How can prejudice toward Syrian refugees be reduced? A survey experiment among Turkish citizens examined the effect of religious primes. 📊 FACTORS: Sunni/Muslim identity emphasis and a factual statement on economic costs were tested separately and together using factorial design.
RESULTS: Religious primes significantly increased charitable donations — up to 20% more — and certain measures of support for Syrian refugees 💡 HOWEVER: The inclusion of an economic cost statement removed these positive effects entirely.
DIFFERENCES FOUND: Impact varied between the Sunni prime (stronger effect) and Muslim identity prime (weaker). This highlights how contextual factors can alter policy responses in migration debates.
| Brother or Burden: An Experiment on Reducing Prejudice Toward Syrian Refugees in Turkey was authored by Egor Lazarev and Kunaal Sharma. It was published by Cambridge in PSR&M in 2017. |
