Prevalence of anti-Semitic prejudice among juveniles and adolescents in Germany: Development between 2022 and 2024: Influences of migration, religious affiliation, personal religiosity, and conspiracy mentality . Paper presented at the 48th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) in Prague, 3 – 6 July 2025: "Social Identity, Political Conflict, and the Future of Democracy"-

Prevalence of anti-Semitic prejudice among juveniles and adolescents in Germany between 2022 and 2024: The relevance of religious affiliation, religiosity and conspiracy beliefs

Prof. Dr. Peter Wetzels, Prof. Dr. Katrin Brettfeld, Dr. Diego Farren, and M.A. Jannik M.K Fischer

Results of two nationwide online surveys of representative samples of young people aged 16 to 21 living in Germany on the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes are presented. The findings show significant increases of the prevalence of traditional/classical anti-Semitic prejudice in 2024 compared to the first survey in 2022.

Within the population of young people, there are considerable differences in the extent of anti-Semitic attitudes between subgroups. These differences are important when it comes to identifying and specifying target groups for intervention and prevention of anti-Semitism.

Young people with a migration background are significantly more likely to hold both classic anti-Semitic as well as Israel-related anti-Semitic attitudes. The rates of these two forms of antisemitism are particularly high among young Muslims.

However, increases in classical antisemitism that can be observed between 2022 and 2024 are not limited to the group of young Muslims, but can be found in all subgroups of young people in Germany.

Results of multivariate regression analyses show that the high prevalence rates of traditional anti-Semitic resentment among young Muslims cannot be explained by their increased experiences of discrimination or their increased perceptions of collective marginalization in German society, neither in 2022 nor in 2024.

Important predictors are, in addition to a low level of education, the degree of inclination to believe in conspiracies, and a rigid fundamentalist religious orientation. In a multivariat analysis high levels of individual religiosity (individual faith) has no significant effects on antisemitism. Furthermore, Israel-related antisemitic attitudes are significantly more pronounced than classic anti-Semitic prejudices among all groups of juveniles. Highest rates can be found among young Muslims. However, the relevant influencing factors in this regard are different than in the case of traditional anti-Semitic prejudice.