Zero-sum thinking and the cultural threat of Muslim immigrants' religious rights

Abstract

Cultural threat is one of the main explanations for opposition towards immigrants and their cultural practices. However, this concept lacks theoretical precision, and empirical studies suffer from measurement and endogeneity issues. To remedy these problems, we propose to focus conceptually and empirically on variation in the intensity of cultural threat. In two sequential factorial online experiments in Germany, we randomly assigned people to situations where the intensity of cultural threats varies by design. For some, Muslim cultural rights replace majority rights (zero-sum) and for others they co-exist (non-zero-sum). We investigate both rather unobtrusive policies (halal meals in canteens) and rather obtrusive policies (a public Muslim religious holiday). We show that the willingness to accommodate Muslims´ cultural rights varies strongly by the intensity of cultural threat, especially for respondents with an inclusionary mindset. They become much more opposed to Muslims' religious rights in zero-sum situations. Importantly, they respond similarly to zero-sum proposals that are not associated with Muslims. This indicates that these respondents are protective of their own cultural practices, but do not perceive all gains in Muslim rights as an inherent loss (zero-sum thinking). Respondents with an exclusionary mindset respond much less to variations in cultural threat intensity, and they respond differently and more negatively to demands for change when the purpose is accommodation of Muslims. The results we report imply that opposition to Muslim immigrants' religious rights is likely to be reduced by policies that attenuate cultural conflict.

Keywords: Muslims, immigration, cultural threat, zero-sum, religious rights

JEL Classification: F22, C9