Single indirect survey questions cannot cleanly isolate anti-Muslim sentiment from other intolerance

Evidence

The fewer questions asked in surveys, focus groups, or interviews, the more difficult it is to measure the consistency, intensity, and nature of Islamophobic sentiments. Any arguments about Islamophobia that rely on a single survey question should be viewed with skepticism. To the extent that a question is extremely direct—such as asking respondents to rate their level of sympathy or antipathy toward specific groups—it is more likely to be a useful indicator than less direct questions. Indirect questions can be revealing, but they also run the risk of having an ambiguous relation with the underlying phenomenon. The World Values Surveys, for instance, ask: “Which of the following groups would you NOT like to have as a neighbor?” Answering “Muslim” may reflect Islamophobia, but this is like diagnosing cirrhosis based on jaundice—there is a high probability that it is correlated with the underlying phenomenon, but the indicator may also be caused by something else entirely (a racist’s desire not to live next to someone who is likely to have dark skin, or an atheist’s desire not to live next to a religious person). — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 50

Categorization

• XREF: For the reader’s MOC thread: the ‘would not want as neighbor: Muslim’ item can actually measure dark-skin racism or anti-religiosity — a direct counterexample to any assumption that observed anti-Muslim sorting isolates religion as the driver. — connects to: Most existing Islamophobia evidence relies on indirect, anecdotal, or group-conflating measures — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 42; Survey indicators of Islamophobia need comparison baselines to isolate the Muslim component. — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 50; Single-question survey items cannot isolate Islamophobia from confounds — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 50 (+2 more)
• SEED: The jaundice/cirrhosis analogy run through surveillance data could anchor an essay: if a check on Muslims is like a jaundice test, what else could it be flagging — phenotype, origin, class — and how would we ever tell?
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Single-question survey items cannot isolate Islamophobia from confounds #corroborates (1.00) — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 50
• Single-question survey measures of Islamophobia are unreliable and causally ambiguous #expands (0.90) — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 50
• Islamophobia has multiple sources and resists single-source critique #qualifies (0.70) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 485