European Journal of Social Psychology
2019

Human values and ideological beliefs as predictors of attitudes toward immigrants across 20 countries: The country-level moderating role of threat (Article)

Araújo R.D.C.R. , Bobowik M.* , Vilar R. , Liu J.H. , Gil de Zuñiga H. , Kus-Harbord L. , Lebedeva N. , Gouveia V.V.
  • a School of Psychology, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
  • b Department of Social Psychology and Methodology of Behavior Sciences, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastián, Spain
  • c School of Psychology, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
  • d School of Psychology, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
  • e Department of Communication, Media Innovation Lab, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Faculty of Communication and Literature, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile
  • f Institute for International and Social Studies, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia, Centre for Applied Cross-cultural Research, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
  • g Higher School of Economics, Russian National Research University, Moscow, Russian Federation
  • h Department of Psychology, Federal University of Paraiba, Joao Pessoa, Brazil

Abstract

Immigration is a worldwide subject of interest, and studies about attitudes toward immigrants have been frequent due to immigration crises in different locations across the globe. We aimed at understanding individual-level effects of human values and ideological beliefs (Right-Wing Authoritarianism—RWA, and Social Dominance Orientation—SDO) on attitudes toward immigrants, and whether country-level variables (perception of Islamic fundamentalism as a threat, perception of immigrants as a threat, and international migrant stock) moderate these relations. With representative samples from 20 countries (N = 21,362; the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania), and using Multilevel Bayesian regressions, results showed the negative effect of RWA, SDO, and existence values on attitudes toward immigrants, and the positive effects of suprapersonal and interactive values. Cross-level interactions indicated that the effects of RWA, SDO, and suprapersonal and existence values were intensified in countries with societally high levels of perceiving Islamic fundamentalism as a threat. International migrant stock served as a country-level moderator for the effects of SDO and RWA only. When country-level moderators were included simultaneously, Islamic fundamentalism as a threat was the most consistent moderator. Framing theory is offered as a plausible explanation of these results. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Author Keywords

multilevel analysis right wing authoritarianism cross-level interaction human values Islamic fundamentalism Social dominance orientation Attitudes toward immigrants threat

Index Keywords

perception human major clinical study multilevel analysis immigrant Pacific islands authority Western Hemisphere social dominance theoretical study Europe Article wing human experiment Asia
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85075220628&doi=10.1002%2fejsp.2635&partnerID=40&md5=6d286ebb79c081397c410dc46cd30659
DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2635
ISSN: 00462772
Original Language: English