Motivated prejudice: The effect of need for closure on anti-immigrant attitudes in the United States and Italy and the mediating role of binding moral foundations

Why do people have anti-immigrant attitudes? We proposed that individuals’ need for cognitive closure—an epistemic motivation associated with an aversion to change in established environments—is predictive of a dislike of immigrants through increased binding to powerful groups. In four studies, collected in both Italy (Study 1) and the United States (Studies 2–4), we found that there were effects of need for cognitive closure on anti-immigrant attitudes, as well as indirect effects through binding. These results were significant controlling for participants’ political orientation (Studies 2–4), when either dispositional measure (Studies 1–3) or an experimental induction (Study 4) of need for cognitive closure was used, and when both general attitudes toward immigrants (Studies 1, 2, 4) and attitudes toward immigrants’ economic impact (Studies 3 and 4) were assessed.     

Predictors of Finnish Adolescent’s Prejudice towards Russian Immigrants and the Effect of Intergroup Contact

This study examined perceived threat as a predictor of Finnish adolescent’s prejudice towards Russian immigrants. Moreover, since Russian immigrants represent the largest immigrant group in Eastern Finland, this study also explored the relationship between intergroup contact, threat, and prejudice. The sample consisted of 305 Finnish adolescents ranging from 11 to 19 years old. Results showed threat to be a significant predictor of prejudice towards Russian immigrants in Eastern Finland. Individually, negative stereotype was found to be the only threat that significantly predicted prejudice towards Russian immigrants. Realistic and symbolic threats were not important to the attitudes of Finnish adolescents towards Russian immigrants. Moreover, there was no significant relationship between intergroup contact, prejudice, and threat (realistic threat, symbolic threat, and negative stereotype). Implications are also discussed.     

The role of discordant acculturation attitudes in perceived threat: An analysis of host and immigrant attitudes in Germany

The present research examines discordant acculturation attitudes of host society members and immigrants as an antecedent to intergroup threat. Based on integrated threat theory and the concordance model of acculturation, we posited that discordance on culture maintenance and on desire for contact would predict intergroup threat beyond the influence of other antecedents of threat, such as in-group identification, knowledge, and negative contact. A study with 202 German host society members and 151 Turkish and Italian immigrants was conducted. In line with our assumptions, path analyses revealed that culture discordance and contact discordance contribute independently to the prediction of realistic threat, symbolic threat, and intergroup anxiety for host society members and immigrants. Moreover, differences in threat between cultures were mediated by the discordance in acculturation 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.     

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.     

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.     

What causes prejudice? How may we solve it? Lay beliefs and their relations with classical and modern prejudice and social dominance orientation

This research aimed to examine lay beliefs about the causes of and solutions to ethnic prejudice towards immigrant populations in the Italian context. The research had two main goals: (a) to explore in Italy what non-experts think causes ethnic prejudice against immigrants, and how they suggest we combat it; (b) to assess whether lay perceptions of causes of ethnic prejudice mediate the relationship between SDO and ethnic prejudice, and whether such mediational effects would depend on the form of ethnic prejudice considered (classical vs. modern). In particular, we hypothesized that lay beliefs about the causes of (but not lay beliefs about solutions to) prejudice towards immigrants may mediate the relation between SDO and prejudice towards immigrants. 520 Italian high school students participated in the study and completed a set of questionnaires regarding these issues. Results showed that Italian respondents were especially likely to attribute the causes of ethnic prejudice towards immigrants to ignorance and close-mindedness, and to recommend as main solutions open-mindedness and tolerance of others’ values. Moreover, as predicted, beliefs about causes of ethnic prejudice significantly mediated the relation between SDO and modern (but not classical) prejudice. Implications of our findings for social dominance theory were discussed.     

Host society's dislike of the Islamic veil: The role of subtle prejudice, values, and religion

The wearing of the Islamic veil by Muslim women has become a source of tensions in Western European countries. In order to investigate majority members’ attitudes towards the veil, the present two studies (Ns = 166 and 147), carried out in Belgium, integrated three lines of research that have focused on (a) the role of subtle prejudice/racism on the host society's attitudes towards immigrants, (b) the role of values on acculturation, and (c) the role of religious attitudes on prejudice. Results revealed the effects of subtle prejudice/racism, values (self-enhancement values and security versus universalism), and religious attitudes (literal anti-religious thinking versus spirituality), in predicting greater levels of anti-veil attitudes beyond the effects of other related variables such as age and political conservatism. The studies also suggest the importance of including religious attitudes as part of the intergroup-relation factors that predict attitudes towards immigrants, at least with regard to specific components of intercultural relations.     

Seeing the human in everyone: Multicultural experiences predict more positive intergroup attitudes and humanitarian helping through identification with all humanity

Prior research suggests two components of multicultural experiences—contact with cultural members and experiences with cultural elements—predict less prejudice via stronger identification with all humanity (IWAH). However, only one factor of IWAH (bond) was tested, and only United States samples were used. The present research examined both factors of IWAH (bond with, and concern for, all humanity) and used a nationally representative sample from Poland (N = 974), a more ethnically homogeneous and collectivist culture. We explored the association between multicultural experiences and negative intergroup attitudes (measured via fear of refugees, Islamophobia, and ethnocentrism) and humanitarian helping, and also tested the mediating role of both factors of IWAH on these attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Results largely replicate and extend prior findings, revealing contact with cultural members directly predicted stronger bond with and concern for all humanity, and less negative intergroup attitudes toward “others” (but not humanitarian helping). In contrast, experiences with cultural elements directly predicted stronger concern for all humanity (but not bond) and greater humanitarian helping (but not intergroup attitudes). Bond with all humanity mediated the association between contact with cultural members and less negative intergroup attitudes, while concern for all humanity mediated the association between both components of multicultural experiences and greater humanitarian helping. Findings support the benefits of multicultural experiences and their association with stronger IWAH and more positive intergroup outcomes beyond the United States, and also indicate unique roles for the IWAH bond and concern factors. Cultural differences, limitations, and future directions are discussed.     

Public university students’ preferences for restrictionist or lenient immigration policies

Few attempts have been made to examine the effects of perceived threats that immigrants pose to host society on young people’s preferences for restrictionist or lenient immigration policies. Moreover, the existing literature is scarce on whether such perceived threats mediate the relationship between previously identified demographic antecedents such as gender, race or age and preferences for certain immigration policies. To address these gaps, this study examines direct and mediating effects of perceived economic, cultural and security threats on preferences for lenient or restrictionist immigration policies. Using a sample college students' survey data (N = 604) on their attitudes towards immigration, our findings of logistic regression analysis show that the three dimensions of perceived threat were all positively associated with preference for hardline immigration policies. In addition, regardless of inclusion of perceived threats in the logistic model, being Republican was a consistent positive predictor of the hardline immigration agenda, while female was a consistent negative one. Finally, the results of path analysis of Structural Equation Modeling indicate mediating effects of cultural threat on the relationships between political affiliation (Republican and Independent) and race (Latino) and support for hardline immigration policies.     

Spheres of citizenship: The role of distinct perceived threats in legitimizing allocation of political, welfare and cultural rights in Israel

The question of who is excluded from full citizenship stands at the heart of the political and scholarly debate. This issue is highly relevant considering the gap between those whose substantive citizenship is taken for granted and various “strangers”. This paper addresses the issue by exploring the motivations that shape patterns of exclusion from full citizenship. The aim is to understand the attitudes of the dominant group regarding allocation of different kinds of rights to minorities under the impact of intergroup hostility and threat perception. Looking at dominant group perceptions makes it possible to explore the role of economic, symbolic and security threat perceptions as antecedents of exclusionist attitudes towards welfare, cultural and political rights for three dissimilar minorities in Israel: Palestinian citizens of Israel, non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union and ultra-Orthodox Jews. Analysis has indicated that regardless of the dissimilarity between the three minority groups there is a clear pattern of hierarchy of attitudes toward rights allocation. However, only the symbolic threat plays an identical role in shaping these attitudes toward the three groups. These findings emphasize the significance of the cultural dimension of citizenship.     

Does negative media representation shape adolescents' discrimination towards Syrian refugees through threat perception and prejudice?

The current study examined whether adolescents' desired social distance from Syrian refugees is shaped by negative media representation about refugees through threat perception and prejudice. Participants consisted of 587 Turkish high (M_age = 14.81, SD = 0.97) and middle school (M_age = 12.19, SD = 1.01) students. Negative media perception was measured in different contexts: TV programs, news, newspapers/magazines, and social media. Adolescents' desired social distance from Syrian refugees was measured through their preference for how socially distant from a Syrian peer in their neighborhood and school they wished to be. Perceived threat and prejudice were examined as possible mediators of the relationship between media exposure and discrimination. Results showed that more negative media representation was related to perceived threat and greater prejudice, which led to greater desired social distance from refugees. Findings provide important implications about how media can be an important tool in shaping intergroup attitudes towards Syrian refugees during adolescence.     

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.     

When do people accept cultural diversity?: Affect as determinant

Two experiments examined the influence of affect on the acceptance of cultural diversity. In Experiment 1, the salience of affective reactions towards Turkish immigrants was manipulated by asking German participants to think about their negative feelings towards Turks in general or towards a subgroup of Turks. It was found that the salience of negative affective reactions led to a decreased acceptance when affective reactions were generalized to the whole group, but not when they were attributed to a subgroup. Experiment 2 investigated the moderating role of perceived homogeneity with regards to the impact of affective reactions attributed to a subgroup of Muslim immigrants in Germany. As predicted, the salience of a negative aspect of a subgroup strengthened self-reported and implicitly measured negative attitudes when the perceived homogeneity of the immigrant group was high, but not when it was low.     

Threat and Prejudice against Syrian Refugees in Canada: Assessing the Moderating Effects of Multiculturalism,Interculturalism, and Assimilation

A survey experiment (N = 529) was used to test the moderating effects of intergroup ideologies (assimilation, multiculturalism, and interculturalism) on the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and expressions of prejudice under conditions of intergroup threat. Moderated multiple regression analyses suggest a multicultural integration frame moderates the relationship between SDO and feelings toward Syrian refugees in Canada when the target outgroup is portrayed as a source of intergroup threat. This moderating effect was unique to the relationship between SDO and feelings toward Syrians and did not extend to other correlates of prejudice including beliefs in zero-sum group competition or a multicultural ideology, nor did it extend to more general measures of prejudice (i.e., attitudes toward immigrants or evaluations of intercultural contact). Findings suggest the prejudice-reducing effects of a multicultural integration narrative affect group evaluations and functions by targeting beliefs in social dominance, rather than zero-sum group competition or ideological support for cultural diversity. The results offer insights into the prejudice-reducing potential for two alternative integration narratives that are institutionalized in Canada.     

Living with others: Mapping the routes to acculturation in a multicultural society

This study investigated attitudes towards multiculturalism and their influence on acculturation strategies of both Anglo-Australians and Asian immigrants residing in the city of Brisbane, the third largest city of Australia. Data was obtained via a survey administered to 133 Asian immigrants and 108 Anglo-Australians, a total of 241 respondents. Results revealed discordance in attitudes towards multiculturalism between Asians and Australians, with Asians rating it higher as a benefit and lower as a threat as compared to Australians. While higher ratings on multiculturalism as a threat tended to be positively related to separation strategy, this linear association did not hold true for the minority group (Asians). For Asian respondents, those who perceived a moderate threat in multiculturalism were more likely supporters for separation. Our findings supported the assumption that multiculturalism is viewed as differentially beneficial for minority and majority groups.     

The role of positive and negative contact of migrants with native people in affecting their future interactions. Evidence from Italy and Turkey

This research investigates the relationship between different valence contact of migrants with native people and their motivation to avoid further interactions with the majority group, as a preventing factor of adaptation by either side. Specifically, the joint and differential effects of positive and negative contact of migrants with natives on outgroup avoidance were addressed by examining also the mediating role of affective variables such as stereotype threat, symbolic threat and anxiety. Hypotheses were tested on two samples of African immigrants in Italy and Syrian immigrants in Turkey. Positive contact was not associated with outgroup avoidance and anxiety among African respondents who reported higher negative contact with natives. This evidence was not found among Syrian immigrants. In both samples, however, the moderating role of negative contact was found on stereotype threat. Across the two samples, anxiety was the strongest mediator of the relationship between negative contact of migrants on their avoidance of the majority group. Overall, the evidence we gathered furthers knowledge of the impact of negative intergroup contact on preventing migrant social integration.     

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.