The Roles of National Anti-Muslim Policy, State Context, and Individual Ideology in Anti-Muslim Implicit Bias in the United States

Corresponding with President Trump’s campaign rhetoric and enactment of the “Muslim ban,” anti-Muslim bias and hate crimes rose in the U.S. Although repealed in 2021, many Americans disagreed with revoking the ban and stereotype Muslims as terrorists. Employing contextual, cross-level approaches, this study investigates whether the Muslim ban affected implicit anti-Muslim bias in the U.S. using Project Implicit data, Muslim ban activity records, and state-level election data. Multilevel modeling revealed that the ban was associated with decreased anti-Muslim bias overall, particularly among liberals. A significant cross-level interaction between political orientation and state political context indicated that bias may have marginally increased among conservatives in Democrat-voting states. Demonstrating multiple backlash effects to the same policy, this study sheds light on how individuals unconsciously respond to policies across political contexts. Findings underscore the dynamics of anti-Muslim bias at individual and contextual levels that hold implications for policy implementation across the political spectrum.