Changing perceptions? Effects of multiple social categorisation on German population’s perception of Muslims

Multiple social categorisation is one option for influencing people’s perception such that negative social opinions based on ethnicity, race, or religion decrease or disappear entirely. This study aims to examine German population’s perception of Muslims when multiple categorisation is applied. Based on data of 7341 respondents stemming from a factorial survey experiment used in a national, random-digit-dial telephone survey, we tested the effect of multiple social categorisation using the hypothetical situation of a Muslim marrying into the own family. Multiple categorisation works only when the Muslim in question is a woman. But perception differences between the Muslim woman and the Christian woman do not totally disappear. When the Muslim person in the same scenario is a man, multiple social categorisation has no effect on the perception of respondents. We discuss the implications of these results with regard to the Muslim as category of analysis.