Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kauff, Mathias

Titel

Muslim = Terrorist? Attribution of violent crimes to terrorism or mental health problems depend on perpetrators' religious background

Ist Teil von

• The Journal of social psychology, 2024-07, Vol.164 (4), p.447-455

Ort / Verlag

United States: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The present work investigates whether the assumed religious background of a perpetrator in a carried out (Study 1) and attempted mass shooting (Study 2) influences attribution of the crime to mental health problems or terrorist motives as well as to evaluation of appropriate punishment. In two experimental studies (n =  113 and n =  340) participants were confronted with a scenario depicting an (attempted) mass shooting that was either carried out by a perpetrator with a German or an Arabic/Muslim name. Results indicate that compared to a perpetrator with a German name, a shooting carried out by a perpetrator with an Arabic/Muslim name led to increased attributions to a terrorist motive and fewer attributions to mental health problems. Moreover, in Study 2, this attribution pattern was accompanied by increased punitiveness. The findings are discussed against the background of previous work showing comparable results as well as practical implications.