Polyculturalism and attitudes toward Muslim Americans

Polyculturalism is the belief that different racial and ethnic groups, both historically and contemporarily, have interacted, exchanged ideas, and influenced each other's cultures. Endorsement of polyculturalism involves viewing cultures as dynamic and constantly changing, as well as deeply connected to each other through different racial and ethnic groups' interactions and shared histories. Our past work in diverse samples in the U.S. has found that endorsement of polyculturalism is associated with less support for social inequality, more positive attitudes toward diversity, and lower racial/ethnic-, gender-, and sexual identity-based prejudice. Given heightened levels of prejudice faced by Muslim Americans in the U.S. currently, we aimed to explore in the current investigation whether polyculturalism can help us understand attitudes toward Muslim Americans. We found with both community adults across the U.S. (via craigslist; Study 1) and undergraduates at a university in the Northeastern U.S. (Study 2) that endorsement of polyculturalism was associated with less negative and more positive intergroup and policy attitudes as well as behavioral intentions toward Muslim Americans. These associations persisted when controlling for potentially confounding sociodemographic variables, such as age, gender, nativity, and race/ethnicity (both studies), as well as other established predictors of intergroup attitudes, including social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism (Study 2). Consistent with past studies, these results suggest endorsement of polyculturalism is associated with more positive attitudes toward Muslim Americans in addition to other intergroup attitudes. Studying polyculturalism may be important for us to understand and improve intergroup attitudes and dynamics in an increasingly globalized, diverse world.