The article cited previous research<\/a> that found that people \u201crarely express prejudices without accompanying justifications,\u201d some of which make prejudice more socially acceptable.<\/p>\n The researchers defined prejudice as a negative view of a social group, or its members, regardless of the prejudice\u2019s justifications. Liberalism and conservatism were self-reported on a scale, not defined by affiliation with political parties.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition \t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n The researchers recruited 979 participants, using the online platform, Prolific, in a sample meant to resemble the broader US population. The surveys took place in late 2024, and Jewish participation was negligible, the study said.<\/p>\n Participants read about hypothetical individuals expressing prejudice toward minority groups \u2014 either Jews, Muslims or Black people \u2014 with or without justification for their prejudice.<\/p>\n \t For unqualified prejudice, researchers told participants that \u201c[Name] doesn\u2019t like Jews,\u201d and for justified prejudice, they said, \u201c[Name] doesn\u2019t like Jews, because [Name] strongly disapproves of Israel and its war in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n Prejudice against Black people was justified by a belief that they \u201ccommit crimes,\u201d and the anti-Muslim character was prejudiced against Muslims because their \u201cculture and values conflict with Western culture and values.\u201d The subjects were then asked how much they liked the hypothetical individuals.<\/p>\n If there were no justifications for prejudice, liberals viewed the prejudiced individual more harshly than conservatives in each set of questions, and viewed antisemitism as negatively as prejudice against Black people and Muslims.<\/p>\n When anti-Jewish prejudice was justified by \u201cIsrael and its war in Gaza,\u201d liberals viewed the prejudiced individual more favorably by 1.1 points on a scale of 1-7. The Israel justification did not produce a statistical effect on conservatives.<\/p>\n For the prejudice against Muslim and Black people, the researchers did not find significant evidence that the justifications had a different effect on liberals and conservatives.<\/p>\n For another subject group, experimenters linked Jewish Americans to Israel \u201cviolating the human rights of Palestinians,\u201d while linking Black, Muslim, Chinese, and Russian Americans to other human rights violations abroad. The researchers defined this as a \u201cleft-coded\u201d justification for prejudice.<\/p>\n Again, without justifications, liberals judged the hypothetical, prejudiced individual more harshly than conservatives.<\/p>\n \t When the prejudice was justified by human rights violations against Palestinians, however, liberals, but not conservatives, viewed the prejudiced individual more favorably, by a score of 0.78 on a scale of 1-7.<\/p>\n The human rights justifications also \u201clicensed\u201d some prejudice against Black, Muslim, Chinese, and Russian Americans, although there was no statistical difference between liberals and conservatives.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen an individual expressing antisemitism justified their prejudice by disapproval of Israel and the war in Gaza or violations of the human rights of Palestinians, liberal, but not conservative, participants liked him or her more,\u201d the researchers wrote, summing up their findings.<\/p>\n A third line of questioning asking participants about a broader range of justifications for antisemitism \u2014 such as anti-Jewish conspiracies, race, and religion \u2014 did not find statistical differences between conservatives and liberals.<\/p>\n The researchers carried out further analysis on \u201cingroup favoritism\u201d to measure how ideologically similar the subjects believed the hypothetical bigot was to themselves. The subjects rated their own political liberalism or conservatism, and how liberal or conservative they believed the prejudiced individual was.<\/p>\n Liberal participants viewed prejudiced individuals as more liberal, and similar to themselves, when the prejudice was coupled with a left-coded justification, such as the Gaza war. There was a similar effect among liberals for left-coded prejudice against other groups.<\/p>\n Liberals also saw conspiratorial justifications for antisemitism as closer to their own ideology.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was unexpected as narratives about Jewish power and influence have traditionally come from the political right,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n Liberals also viewed racially coded antisemitism as worse than prejudice without any justification, the researchers said.<\/p>\n The authors suggested that individuals seen as broadly prejudiced against many groups could threaten political coalitions of minority groups, and that left-coded justifications made a prejudice seem more specific, and less threatening, than general intolerance.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we do not suggest that liberals are generally more lenient toward antisemitism \u2014 our findings show that this is not the case \u2014 it is clear that certain framings do license some degree of antisemitism,\u201d the researchers said. \u201cCurbing antisemitism in liberal circles might require targeted interventions, aimed at recognizing antisemitism when it occurs and reminding liberals that it is wrong regardless of the guises it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tAnti-Israel activists in New York City, October 7, 2024. (Luke Tress\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260511_untitled_07553.jpg\")
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\n\t\tAnti-Zionist protesters in Brooklyn, New York City, May 12, 2026. (Luke Tress\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n
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