After Charlie Hebdo: Direct and Contextual Intergroup Contact on Attitudes Toward Muslim Immigrants

• In Event: Political Communication Research Focusing on Underrepresented Minorities

Abstract

We differentiate between general attitudes toward Muslim immigrants and those attitudes as related to terrorist attacks committed by Muslims, and offer systematic evidence on how the general and attack-related attitudes are affected by direct intergroup contact and broader contextual contact with Muslim immigrants in one’s neighborhood. Relying on a representative sample of non-Muslim Dutch surveyed just over a week after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris (N = 409), we find that direct contact through friendship reduces intergroup threat, with attack-related attitudes predicted by friendships strongest. This implies that friendship guards against strong negative reactions towards Muslims after terrorist attacks. With regard to contextual contact we find a consistent but insignificant pattern of friendship moderating the contextual contact effect on anti-Muslim attitudes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Authors

• Nelleke Keuper, U of Amsterdam

• Rachid Azrout, Amsterdam School of Communication Research/U of Amsterdam

• Magdalena Wojcieszak, University of California, Davis