Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

A collective blame hypocrisy intervention enduringly reduces hostility towards Muslims

Nature Human Behaviour volume 4, pages 45–54 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Hostility towards outgroups contributes to costly intergroup conflict. Here we test an intervention to reduce hostility towards Muslims, a frequently targeted outgroup. Our ‘collective blame hypocrisy’ intervention highlights the hypocrisy involved in the tendency for people to collectively blame outgroup but not ingroup members for blameworthy actions of individual group members. Using both within-subject and between-subject comparisons in a preregistered longitudinal study in Spain, we find that our intervention reduces collective blame of Muslims and downstream anti-Muslim sentiments relative to a matched control condition and that the effects of the intervention persist one month and also one year later. We replicate the benefits of the intervention in a second study. The effects are mediated by reductions in collective blame and moderated by individual differences in preference for consistency. Together, these data illustrate that the collective blame hypocrisy intervention enduringly reduces harmful intergroup attitudes associated with conflict escalation, particularly among those who value consistency in themselves and others.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Experimental effects of collective blame hypocrisy intervention on anti-Muslim hostility over 12 months.
Fig. 2: Anti-Muslim hostility before and after receiving collective blame hypocrisy intervention.
Fig. 3: Effects of collective blame hypocrisy intervention on collective blame of Muslims across levels of preference for consistency among participants in treatment condition B.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data files that support the findings of the studies are available at https://osf.io/fwp7g/files/

Code availability

Custom code that supports the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author upon request.

References

  1. Lickel, B., Miller, N., Stenstrom, D. M., Denson, T. F. & Schmader, T. Vicarious retribution: the role of collective blame in intergroup aggression. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 10, 372–390 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Wilson, S., Miller, G. & Horwitz, S. Boston bombing suspect cites US wars as motivation, officials say. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/boston-bombing-suspect-cites-us-wars-as-motivation-officials-say/2013/04/23/324b9cea-ac29-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html (23 April 2013).

  3. Hanes, E. & Machin, S. Hate crime in the wake of terror attacks: evidence from 7/7 and 9/11. J. Contemp. Crim. Justice 30, 247–267 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Steele, R. R., Parker, M. T. & Lickel, B. Bias within because of threat from outside: the effects of an external call for terrorism on anti-Muslim attitudes in the United States. Soc. Psychol. Pers. Sci. 6, 193–200 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Steele, R. R., Rovenpor, D. R., Lickel, B. & Denson, T. F. Emotion regulation and prejudice reduction following acute terrorist events: the impact of reflection before and after the Boston Marathon bombings. Group Process. Intergroup Relat. 22, 43–56 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bruneau, E. G., Kteily, N. S. & Falk, E. B. Interventions highlighting hypocrisy reduce collective blame of Muslims for individual acts of violence and assuage anti-Muslim hostility. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 44, 430–448 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Aronson, E., Fried, C. & Stone, J. Overcoming denial and increasing the intention to use condoms through the induction of hypocrisy. Am. J. Public Health 81, 1636–1638 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Dickerson, C. A., Thibodeau, R., Aronson, E. & Miller, D. Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 22, 841–854 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fried, C. B. & Aronson, E. Hypocrisy, misattribution, and dissonance reduction. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 21, 925–933 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Stone, J., Aronson, E., Crain, A. L., Winslow, M. P. & Fried, C. B. Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use condoms. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 20, 116–128 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Stone, J. & Fernandez, N. C. To practice what we preach: the use of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance to motivate behavior change. Soc. Pers. Psychol. Compass 2, 1024–1051 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Son Hing, L. S., Li, W. & Zanna, M. P. Inducing hypocrisy to reduce prejudicial responses among aversive racists. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 38, 71–78 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Cialdini, R. B., Trost, M. R. & Newsom, J. T. Preference for consistency: the development of a valid measure and the discovery of surprising behavioral implications. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 69, 318–328 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Bator, R. J. & Cialdini, R. B. The nature of consistency motivation: consistency, aconsistency, and anticonsistency in a dissonance paradigm. Soc. Influence 1, 208–233 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Sénémeaud, C., Mange, J., Fointiat, V. & Somat, A. Being hypocritical disturbs some people more than others: how individual differences in preference for consistency moderate the behavioral effects of the induced-hypocrisy paradigm. Soc. Influence 9, 133–148 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Thoemmes, F. Reversing arrows in mediation models does not distinguish plausible models. Basic Appl. Soc. Psychol. 37, 226–234 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. MacKinnon, D. P., Fairchild, A. J. & Fritz, M. S. Mediation analysis. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 58, 593–614 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Valente, M. J. & MacKinnon, D. P. Comparing models of change to estimate the mediated effect in the pretest–posttest control group design. Struct. Equ. Modeling 24, 428–450 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Ho, A. K. et al. The nature of social dominance orientation: theorizing and measuring preferences for intergroup inequality using the new SDO7 scale. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 109, 1003–1028 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Petty, R. E., Haugtvedt, C. P. & Smith, S. M. in Attitude Strength: Antecedents and Consequences (eds Petty, R. E. & Krosnick, J. A.) 93–130 (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1995).

  21. Paluck, E. L. Reducing intergroup prejudice and conflict using the media: a field experiment in Rwanda. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 96, 574–587 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kteily, N. S., Hodson, G. & Bruneau, E. G. They see us as less than human: metadehumanization predicts intergroup conflict via reciprocal dehumanization. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 110, 343–370 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Pettigrew, T. F. & Tropp, L. R. A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 90, 751–783 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Paluck, E. L., Green, S. A. & Green, D. P. The contact hypothesis re-evaluated. Behav. Public Policy https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2018.25 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Adida, C. L., Lo, A. & Platas, M. R. Perspective taking can promote short-term inclusionary behavior toward Syrian refugees. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115, 9521–9526 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Simonovits, G., Kézdi, G. & Kardos, P. Seeing the world through the other’s eyes: an online intervention reducing ethnic prejudice. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 112, 186–193 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Bruneau, E. G. & Saxe, R. The power of being heard: the benefits of ‘perspective-giving’ in the context of intergroup conflict. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 48, 855–866 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Hameiri, B., Porat, R., Bar-Tal, D., Bieler, A. & Halperin, E. Paradoxical thinking as a new avenue of intervention to promote peace. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, 10996–11001 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Halperin, E., Russell, A. G., Trzesniewski, K. H., Gross, J. J. & Dweck, C. S. Promoting the Middle East peace process by changing beliefs about group malleability. Science 333, 1767–1769 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Batson, C. D. & Ahmad, N. Y. Using empathy to improve intergroup attitudes and relations. Soc. Issues Policy Rev. 3, 141–177 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Swann, W. B., Jr, Gómez, A., Seyle, D. C., Morales, J. F. & Huici, C. Identity fusion: The interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 96, 995–1011 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Fiedler, K., Schott, M. & Meiser, T. What mediation analysis can (not) do. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 47, 1231–1236 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Paluck, E. L. & Green, D. P. Prejudice reduction: what works? A review and assessment of research and practice. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 60, 339–367 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Hayes, A. F. Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: a Regression-Based Approach 2nd edn (Guilford Press, 2017).

  35. Gómez, Á. et al. On the nature of identity fusion: insights into the construct and a new measure. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 100, 918–933 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Bruneau, E. G., Cikara, M. & Saxe, R. Parochial empathy predicts reduced altruism and the endorsement of passive harm. Soc. Psychol. Pers. Sci. 8, 934–942 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Emile G. Bruneau

  2. Beyond Conflict Innovation Lab, Boston, MA, USA

    Emile G. Bruneau

  3. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Nour S. Kteily

  4. Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Ana Urbiola

Authors
  1. Emile G. Bruneau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nour S. Kteily
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ana Urbiola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

E.G.B. developed the study concept. E.G.B., N.S.K. and A.U. contributed to the study design. A.U. translated all materials into Spanish. Data collection was performed by E.G.B. E.G.B and N.S.K. performed the data analysis. E.G.B. and N.S.K. drafted the manuscript and A.U. provided critical revisions. E.G.B., N.S.K. and A.U. approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emile G. Bruneau.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Primary Handling Editor: Mary Elizabeth Sutherland.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods 1 and 2, Supplementary Results 1–4, Supplementary Discussion 1–3, Supplementary Tables 1–4 and Supplementary References.

Reporting Summary

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bruneau, E.G., Kteily, N.S. & Urbiola, A. A collective blame hypocrisy intervention enduringly reduces hostility towards Muslims. Nat Hum Behav 4, 45–54 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0747-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0747-7

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing