Under the veil of tolerance: A justification–suppression approach to anti-Islamic implicit bias in reaction to terrorist attacks.

Abstract

Twenty years after 9/11, the impact of terrorism on social and political attitudes remains unclear. Several large-scale surveys suggest that terrorism has no discernible effects on direct, self-report measures of prejudice toward Arab-Muslims. However, direct measures may lack the sensitivity to detect subtle underlying attitudes that are considered socially unacceptable to openly express. To tap these subtle reactions, we assessed more sensitive and implicit measures of the cognitive–affective aspects of prejudice. Building on the justification–suppression model of prejudice, we hypothesized that terrorist attacks increase implicit bias toward Arab-Muslims, especially among individuals who are unable to regulate automatic hostile reactions due to personality or situational variables. Study 1, using data from Project Implicit (N = 276,311), showed that terrorist attacks increased implicit bias but not expressed prejudice toward Arab-Muslims. Study 2, using data from Google Trends, showed that terrorist attacks increased anti-Islamic searches on the internet. Four studies that collected original data (total N = 851) showed that the effects of reminders of terrorism on anti-Islamic implicit bias are moderated by individual differences in prejudice and automaticity (Studies 3–4), by the strength of implicit Muslim–terrorist associations (Study 5), and by momentary self-control depletion (Study 6). Overall, the present research indicates that despite little evidence for elevated overt expression of prejudice against Arab-Muslims following terrorist attacks, terrorist attacks increase anti-Islamic implicit bias whenever individuals are unlikely to control automatic hostile reactions.

No mercy for victims: Exploring the link between dark personality traits, aggressive video game behavior, and severe traffic violations

“…It is worth noting that in a robust multiple-regression analysis that included all four malevolent traits, psychopathy was found to be the only significant predictor of shooting bias in violent video games. This result is consistent with prior research that has demonstrated the strong relationship between psychopathy and aggressive behavior in general (Paulhus et al, 2021), as well as research indicating that shooting bias in violent video games reflects impulsive and hostile reactions (Arnoult et al, 2023), and that psychopathy is significantly associated with violent video gaming (Jahic et al, 2021). Additionally, the fact that aggressive behavior in violent video games was linked to both psychopathy and serious traffic offenses in this study aligns with a wealth of research documenting a connection between violent video game play and aggression (Anderson et al, 2010).…”

“…Higher scores on this measure indicate a careless attitude toward harming innocent victims. Recent research using a similar task indicates that shooting biases are associated with greater hostility toward targets and impulsive (automatic) behavioral tendencies (Arnoult et al, 2023).…”

“…Validated self‐report questionnaires were used to assess the Dark Tetrad personality traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and everyday sadism (Moshagen et al, 2020). General aggression was measured through a computerized task in which participants played a violent video game and were instructed to “shoot” armed targets presented as criminals and “not shoot” unarmed targets presented as innocent victims (Arnoult et al, 2023; Correll et al, 2002). Traffic offenses were assessed based on the severity of legal sanctions and penalties in Iran.…”

From crime scenes to game screens: video game aggression among criminals with psychopathic traits and those convicted of homicide

“…Understanding and measuring aggression has perennially posed a challenge for researchers striving to discern its origins and manifestations. The advent of digital games, marked by their immersive interactivity and controlled environments, have offered novel avenues for probing spontaneous hostile behaviors and aggressive predispositions (Arnoult et al, 2023;Correll et al, 2002) [7,11] . Recent investigations involving real-world offenders highlight a connection between aggressive behaviors in video games, the severity of committed offenses, and psychopathic traits (Ghavam et al, 2023) [14] .…”

“…Participants in the study were asked to play a video game where their objective was to "shoot" avatars represented as armed criminals, while sparing unarmed, innocent victims. This game was adapted from the work of Arnoult et al (2023) [7] . A noticeable 'shooting bias' towards unarmed characters was interpreted by the researchers as an inclination to inflict unnecessary harm on innocent figures.…”