It’s perhaps self-evident that intolerance towards migrants might also go hand-in-hand with other socially conservative views, such as opposition to LGBT+ rights. Nonetheless, research from the University of Southampton highlights the scale of the problem.

The researchers note that attitudes towards LGBT+ people has warmed considerably in many Western democracies over the past few decades, with things like same-sex marriage now largely accepted. The study found, however, that this shift could be regarded as somewhat superficial, and are instead heavily influenced by who the opponents of LGBT+ rights are.

Unequal treatment

The researchers showed a few thousand participants, recruited equally from the UK and Spain, a news story about anti-LGBT+ protests. Some of the protestors in the story were portrayed as white people with typically Western names, while other times the protestors were portrayed as Muslims. Each time, the participants were asked about whether education in schools should be made more LGBT+ inclusive.

The results show that people were far more likely to show support for LGBT+ rights when the protestors were portrayed as Muslims, with this especially so among participants with conservative opinions. Indeed, this phenomenon was so great that it resulted in a 21% increase (or decrease) in support.

“”The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is a proverb that’s familiar to many. What we show here is that this proverb also helps us understand how views towards LGBT+ rights have liberalized so quickly among traditionally conservative-minded voters with prejudicial views, who are more likely to reject LGBT+ rights advances and the cultural changes that come about from migration,” the researchers explain.

“In a context where ethnic minorities, in this case Muslims, are perceived to oppose one of the other groups that social conservatives dislike—like the LGBT+ community—we show that these same nativist voters are happy to back LGBT+ rights advances to distance themselves from other minorities to legitimize their anti-immigration stance. This may indicate that the liberal credentials of the UK, and other western nations, is likely far more superficial than first thought.”