The survey which looked at people's attitudes of minorities found that 53% of people do not support more Muslims coming into the country, and that social pressures are much stronger for people to appear tolerant of Black people than they are to appear tolerant of Muslim people.
Although 66% of those surveyed said they support more Black people coming to Ireland, which reduced to 51% if they were able to conceal their identity.
The study acknowledged that in past research, people with higher education levels generally have more positive attitudes towards minorities, but this survey found that this may be because people who are more highly educated who hold negative attitudes are more likely to conceal them,
Young people are almost twice as likely to conceal these negative attitudes, with 19% of people aged 18 to 49 saying they would hide their lack of support Black immigration, compared to 11% of people over 50.
However, young people are more likely to support the immigration of Black people, regardless of whether it is anonymous or not.
In terms of gender, men (21%) conceal negative attitudes twice as much as women (10%) in regards Black immigration, yet this reverses when discussing Muslim immigration, with 21% of women concealing their opinion, while men do not seem to conceal their negative attitudes on the topic.
Member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Salome Mbugua says the report has come at an important time in the fight against racism.
“The report comes at a moment when the relationship between individual attitudes and systemic racism has been cast into sharp focus.
"The research shines a light into understanding the frequently subtle, covert or coded forms of prejudice and discrimination, which people in Ireland can face.
"A better understanding of the relationship between people’s hidden and revealed attitudes can inform how we as a society identify and face racism and racial discrimination at all levels.”
