A Theoretical Framework for Anti-Muslim Prejudice: Framing Tolerance via Moral Malleability and Entitativity Perceptions

The need to develop empirically-based interventions to reduce anti-Muslim prejudice, or “Islamophobia,” has become increasingly salient in multicultural societies. In the present literature review, I present a theoretical framework for understanding this specific form of prejudice, a framework based on sociological research documenting that people perceive Islam as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change. Connecting this survey research with the social psychology of prejudice, I argue that the perception of groups as monolithic entities results in increased endorsement of stereotypes, increased justification of social inequalities, accentuation of perceived differences between groups, and perhaps most importantly, assigning group-based responsibility for actions taken by individual group members. Second, the perception of groups as static and unresponsive to change—an entity implicit theory—results in greater stereotype endorsement, greater perceived outgroup homogeneity, and more biased behavior towards outgroup members. I contend that psychologists, sociologists and policymakers can draw upon these two research literatures to develop more effective means of combatting anti-Muslim prejudice by fostering a view of moral character as malleable and Islam as a heterogeneous group of individual believers.