Periodic Reporting for period 4 - ReligSpace (The Effect of Manifestations of Religion in the Public Space on Sociopolitical Integration of Minority-Religion Immigrants)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-10-01 al 2025-09-30
Problem addressed. Religion in public space has become a flashpoint in diverse cities. Visible signs of minority faiths regularly reach courts and city halls over questions like locating places of worship, minaret height, school-display rules, or clothing in public spaces. Across Europe, restrictions on such manifestations have grown over recent decades, with policymakers struggling to balance public opinion, religious freedom, integration concerns, and public order.
Yet despite the political stakes and evidence that religious cues can shape attitudes, social science has rarely measured how everyday exposure to religion in streets and neighborhoods affects belonging, place attachment, identities, trust, and civic life.
Importance to society. Public religion can foster trust and “acts of citizenship,” others to heighten intergroup tension
help people feel recognized and included and foster trust and “acts of citizenship,” yet it can also foster isolationism and heighten intergroup tension. Understanding when, for whom, and why visible religion fosters engagement or alienation is crucial for urban planning, integration policy, and democratic cohesion.
Objectives. Most studies treat “religion” as an individual trait (beliefs, attendance, identity) or a national policy context, overlooking spatial visibility in ordinary places where people live and move.
This gap raises concrete questions: Do visible religious cues help immigrants engage locally, endorse shared civic norms, and feel they belong, or do they increase alienation or out-group antipathy? Do effects differ by minority-religion tradition (e.g. Islam vs. Judaism), by people’s own predispositions, or by the host city’s model of state-religion relations (e.g. Paris vs. London)? Under what conditions do such cues matter most, for whom, and why? What are the effects of exposure to minority religion on majority-religion host society members sharing the urban space? What are the consequences for coexistence? For policy? ReligSpace was designed to tackle exactly these questions with comparative, causal, and spatially explicit methods.
Thus, the overall objectives of ReligSpace were: (1) to develop a theoretical framework explaining how religion influences acculturation and urban coexistence; (2) to empirically identify the causal impact of micro-level religious contexts on acculturation and coexistence; and (3) to examine the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of potential effects
Yet despite the political stakes and evidence that religious cues can shape attitudes, social science has rarely measured how everyday exposure to religion in streets and neighborhoods affects belonging, place attachment, identities, trust, and civic life.
Importance to society. Public religion can foster trust and “acts of citizenship,” others to heighten intergroup tension
help people feel recognized and included and foster trust and “acts of citizenship,” yet it can also foster isolationism and heighten intergroup tension. Understanding when, for whom, and why visible religion fosters engagement or alienation is crucial for urban planning, integration policy, and democratic cohesion.
Objectives. Most studies treat “religion” as an individual trait (beliefs, attendance, identity) or a national policy context, overlooking spatial visibility in ordinary places where people live and move.
This gap raises concrete questions: Do visible religious cues help immigrants engage locally, endorse shared civic norms, and feel they belong, or do they increase alienation or out-group antipathy? Do effects differ by minority-religion tradition (e.g. Islam vs. Judaism), by people’s own predispositions, or by the host city’s model of state-religion relations (e.g. Paris vs. London)? Under what conditions do such cues matter most, for whom, and why? What are the effects of exposure to minority religion on majority-religion host society members sharing the urban space? What are the consequences for coexistence? For policy? ReligSpace was designed to tackle exactly these questions with comparative, causal, and spatially explicit methods.
Thus, the overall objectives of ReligSpace were: (1) to develop a theoretical framework explaining how religion influences acculturation and urban coexistence; (2) to empirically identify the causal impact of micro-level religious contexts on acculturation and coexistence; and (3) to examine the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of potential effects
ReligSpace delivered a comparative program across Paris, London, and Tel-Aviv, organized in three integrated work packages:
WP1. We developed the theoretical, methodological, and empirical toolkit to study how spatial religious visibility shapes integration. This included consolidating the framework (motivated religiosity, acculturation, “spatial religion”), operationalizing multi-dimensional indices of self-reported exposure and comfort with public religious self-expression, and validating local-level acculturation outcomes (behavioral approach-avoidance and attitudinal scales). We designed and pre-tested a field-ready AR mobile platform (GPS-directed routes, geofenced EMA prompts, behavioral telemetry) and a parallel VR/simulated-computerized pipeline with simulated streetscapes mirroring real environments. Early work focused on presenting motivational frameworks (Ben-Nun Bloom et al., 2021; Vishkin et al., 2021) and the psychological mechanisms linking religion to social and political outcomes (Vishkin & Ben-Nun Bloom, 2022; Vishkin et al., 2022).
WP2. We implemented long-run, AR/GPS-tracked naturalistic exposure on matched routes in Paris and London, sampling 1st/2nd-generation Muslim immigrants and majority-religion residents, along with a comparable Tel Aviv branch. We fielded original comparative surveys in the UK and France using borough/neighborhood sampling frames and strata of Jewish and Muslim immigrants alongside majority-religion residents. We also ran VR and computerized experiments aligned with WP1 constructs using stylized, validated VR-simulated street-scene stimuli that mirror real environments. Published illustrations of the democratic relevance of spatial religious cues include environmental appraisals among majority-religion non-immigrant residents (Bornioli et al., 2023), micro-context spatial religion effects on voting in schools on election day (Ben-Nun Bloom, Birenboim & Hassin, 2023), and contextual influences on real-world donations (Goldner et al., 2025).
WP3. We ran Tel-Aviv program including a three-neighborhood panel survey among African Muslim immigrants in South Tel-Aviv and majority-religion (Jewish) native residents aligned on neighborhood grids. In London, we completed street audits across 100+ neighborhoods coding visible religious resources and linked them to small-area statistics and our resident survey.
Dissemination included multi-disciplinary conference papers, invited seminars, focused workshops, preregistrations and supplementary materials, and methods-first demonstrations for stakeholder partners, with exploitation focusing on policy interfaces concerned with planning and coexistence.
WP1. We developed the theoretical, methodological, and empirical toolkit to study how spatial religious visibility shapes integration. This included consolidating the framework (motivated religiosity, acculturation, “spatial religion”), operationalizing multi-dimensional indices of self-reported exposure and comfort with public religious self-expression, and validating local-level acculturation outcomes (behavioral approach-avoidance and attitudinal scales). We designed and pre-tested a field-ready AR mobile platform (GPS-directed routes, geofenced EMA prompts, behavioral telemetry) and a parallel VR/simulated-computerized pipeline with simulated streetscapes mirroring real environments. Early work focused on presenting motivational frameworks (Ben-Nun Bloom et al., 2021; Vishkin et al., 2021) and the psychological mechanisms linking religion to social and political outcomes (Vishkin & Ben-Nun Bloom, 2022; Vishkin et al., 2022).
WP2. We implemented long-run, AR/GPS-tracked naturalistic exposure on matched routes in Paris and London, sampling 1st/2nd-generation Muslim immigrants and majority-religion residents, along with a comparable Tel Aviv branch. We fielded original comparative surveys in the UK and France using borough/neighborhood sampling frames and strata of Jewish and Muslim immigrants alongside majority-religion residents. We also ran VR and computerized experiments aligned with WP1 constructs using stylized, validated VR-simulated street-scene stimuli that mirror real environments. Published illustrations of the democratic relevance of spatial religious cues include environmental appraisals among majority-religion non-immigrant residents (Bornioli et al., 2023), micro-context spatial religion effects on voting in schools on election day (Ben-Nun Bloom, Birenboim & Hassin, 2023), and contextual influences on real-world donations (Goldner et al., 2025).
WP3. We ran Tel-Aviv program including a three-neighborhood panel survey among African Muslim immigrants in South Tel-Aviv and majority-religion (Jewish) native residents aligned on neighborhood grids. In London, we completed street audits across 100+ neighborhoods coding visible religious resources and linked them to small-area statistics and our resident survey.
Dissemination included multi-disciplinary conference papers, invited seminars, focused workshops, preregistrations and supplementary materials, and methods-first demonstrations for stakeholder partners, with exploitation focusing on policy interfaces concerned with planning and coexistence.
Progress beyond the state of the art. ReligSpace advances the field by shifting from individual religiosity to spatially embedded, testable constructs, and by introducing a controlled-naturalistic exposure paradigm that combines matched routes, geofenced Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) at pre-specified landmarks, and continuous behavioral telemetry (engagement, speed/acceleration, dwell). Paired VR and computerized simulated-based stimuli let us estimate how different exposure levels change behavior and appraisal in real settings, and physical street audits enable policy-relevant mapping at fine spatial scales, bridging ecological validity with experimental control.
Expected results. Forthcoming outputs include a methods paper and protocols for the AR/GPS design, a multiverse analysis of spatial-religion across groups and cities, two London audit-survey studies, a Tel-Aviv program report, and a book-length synthesis translating these advances for planners, educators, and civic stakeholders. Together, these outputs consolidate a spatially grounded approach to studying religion and integration, provide practical tools others can adopt, and supply policy-ready evidence for managing visible diversity in everyday urban life.
Expected results. Forthcoming outputs include a methods paper and protocols for the AR/GPS design, a multiverse analysis of spatial-religion across groups and cities, two London audit-survey studies, a Tel-Aviv program report, and a book-length synthesis translating these advances for planners, educators, and civic stakeholders. Together, these outputs consolidate a spatially grounded approach to studying religion and integration, provide practical tools others can adopt, and supply policy-ready evidence for managing visible diversity in everyday urban life.