Contact opportunity with Muslims determines whether avoidance behaviors show up in data.

Evidence

In addition, researchers could work to collect data from regions of the United States and the world with predominantly Muslim populations, which may increase an individual’s likelihood of demonstrating I-AB. In such studies, the affective–behavioral facet of the IS scale should demonstrate acceptable levels of construct validity. If not, heterogeneity is not the explanatory mechanism for the differential construct validity for the two factors of the IS in the current study. — Sherman A. Lee, Chelsea A. Reid, Stephen D. Short, Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Ruth Yeh, and Matthew L. Campbell, Fear of Muslims, 154

Categorization

• QUESTION: Do avoidance-behavior measures only register where exposure to the out-group is actually possible, making null results an artifact of setting rather than attitude?
• SEED: Angle: ‘The geography of measuring prejudice’ — how where you survey determines what prejudice you can even detect.