To be or not to be tolerant? A Terror Management perspective exploring the ideological dilemma of tolerance and prejudice.

Tolerance has been identified as a way to reduce prejudice. However, tolerance has also been posited as an ideological dilemma and may have its limits. The present research explores this idea, utilizing insights from Terror Management Theory. Three studies were conducted using online samples. Study 1 found that a tolerance prime led to less discrimination towards Muslims after being reminded of death, but increased discrimination when reminded of terrorism. Additionally, tolerance did not affect levels of affective prejudice. Study 2 found that reading an essay that threatened the norm of tolerance led to increased levels of death-thought accessibility and worldview defence, particularly amongst liberal participants. Study 3 found that a tolerance prime attenuated mortality salience decreasing support for author rights, but not if the worldview critic was intolerant. Taken together, the present findings suggest that using tolerance to reduce prejudice and foster more positive intergroup relations has its boundaries. If others are perceived to not be tolerant themselves, then people may be more motivated to defend, rather than uphold the norm of tolerance.