Covered in stigma? The impact of differing levels of Islamic head-covering on explicit and implicit biases toward Muslim women

Given the prominence of Muslim veils-in particular the hijab and full-face veil-in public discourse concerning the place of Muslims in Western society, we examined their impact on non-Muslims' responses at both explicit and implicit levels. Results revealed that responses were more negative tow...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Schellhaas, F, Earp, B, Ando, V, Memarzia, J, Parise, C, Fell, B, Everett, J, Hewstone, M
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd. 2014
Description
Summary:Given the prominence of Muslim veils-in particular the hijab and full-face veil-in public discourse concerning the place of Muslims in Western society, we examined their impact on non-Muslims' responses at both explicit and implicit levels. Results revealed that responses were more negative toward any veil compared with no veil, and more negative toward the full-face veil relative to the hijab: for emotions felt toward veiled women (Study 1), for non-affective attitudinal responses (Study 2), and for implicit negative attitudes revealed through response latency measures (Studies 3a and 3b). Finally, we manipulated the perceived reasons for wearing a veil, finding that exposure to positive reasons for wearing a veil led to better predicted and imagined contact (Study 4). Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.