Shooting study finds turban prejudice

July 16, 2008

A Muslim-style turban is seen as a threat by the average Australian, even those who think they are free from racial prejudice, psychologists have found.

A study of university students playing a computerised shoot 'em up game has revealed strong stereotyped bias against Muslim-looking people.

Innocent figures in the game were more likely to be shot at if they were wearing turbans or hijabs, the University of NSW researchers said.

Dubbed the "turban effect", the trend was seen in both male and female shooters.

"People learn about negative stereotypes from their parents, their peers, their education and the media," said psychology researcher Dr Tom Denson.

"Muslims tend to be portrayed negatively in the media so the findings make sense, even in an otherwise tolerant western society like Australia."

Dr Denson said he expected the stereotype would be even stronger in countries such as the USA and Britain.

"As Australia has not been subject to Muslim terrorist attacks on its territory, other countries in the forefront of Muslim terrorism such as the USA and Britain may show an even stronger 'turban effect' than the one we demonstrated here," he said.

"However, based on the present data, we cannot distinguish whether this turban effect is due to negative stereotypes associated with Muslims or obvious negative stereotypes associated with terrorists - that is, a person with a turban holding a gun."

The study found that male figures were far more likely to be shot than women, regardless of whether they wore headdress or not.

It also showed that angry participants shot more frequently at everybody, but happy people shot more at Muslims compared with angry or neutral-mood participants.

The researchers said happy people tended to rely more heavily on stereotypes.

"They are known to be less critical thinkers than people in negative moods," Dr Denson said.

He said that although the findings demonstrate stereotyping, the research, did not assess actual aggressive behaviour.

The study, involved 66 people, is published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

http://news.smh.com.au/national/shooting-study-finds-turban-prejudice-20080716-3g7n.html

66 people?  Not much of a "study".