Responses to religious norm defection: The case of Hui Chinese Muslims not following the halal diet

Abstract

The present research sought to understand how religious individuals would respond to ingroup members’ defections from the sacred norms in their religion. Given the strong connection of the dietary norms in Islam to the religion's sacred values, violations of Islamic dietary norms may evoke strong negative emotions. Therefore, we examined how young Hui Muslims in Beijing reacted when they witnessed a Muslim violated the sacred halal and haram norms of food prohibitions in Islam. The results of an experiment showed that when Hui Muslims perceived a defection from the halal and haram norms by a Muslim, they felt sad, angry and disgusted. These emotions in turn increased the preference for practices and policies that would uphold religious norms. Our results also speak to Hui Muslims’ tolerance of norm violations by non-Muslims. Although following the halal and haram norms is considered morally obligatory for Muslims, our Hui Muslim participants did not expect non-Muslims to follow these norms and did not report negative emotions when they saw a non-Muslim consuming a non-halal meal.