Anti-Arabic Prejudice in “Middletown”

Abstract

This study explored factors related to anti-Arabic prejudice by surveying a random sample of 418 people from “Middletown” (Muncie, Indiana). Anti-Arabic prejudice was high in the fall of 1990. Multiple regression analysis indicated that, as in other studies of prejudice, low education and high authoritarianism had the strongest independent relations with this type of prejudice. However, being Protestant, vs Catholic, was independently related to anti-Arabic prejudice, Protestants being more prejudiced than Catholics. Also, an interaction obtained between race and religious fundamentalism. Specifically, white fundamentalists were more prejudiced than white nonfundamentalists, but black fundamentalists were much less prejudiced than black nonfundamentalists. Other analyses supported the realistic conflict theory of prejudice by providing some support for the idea that those who saw Arabs as an economic threat were more prejudiced. The results are discussed.