Polarization in Support for Anti-Muslim Policies in the United States from 2002 to 2019

Abstract Muslim Americans have faced periods of heightened hostility, particularly in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, more recently, during the presidency of Donald Trump. Yet, dynamics driving this hostility and the ways individuals might draw boundaries across different time periods is not well understood. We begin to address these data gaps using measures of U.S. adults’ support for anti-Muslim policies appearing in separate surveys in 2002 and 2019. The analysis finds that support for anti-Muslim policies follows more distinct social patterns in 2019 than in 2002 and that overall support for anti-Muslim policies has decreased over time but become more polarized in 2019 when compared to 2002. Results have implications for understanding the impact of different conditions on how intergroup hostility and polarization occur.