Addressing the effect of concern with COVID-19 threat on prejudice towards immigrants: The sequential mediating role of need for cognitive closure and desire for cultural tightness

The link between threat and anti-immigrant prejudice is well-established. Relatedly, recent research has also shown that situational threats (such as concern with COVID-19 threat) increase anti-immigrant prejudice through the mediating role of desire for cultural tightness. This study aims to further our understanding of the psychological processes underlying the relation between concern with COVID-19 threat and increased negative attitudes towards immigrants by considering the mediational role of an individual epistemic motivation (i.e., the need for cognitive closure). A study was conducted on a large sample of Italian respondents covering all the Italian regions. Findings revealed that high concern with COVID-19 threat led to increased negative attitudes towards immigrants through the sequential mediating role of higher need for cognitive closure, leading in turn to higher desire for cultural tightness. Implications of these findings for a timely contextualized study of anti-immigrant prejudice will be highlighted.     

Religiosity and attitudes toward muslim immigrants in the context of a terrorist attack

Research on religiosity and attitudes toward immigrants is inconclusive, while it has repeatedly been reported that Islamist terrorist attacks lead to anti-immigrant attitudes. In this context, it remains unclear how these aspects interact, especially, since we can assume that religion plays an important role in light of an attack by an extremist religious group like ISIS: How does an Islamist terrorist attack moderate the relationship between religiosity and attitudes toward immigrants? The present study, therefore, analyses the relationship between religiosity and attitudes toward Muslim immigrants before and after the ‘Charlie Hebdo Attack’. It builds on the Uncertainty-Identity-Theory and the Religious Coping Literature. Analyses of European Social Survey (ESS) data reveal that the relationship varies over time: Religiosity does not predict the attitudes before the attack. Immediately after the attack, more religious individuals are less accepting. Lastly, with temporal distance, greater religiosity makes liberal attitudes more likely.     

Majority–minority acculturation preferences concordance as an antecedent of attitudes towards immigrants: The mediating role of perceived symbolic threat and metastereotypes

Through an experimental design, we investigated the effects of majority–minority acculturation preferences concordance and immigrants’ generational status on Italians’ attitudes towards Albanian immigrants. The role of perceived threat and metastereotypes in mediating this relationship was examined. Participants (N = 178) were categorized into different levels of culture maintenance and intercultural contact concordance. Findings showed that discrepancies in the contact dimension affected majority members’ attitudes towards immigrants. Both perceived threat and metastereotypes were found to mediate the relationship between contact discrepancies and attitudes towards immigrants. Culture maintenance concordance interacted with immigrants’ generational status in influencing majority members’ attitudes. This research confirmed the importance of taking into account the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between majority and immigrant acculturation preferences, confirming that the most positive attitudes were produced when immigrants were perceived to adopt the same strategy as the majority, especially with respect to intergroup contact.     

Perceptions of national identity and attitudes toward immigrants and immigration in Canada and Germany

In the current research, we examined whether promoting an inclusive national ingroup that includes both immigrants and nonimmigrants would improve attitudes toward immigrants and immigration among members of receiving societies. We also determined whether one's nation of citizenship and individual differences in social dominance orientation would moderate the effects. Participants were 126 Canadian students and 282 German students, who completed a measure of social dominance orientation and were then asked to respond to a series of questions designed to heighten the salience of national identity (national identity), promote a national ingroup that includes immigrants (common national ingroup), or irrelevant questions (control). The dependent measures included attitudes toward immigrants and immigration, and subtle prejudice toward immigrants. Results revealed that the manipulation of a common national ingroup successfully promoted more positive attitudes toward immigrants and immigration among higher social dominance oriented Canadian participants, but tended to have detrimental effects on the attitudes of higher social dominance oriented German participants. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of considering the context in which groups are situated, as well as implications for developing strategies to promote harmony between immigrants and members of receiving societies.     

The majority influence on interminority attitudes: The secondary transfer effect of positive and negative contact

Among minority members, positive contact with the majority was previously found to improve not only the attitudes toward the majority but also the attitudes toward minority outgroups (the secondary transfer effect; STE). However, the roles of negative intergroup contact and minority groups’ social status in the STE have not been yet examined. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the association between both positive and negative contact with the national majority group (Finns) and mutual attitudes among high-status Estonian (n = 171) and low-status Russian (n = 180) immigrants in Finland. Two mediators of the STE were tested: attitudes toward the majority (attitude generalization) and public collective self-esteem (diagonal hostility). While positive and negative STEs emerging via attitude generalization were expected to occur among both immigrant groups, the mediating effect of public collective self-esteem was assumed only for members of the low-status group. In both immigrant groups, the relationship between positive contact with the majority group and attitudes toward the other immigrant group was positive and indirect through more favorable attitudes toward majority group members. The same mechanism characterized negative contact, where the indirect effect was mediated by less positive attitudes toward Finns. As predicted, public collective self-esteem mediated the effects of positive and negative contact with majority group members on attitudes toward the other minority only among low-status Russian immigrants. The results call for the acknowledgement of different mechanisms explaining the STE among minority groups enjoying different social statuses in host society.     

Declining and splitting: Opposition to immigration in the United States, 1996–2018

The ‘competitive threat’ theoretical model leads to the expectation that flows of documented and undocumented immigrants, economic downturns, and spread of conservative-nationalist ideologies would increase opposition to immigration. Recent studies on attitudes toward immigrants in American society do not show any increase in anti-immigrant sentiment. In the present study, we use data from the General Social Surveys (GSS) and American National Election Survey (ANES) to study change in opposition to immigration between 1996 and 2018. The findings obtained from the two data sources are strikingly similar and lead to the following conclusions. First, opposition to immigration had steadily and monotonously declined throughout the period. Second, the decline is evident even after considering variations and changes in the composition of the population, shifts in political ideologies, regional variations and cohort replacement. Third, the trend of decline in opposition to immigration takes a linear form. Fourth, opposition to immigration is stronger among Republicans and Independent voters than among Democrats. Fifth, the overtime decline in opposition to immigration was evident mostly among supporters of the Democratic Party increasing the division along party lines. The findings suggest that immigration is becoming a major political issue that is steadily polarizing American society.     

An integrative model of attitudes toward immigrants

The research tests an integrative model of attitudes toward immigrants. Underpinned by Integrated Threat Theory and the Instrumental Model of Group Conflict and incorporating aspects of the contact and multicultural hypotheses, the model proposes direct paths linking five latent variables: multicultural ideology, contact with immigrants, intergroup anxiety, perceived threat and attitudes toward immigrants. Data generated from a random telephone survey of 500 New Zealand households demonstrated a very good fit for the model. The latent personal (multicultural ideology) and situational (contact with immigrants) variables represented exogenous factors and were related to each other. More frequent intercultural contact led to decreased intergroup anxiety, which, in turn, predicted diminished perceptions of threat and more positive attitudes toward immigrants. At the same time, a second path from multicultural ideology led to decreased perceptions of threat and, in turn, to more positive attitudes toward immigrants. The advantages of an integrative approach to attitudes toward immigrants are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research.     

The Impact of Narratives on Attitudes toward Muslim Immigrants in the U.S.

ABSTRACT

This study examined the impact of narratives on attitudes toward Muslim immigrants in the U.S. Based on a 2 (content: acceptance vs. rejection) × 2 (narrator: Muslim vs. American) plus control condition design, 479 participants read one of five messages. More contact and positive attribution toward Muslim immigrants was associated less threat and exclusion. The American narrator telling a rejection narrative was the most disliked and received little empathy. Overall, narratives describing Muslim immigrants’ experience of rejection were more impactful on participant intention to engage in pro-social behaviours. This study discussed the implications of narratives in bias reduction efforts.     

Voluntary and involuntary immigrants and adolescents’ endorsement of multiculturalism

This research examined whether the way in which migrants are defined has implications for majority group adolescents’ evaluation of maintenance of the heritage culture. Using an experimental questionnaire design, the findings demonstrate that when migrants are considered to have left their country on a voluntary basis, endorsement of cultural maintenance is lower than when migration is perceived to be involuntary. This was found to be the case when voluntary immigrants were contrasted with immigrants that have been recruited as labor migrants by the host society (Study 1, N = 843), and when voluntary immigrants were contrasted with immigrants that are forced to leave their country of origin (Study 2, N = 108). Furthermore, Study 2 found similar effects for emigrants. In both studies, national identification was negatively related to support for cultural maintenance. In addition, higher identifiers were more strongly in favor of allowing involuntary emigrants to maintain their own culture than lower identifiers. The implications of this research are discussed.     

Does religion matter? Italians’ responses towards Muslim and Christian Arab immigrants as a function of their acculturation preferences

A 2 × 2 × 2 experiment examined the role of immigrants’ religion and perceived acculturation strategy on majority members’ attitudes. Acculturation strategies were manipulated along the two dimensions of contact and culture maintenance. Italian majority members (N = 247) read fictitious but seemingly real interviews with Arab immigrants, in which the immigrants’ religion (Muslim vs. Christian) and acculturation preferences (desire for contact and for culture maintenance) were manipulated. MANOVA showed a main effect of contact: majority members associated immigrants who were perceived to favour contact with more positive attitudes, empathy, trust, positive stereotypes and metastereotypes, and lower levels of threat. MANOVA also showed a main effect of culture maintenance: when immigrants were perceived to abandon their culture, majority members reported lower levels of symbolic threat and greater empathy towards them. A significant Religion x Culture maintenance interaction effect emerged on majority members’ stereotypes and contact intentions: Muslim immigrants who were perceived to abandon their heritage culture elicited more favourable responses than Muslim immigrants who were perceived to maintain their heritage culture. Taken together, these findings suggest that desire for intergroup contact amongst immigrants, independently of their religion, can promote harmonious intergroup relations with the majority group.     

Open- and closed-mindedness in cross-cultural adaptation: The roles of mindfulness and need for cognitive closure

Individuals who are high, relative to low, in mindfulness are more open when ascribing meanings to new experiences and more resilient under stress, suggesting that mindfulness may play an important role in cross-cultural adaptation. In contrast, those high in need for cognitive closure (NCC) seem to close one’s mind to new cross-cultural experiences. We tested these contrasting effects of mindfulness and NCC by examining Asian international students (n = 233) who study at an Australian university using several measures of psychological and sociocultural adjustment. The study found that more mindful sojourners develop greater sociocultural skills and superior knowledge of a unique local culture. The role of need for cognitive closure (NCC)―closed-mindedness spurred by a desire for clear-cut understanding―was found primarily in the domain of psychological adjustment. The results highlight the importance of these dimensions of open- versus closed-mindedness during cross-cultural adaptation.     

The distinctive role of morality in fostering behavioural tendencies of facilitation towards Romanian Roma and immigrants

Two studies were conducted to investigate the role of the morality dimension in the prejudice towards a group of Roma (the Romanian Roma) in comparison with other immigrants (Moroccan and Romanian immigrants). Since prejudice towards Romanian Roma is a subject that is still underexplored, Study 1 describes stereotype content (in terms of morality, sociability and competence), emotions and social distance preferred by a group of Italians towards this out-group. Study 2, also adding the measurement of the stereotype dimension of immorality, compared stereotypes, positive emotions felt by Italians and their behavioural tendencies of facilitation towards Romanian Roma, Moroccan immigrants, and Romanian immigrants. Positive emotions resulted to mediate between some stereotype dimensions and the behavioural tendencies, but direct effects of morality and competence were also observed. In addition, low morality resulted to be the stereotype dimension that had a crucial role in reducing the behavioural tendencies of participants’ facilitation towards Romanian Roma.     

Welcome or not? – Natives’ security feelings,attachment and attitudes toward acculturation of immigrants

Cultural diversity due to immigration has become a key topic in many societies today. The question of how the native population experiences these developments is of prime importance for intercultural relations and sets the base for acculturation of immigrants. Drawing on attachment and multiculturalism research, we supposed here that general and specific feelings of security might be related to more positive attitudes toward cultural diversity, whereas feelings of threat might be related to less openness. More precisely, the present study investigated how natives’ general attachment (secure or fearful) as well as their specific feelings of (cultural or economic) security might be related to their expectations about acculturation of immigrants in the multicultural context of Luxembourg. The sample included N = 134 Luxembourg nationals with an average age of M = 45.02 (SD = 17.41) who filled out an online questionnaire. Results revealed that self-reported fearful general attachment was positively related to more unwelcoming acculturation orientations. Relations between general attachment and acculturation orientations were mediated by feelings of cultural security, which had strong effects on host nationals’ (un)welcoming acculturation orientations over and above general attachment. Findings suggest that (un)welcoming orientations toward immigrants, entailing openness for cultural contact and exchange, are related to feelings of cultural and economic security which are partly biased by a general secure or fearful attachment. Feelings of security seem thus to provide a secure base for tolerance and openness to cultural diversity which are needed in order to deal successfully with the challenges of today’s multicultural societies.     

English Proficiency,Identity, Anxiety,and Intergroup Attitudes: US Americans’ Perceptions of Chinese

Guided by the Common Ingroup Identity Model and Berry’s acculturation framework, this study examined the roles that perceptions of language proficiency, cultural identity, and communication anxiety had on intergroup attitudes and stereotypes in the American–Chinese contact context. Serial mediation analyses with 10,000 bootstrap samples revealed that perceived English proficiency of a Chinese contact had significant indirect effects on affective and behavioral attitudes toward Chinese through American participants’ perceptions of their contact’s host and home culture identification and communication anxiety. Perceived English proficiency had an indirect effect only on positive stereotypes through the Chinese contact’s perceived identification with home culture.     

A communication approach to the acculturation process: A study of Korean immigrants in Chicago

This paper explores a theoretical and methodological basis for studying foreign immigrants' acculturation processes from a communication perspective. Communication patterns of immigrants are conceptualized on three levels — behavioral, attitudinal, and perceptual. The behavioral level of communication includes the immigrant's participation in communication channels of the host society as well as the ethnic community. The perceptual level refers to the immigrant's cognitive structure in perceiving the host society. The attitudinal level is examined by the immigrant's affective-evaluative orientation toward the host society. The three levels of communication patterns were empirically investigated in a survey of 400 randomly selected Koreans in the Chicago area. The communication variables were assessed through composite scores using questionnaire items that were tested for reliability. The results show an overall linear trend in the immigrant's interethnic communication with Americans, positive attitude toward Americans, cognitive complexity in perceiving the American society, and satisfaction level. A simultaneous increase is observed in the immigrant's interpersonal communication with Americans and with other Koreans. The immigrant's use of ethnic media rapidly decreases over the years while that of American media steadily increases. Findings are discussed in comparison to previous studies of foreign immigrants and students and to sociological theories of acculturation of minority groups.     

The effects of affective and cognitive treatment on attitude change toward ethnic minority groups

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of cognitive and affective treatments on the attitudes of white university students in Hawaii (a place where many ethnic minority groups live with little overt discrimination and where no one racial group, such as the whites, is in the majority) toward ethnic minority groups. It was hypothesized that the rank order of the groups from most favorable to least favorable in social distance and attitude for and against ethnic minority groups, would be: Affective Treatment, Cognitive Treatment, Hawaii Control, and Mainland Comparison Group. The Social Distance Scale and Prejudice and Rationality Scale were used as pretest and posttest instruments in the Fall, 1980 with 94 Brigham Young University—Hawaii Campus (BYU—HC)and30 Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah undergraduate students. Analysis of covariance led to supporting the three hypotheses at the 0.01 significance level. It was found that the Affective Treatment Group consistently had a greater change in attitude toward ethnic minorities followed by the Cognitive, Hawaii Control, and Mainland Comparison Groups. It was concluded that the affective treatment was the most effective in changing attitudes toward ethnic minority groups.     

Internal migration and the negative attitudes toward migrant workers in China

We examined the relationship between perceived group threats and citizens’ negative outgroup attitudes toward migrant workers using nationally representative survey data (N = 1219) collected from 13 cities across seven Chinese provinces. Additionally, we examined the relationship between intergroup contact and citizens’ negative outgroup attitudes toward migrant workers and assessed whether these relationships varied by cultural region and stereotypes. The results showed that perceived group threat was associated with citizens’ negative outgroup attitudes toward migrant workers. However, the strength of their relationships decreased significantly in southern cities. The results also showed that contact with migrant workers in general and in the workplace were negatively related to citizens’ negative outgroup attitudes toward them. However, it was noted that contact with migrant workers in general would be less effective when implemented in cities, where citizens hold more negative stereotypes toward migrant workers. The findings suggest that negative outgroup attitudes also exist in internal migration, especially in places with high individualism. Intergroup contact, especially contact in the workplace, is an effective strategy for enhancing group integration.     

Initial Communication with and Attitudes toward International Students: Testing the Mediating Effects of Friendship Formation Variables

From the theoretical perspectives of intergroup contact, predicted outcome value (POV), and similarity-attraction, this study examined U.S. host nationals’ (N = 342) communicative behaviours in a recent initial encounter with an international student and attitudes toward the student’s cultural group as a whole. Testing of two models indicated the significant sequential mediator effects of perceived similarity-social attraction and POV-social attraction between communication variables (e.g. amount of communication exchange in both models, self-disclosure in model 1, and information seeking in model 2), and intergroup attitudes (e.g. behavioural attitudes). Findings in general demonstrated that contact effects in the intercultural context varied according to specific measures of communication, the mediating mechanisms, and intergroup attitudes.     

Intergroup contact and prejudice toward immigrants: A multinational,multilevel test of the moderating role of individual conservative values and cultural embeddedness

We performed a multilevel, multinational analysis of the 2014 European Social Survey dataset (N = 33,597, nested in 19 countries) to study how individual conservative values and cultural embeddedness moderate the link between contact with immigrants and the attitudes toward them. A combination of frequency and positivity of contact with immigrants showed a negative association with ethnic prejudice while, conversely, participants’ conservative basic values were directly and positively associated with prejudice. National cultural embeddedness was not associated with the dependent variable. Neither individual conservative values nor cultural embeddedness moderated the association between contact and prejudice. Strengths, limitations, implications and future directions of this study are discussed.