INTEGRATION AT FIRST SIGHT: THE ROLE OF RELIGION FOR FIRST MUTUAL IMPRESSIONS OF REFUGEES AND GERMANS

The so-called refugee crisis and the question of successful integration of refugees is a focal societal and political issue. The IAFS project aims at a better understanding of the role of first mutual impressions of refugees and members of the host country as the social starting point of integration versus isolation. In two online-studies established social perception and lens model paradigms were applied to investigate first impressions evoked by refugee targets (in comparison to non-refugee migrants, and members from the host country as targets) as well as a large range of perceiver characteristics that moderate potential differences in evaluations of target groups, and differences in cue perception processes underlying these differences. In a third study, we examined refugees as perceivers using the same design. In two of the studies, the targets religious affiliation and religiosity was experimentally varied.

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