Does Deliberative Thinking Increase Tolerance? Political Tolerance Toward Individuals With Dual Citizenship

Abstract

A growing number of states permit dual citizenship, but continued fears about communitarian values and worries about divided loyalties of dual citizens frequently boil up, leading to forms of political intolerance against such individuals. Dual-process theories argue that tolerance is more likely when people engage in deliberative (vs. intuitive) thinking in which they recognize and consider the equal rights of all citizens. We used a survey experiment to manipulate deliberative versus intuitive thinking to test whether deliberative thinking increases political tolerance of immigrant-origin individuals with dual citizenship. Using a nationally representative sample of Dutch majority members, we found that deliberative thinking can indeed increase political tolerance. This finding was robust across demographic differences in gender, age, religiosity, educational level, political orientation, and authoritarianism.