Avoided by association?

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

This session of the Political Behaviour Colloquium features a presentation by Henning Finseraas, Professor of Sociology and Political Science at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Muslims are underrepresented among politicians in many European countries, and most research argues that voters are at least partly to blame. We contribute to this literature by exploring how the anti-Muslim bias among voters varies depending on what type of information they get about the candidates. We first run experiments to identify what political positions and personal characteristics voters associate with Muslim politicians in a low-information setting. These associations can potentially explain the anti-Muslim bias, so we use these results to design new experiments. In these experiments, respondents are randomised to different types of information about the Muslim candidate. By comparing the anti-Muslim bias across the experiments, and comparing it to Christian and secular candidates, we shed light on the role of statistical discrimination in explaining the anti-Muslim bias. Our findings will inform parties about what information they should offer during campaigns to reduce the anti-Muslim bias.

The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.