Israel Waismel-Manor, University of Haifa

• Tehila Ben Yosef

• Erik P. Bucy, Texas Tech University