Minority Salience and Political Extremism
利用德国斋月期间穆斯林社区显著性增强作为自然实验，发现选举临近斋月时，清真寺所在市镇的极右和极左政党得票率均上升，机制是斋月放大了多数群体对穆斯林的文化差异感知和负面态度。
We investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group’s voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents’ perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims.