Responses to the Islamic headscarf in everyday interactions depend on sex and locale: A field experiment in the metros of Brussels, Paris, and Vienna on helping and involvement behaviors

PLoS One. 2021 Jul 29;16(7):e0254927. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254927. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

The Islamic headscarf has been in the middle of heated debates in European society, yet little is known about its influence on day-to-day interactions. The aim of this randomized field experiment (n = 840) is to explore how the generally negative views that surround the hijab in Europe manifest in the behavior that people direct to hijab-wearing women in everyday situations. Using a helping scenario and videotapes of the resulting interactions, we measured whether passengers offered assistance and also various details of behavior that indicate interpersonal involvement. We predicted that in interaction with the covered confederate less help would be offered, that women's level of nonverbal involvement would increase but men's decrease, and that responses would be stronger in Paris, intermediate in Brussels, and weaker in Vienna. We analyzed the data using Generalized Linear Models estimated with Bayesian inference. While the headscarf does not produce concluding differences in "overt" helping, it does affect "subtle" cues of interpersonal involvement. In response to the hijab, women across sites increase, but men in Paris decrease, the level of involvement that they show with their nonverbal behavior.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Clothing*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Islam*
  • Male

Grants and funding

This work was funded with a Momentum grant to M.A. awarded by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, and with a French-Austrian grant to M.M. awarded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. For the purpose of open access, M.M. has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.