Liberal Values and Anti-Religious Sentiments

In the context of increasing Muslim migration to Western European countries, the emergence of anti-religious sentiments has been observed. So far, we have however not been able to study this phenomenon in more detail and especially to disentangle attitudes towards ethnic and religious outgroups. It is therefore not possible to know whether and to what extent Muslim immigrants are disliked on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or religiosity. To better understand how negative attitudes towards ethnic and religious outgroups differ we develop among others arguments regarding the role of liberal values of the host society members. Earlier research has shown that people with liberal values are more tolerant than conservatives in general but not when it comes to religious minorities. We draw on original data from representative online experimental surveys that have been fielded in five Western European countries and Turkey in 2016. The experimental design is based on a factorial analysis that manipulates the status of the person (refugee, migrant), the religion (Muslim, Christian) and religiosity (non-practicing, devout, radical).