Political Behaviour/Sociology

Session: F6(b) - Deconsolidation Panels: Causes and Consequences of Prejudice in Politics

Date: May 31, 2017 | Time: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location: VIC-305 (Victoria Building)| iOS / Outlook

Chair/Président: Go Murakami (Ritsumeikan University)

Discussant/Commentateur: Michael Donnelly (University of Toronto)

Participants & Authors/Auteurs:

Timothy Gravelle (University of Strathclyde) : Friends, Neighbours, Townspeople, and Parties: Explaining Canadian Attitudes Toward Muslims
Abstract: The 2015 Canadian federal election campaign put into focus relations between Muslim communities in Canada and the wider Canadian society, featuring as it did debates around banning the niqab, a “barbaric cultural practices” hotline, and Canada’s commitment to accept Syrian refugees. At the same time, challenges in the relations between Muslims and majority-group Canadians were not a new development in 2015: they had in the past faced periodic strains due to criminal and terrorism-related events. The Canadian case is in fact reflective of a challenge in intergroup relations facing a number of Western democracies. In light of this, what accounts for majority-group Canadians’ attitudes toward Muslims in Canada? Drawing on data from the 2011 and 2015 Canadian Election Studies and theories linking outgroup perceptions to intergroup contact (friends), local demographic context at both the micro-level and meso-level (neighbours and townspeople), and political factors (parties), this paper seeks to explain why majority-group Canadians hold alternately positive or negative views Muslims in Canada.

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Charles Breton (University of British Columbia), Gregory Eady (University of Toronto) : Who Lies About Their Prejudices Toward Minority Political Candidates?
Abstract: Would Canadians be willing to support a Prime Minister of Arab descent? A Prime Minister of Asian descent? Of Aboriginal descent? These questions are important not only for understanding public attitudes toward minorities holding political power, but for gauging the extent of ethnic prejudice more generally. Because survey respondents frequently misrepresent attitudes that are considered socially insensitive, estimating the prevalence and predictors of this form of prejudice is methodologically challenging. To address this problem, we present results from a large-scale list experiment conducted in Canada (n = 51,432) following the 2015 federal election. List experiments are an indirect measurement technique that permit researchers to overcome social desirability bias. Recent statistical advances further allow researchers to examine who misrepresents their true attitudes. In this article we examine support for a Prime Minister of different ethnic backgrounds and identify the socio-demographic characteristics and the politically relevant variables (e.g. partisanship,) that are associated with this support. We then investigate who is more likely to misrepresent this support by providing a socially desirable response.

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Robert Hinckley (State University of New York - Potsdam), Allison Harell (Université du Québec à Montréal) : Authoritarianism, Selective Exposure and Support for Outgroup Speech
Abstract: Past research has shown that personality characteristics like authoritarianism can influence the ways in which citizens engage with news media. In an environment of overwhelming choice, we explore the ways in which news frames can influence citizens support for basic democratic rights using an innovative selective exposure experiment embedded within an online survey collected in Canada (n=1000) and the US (n=1000).

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