Hostility refers to a feeling of enmity towards a person or an attitude of opposition towards a group. Hostility indices capture the disagreement or the agreement with this attitude, when it is directed towards one of three following target groups: Muslims, Black people and Jewish people.
The average values of the indices measuring hostile attitudes are of 1,8 (Black people and Jewish people) and 1,9 (Muslims) in 2022, on a scale from 1 (disagreement with the attitudes) to 4 (agreement with the attitudes). This shows that the population disagrees rather than agrees with hostile attitudes, meaning that the attitudes are overall more positive than negative.
Evolution
Method
The average value of these indices has decreased over the observation period, indicating a shift towards less and less hostile attitudes.
The index is a synthetic measure of a given concept (hostility). It is based on several negative statements about target groups (see codebook questions musul_stm_02 to musul_stm_07, black_stm_02 to black_stm_07, jew_stm_02 to jew_stm_07). According to the degree of agreement of the respondents with these statements on a scale from 1 to 4, an individual average value per concept is calculated. This average value lies between 1 and 4, with 1 expressing a positive attitude and 4 a negative attitude towards target groups. The overall index value is the average of the individual average values and is thus the individual attitudes towards this concept.
Stereotypes
By recording opinions or stereotypes used to construct the hostility indexes, the figures below provide information on the attitudes of the population towards Muslims, Black people and Jewish people.
Less negative stereotypes of Black people
Among those who gave their opinion about the stereotypes ascribed to the target groups, 24% think the stereotypes of Jewish people apply strongly, respectively 22% concerning stereotypes of Muslims. Approval drops to 17% in the case of negative stereotypes about Black people. These figures indicate that preconceived stereotypical perceptions of Black people are more favourable than those of the other target groups.
Low rejection of stereotypes of Muslims
With regard to Muslims, the comparatively strong agreement with negative stereotypes (22%) is accompanied by a low refusal to stereotype (6%). In contrast, the proportion of the population that rejects stereotyping Jewish and Black people is higher (14%).
Method
Agreement with the stereotypes: proportion of the subpopulation (filter in the questionnaire) agreeing with the stereotypes ascribed to the target groups (see codebook questions musul_sty, black_sty, jew_sty).
Refusal to stereotype: proportion of the population disagreeing with the statement saying that the target groups have habits and ways of life that are different than the ones of the Swiss population in general (see codebook questions musul_sty_rej, black_sty_rej, jew_sty_rej).
High refusal to rank the groups
In the majority of cases, the population’s assessment of Muslims, Black and Jewish people is a positive one. The proportion of persons agreeing with the statement that Muslims, Black or Jewish people are just like anybody else (soft refusal to rank) is at 93% and 95% according to the target group.
Strong refusal to rank less frequent when it comes to Muslims
The proportion of persons strongly agreeing with the statement saying that the target group is like any other group is smaller with regard to Muslims (72%). This indicates that preconceptions regarding Muslims are less favourable than those regarding Black people and Jewish people (80%).
Method
The figures presented are the proportions of the population completely agreeing, rather agreeing, rather disagreeing or completely disagreeing with different statements about target groups (see codebook questions musul_stm_01, black_stm_01, jew_stm_01).
| Muslims | Black people | Jewish people | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostility | 1.9 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Refusal to rank (soft) |
93% | 95% | 93% |
| Refusal to rank (hard) | 72% | 80% | 80% |
| Refusal to stereotype | 6% | 14% | 14% |
| Agreement with stereotypes | 22% | 17% | 24% |
Focus 2017: Racism against Black people
By means of daily life situations, the figures below show whether the population perceives certain behaviours towards Black people to be racist and measure the extent to which the definitions of racism are shared by the population.
Hover the mouse pointer over the dots in the interactive graph above to display the labels for the situations.
45% of the population identifies racist behaviours in all the situations reflecting so-called "old" or "traditional" forms of racism
17% of the population identifies racist behaviours in all the situations reflecting so-called "new" forms of racism
Method
Definitions
More figures on this topic
The figures presented are the proportions of the population that considers the behaviours presented in the situation as racist (see codebook in German section "Situationen" items a-l). They were collected in 2017 via a one-time in-depth module of the VeS survey.
- Indicator of systematic awareness: proportion of the population considering that, out of the five behaviours presented, five are being racist.
- Indicator of partial awareness: proportion of the population considering that, out of the five behaviours presented, three are being racist.
Black people
Persons perceived as or considering themselves to be black, in principle mainly people of African descent.
Old forms of racism or "traditional racism"
Pseudo-scientific racism based on the biological and genetic principles of different human races.
New forms of racism
- Cultural racism, without race, neo-racism: valorisation of cultural or ethnic differences, tending to make these differences appear natural.
- Insidious, subtle racism: indirect forms of racism which sometimes present cultural differences in a pseudo-positive way.
- Everyday racism: repeated questions or gestures that can be insidiously racist, sometimes motivated by ignorance or curiosity.
- Institutional racism: the result of public policy or certain institutions, which are not able to guarantee equal opportunities.
An interactive graph provides detailed information on the awareness of racism towards Black people by means of everyday situations. To the interactive graph
Note: In response to enquiries from various media, the FSO prepared a special analysis of several indicators on attitudes towards target groups. The indicators "refusal to classify", "refusal of stereotypes" and "agreement with negative stereotypes" were broken down by the variable religious affiliation. Furthermore, some elements of the hostility indices were broken down by gender, age, political stance, religious affiliation, level of education and major region. These special analyses are available on request.
Further information
Tables
Publications
Sources
- Source: Survey on diversity and coexistence in Switzerland
- Years: 2016, 2017 (module), 2018, 2020, 2022
- Universe: Permanent resident population aged 15 to 88
- Non-weighted numbers: n (2022) = 2908
Contact
Federal Statistical Office Section Demography and MigrationEspace de l'Europe 10
CH-2010 Neuchâtel
Switzerland