Discrimination in recruitment: how can “laïcité” be used to justify discriminatory behavior by those who express the most prejudice?

In France, the "new laïcité" is a restrictive conception of individual liberties, particularly the freedom to express religious beliefs in public spaces. Research show that adherence to this conception is linked to greater prejudice toward group minorities. The aim is to study how this conception can be used by individuals exhibiting the highest levels of prejudice against Muslims in the context of recruitment, in order to justify their discriminatory behavioral intentions. The results indicate that the more participants express prejudices, the less they associate the dimension of public expression with a principle of laïcité and the more they have discriminatory behavioral intentions toward foreign candidates. Furthermore, these The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.ehavioural intentions mediate the link between prejudices and public expression when discrimination is justified by a principle of laïcité. These results therefore suggest that the "new laïcité" could legitimize discriminatory behaviors by individuals expressing the most prejudices in the context of employment recruitment.