How xenophobic is Switzerland? Five field experiments on prosocial behaviour and discrimination against foreigners

Diekmann, Andreas; Jann, Ben; Näf, Matthias (2014). How xenophobic is Switzerland? Five field experiments on prosocial behaviour and discrimination against foreigners. Soziale Welt - Zeitschrift für sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung und Praxis, 65(2), pp. 185-199. Nomos 10.5771/0038-6073-2014-2-185

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Surveys on prejudice often yield biased results as the respondents give “socially desirable” answers in many cases. By contrast, in our study on prejudice and discrimination, we conducted four field experiments in the City of Zurich wherein members of different nationalities or religious groups asked a favour. For example, passers-by were asked a favour by a person wearing a headscarf; and, conversely, without a headscarf in the control condition. In another experiment, persons were addressed in High German and, in the control condition, in Swiss German. A fifth experiment dealt with the reactions of employers to unsolicited applications. With respect to everyday behaviour, no significant differences between the groups could be substantiated in the extent of their willingness to do someone a favour. All four experiments pertaining to little favours in daily life did not yield evidence of discriminatory behaviour, be it against Germans or Muslim minorities. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that certain ethnic groups are discriminated against in the labour market, even in cases when applicants have Swiss citizenship and the same professional qualifications as native Swiss.

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