In the Netherlands, the political and public debate on immigration and minorities has changed considerably in recent years. In this paper, we investigate Dutch majority’s public opinion toward minorities with regard to two issues: the support for welfare policies and political tolerance toward actors from different ethnic groups. Firstly, we examine to what extent support for welfare policies is dependent upon the perceived beneficiaries (or target group) of the policy. By randomized experimental variation of survey questions, we examine how the level and determinants of support for welfare policies are affected by variations in target group. Furthermore, we examine whether support for welfare policies is malleable by confronting respondents with counter-arguments after they have given their initial support. We test hypotheses regarding the effect of target group variations and counter-arguments on the level and determinants of support for welfare policies. Secondly, we focus on a specific case of political tolerance by analysing the public controversy surrounding the short film ‘Fitna’ of Dutch radical right wing politician Geert Wilders. We analyse the determinants of political tolerance regarding Wilders’ rights to release his anti-Islam film and Muslims’ rights to protest against it, and the extent to which these opinions are affected by counter-arguments.
