Acceptable or Not? Understanding Attitudes Toward Citizens' Discrimination Against Frontline Workers

ABSTRACT Research shows that frontline workers often discriminate based on race or ethnicity. However, citizens can also display discriminatory behavior—for instance, by requesting service only from workers of the same ethnic or religious background. This discrimination exercised by citizens toward frontline employees remains underexplored. Building on research on citizen–state interactions, discrimination, and political ideology, this study examines when the public considers such requests acceptable. We employ a vignette‐based survey experiment with 2067 Danish citizens, set in the context of home care services. Our findings show that requests based on language are perceived as more acceptable than those grounded in religion. Moreover, political ideology significantly shapes these attitudes: right‐leaning respondents are more likely to approve when the requester belongs to the ethnic majority, whereas left‐leaning respondents are more accepting when the requester is from an ethnic minority. While these single‐country findings may not generalize beyond one‐to‐one interactions characterized by high intimacy, they shed light on how ideology influences public attitudes toward ethnically motivated service preferences and highlight the need to further examine citizen‐driven discrimination in public service settings.