Researchers examine links between biased hate crime perceptions and sympathetic attitudes toward violent extremism. Even when perpetrators of hate crimes express intent to target specific minority groups, some members of the public claim to be unsure of the perpetrators' motives. To determine the relationship between expressing uncertainty for the occurrence of a hate crime and sympathizing with supremacists, N. Pontus Leander and colleagues analyzed psychological surveys collected between 2018 and 2019 of 2,332 individuals in the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States. Individuals were surveyed within 30 days of a mass shooting occurring in their respective country. Prejudice against Islam was associated with increased perceptions that the 2019 Utrecht Tram shooting in the Netherlands was a hate crime but with decreased hate crime perceptions following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand. Anti-Semitism was associated with decreased perceptions that the gunman in the 2018 Pittsburgh, PA synagogue shooting was motivated by hatred and prejudice. Following the 2019 shooting in El Paso, TX, perceptions of hate crimes were biased by an ethnonationalist view of Hispanic immigrants as a symbolic threat to the United States. Across shootings, prejudicial biases were traced to perceivers' own grievances with society. The findings suggest that societal grievances and prejudice against minority groups may bias perceptions of hate crimes, according to the authors.
Article #19-16883: "Biased hate crime perceptions can reveal supremacist sympathies," by N. Pontus Leander et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: N. Pontus Leander, University of Groningen, NETHERLANDS; e-mail: n.p.leander@rug.nl
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences