The cycle of exclusion: How experiencing discrimination shapes attitudes toward ethnoreligious diversity in Africa

There is a notable lack of research examining how the experience of ethnic and religious discrimination shapes Africans’ attitudes toward ethnoreligious diversity in their neighborhoods. For instance, do such experiences trigger rejection-sensitivity, thereby making them less tolerant of ethnoreligious outgroups? Or do experiences of ethnoreligious discrimination make individuals more sympathetic to the plight of cultural outgroup members, thereby making them more accommodative? This study addresses this gap using Afrobarometer survey data spanning 34 African countries (N ≈ 48,000). To measure discrimination, I developed an index that captures how frequently respondents reported being treated unfairly over the past year due to their ethnicity and religion. Attitudes toward diversity are assessed through respondents’ level of agreement with the statement that communities are stronger when they include people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Regression analysis reveals that experiences of discrimination are associated with greater opposition to such diversity. This relationship appears to be driven by the strengthening of ethnoreligious ingroup identification and a decline in trust toward outgroup members. Supporting this interpretation, additional regression models show that individuals who experience discrimination are more likely to oppose having neighbors from different ethnic and religious groups.