Does Islam play a role in anti-immigrant sentiment? An experimental approach

• We conduct two list experiments to assess anti-immigrant sentiment.
• Muslim immigrants experience targeted, explicit opposition.
• In contrast, a significant amount of opposition to Christian immigrants is concealed.
• Neither religiosity nor denomination play a significant role in determining implicit or explicit opposition.
• We conclude that Islamophobia is best understood as social desirability bias from which Muslim immigrants do not benefit.

Are Muslim immigrants subjected to targeted opposition (i.e., Islamophobia) on their pathway to US citizenship? Using a list experiment and a representative sample of the US population, we compare explicit and implicit opposition to Muslim and Christian immigrants. We find that Muslim immigrants, relative to Christian immigrants, experience greater explicit resistance. However, when social desirability bias is taken into account via the list experiment, we find that opposition to Christian and Muslim immigrants is the same. The explanation is that respondents conceal a significant amount of opposition to Christian immigrants. Muslim immigrants, on the other hand, are afforded no such protection. We find that religiosity or denomination do not play a significant role in determining implicit or explicit opposition. We conclude that Islamophobia, which is only explicitly expressed, is best understood as reflective of social desirability bias from which Muslim immigrants do not benefit.