Personality and Individual Differences
Volume 132, 2018, Pages 84-89

The role of intra-sexual competition in attitudes towards immigrants (Article)

Antfolk J.* , Johansson L. , Westerlund M. , Marcinkowska U.M. , Santtila P.
  • a Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
  • b Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
  • c Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
  • d Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland
  • e New York University, Shanghai, China

Abstract

We proposed the hypothesis that immigration attitudes (IA) could be partly explained by intra-sexual competition (ISC), as immigration can increase mate competition, negatively affecting mate access for local individuals with low mate value. To test this, we presented participants with masculinized/feminized images of males and females. Each image was paired with a background description. Participants reported whether the depicted person should be permitted residence and whether participants would help the person integrate. We also measured participants’ mate value. Both men and women were more negative towards male than female immigrants. As expected, participants with lower mate value reported more negative IA, providing tentative support for the hypothesized association between ISC and IA. Because the manipulation of masculinity/femininity was only effective for female images, it remains unclear whether attractive (vs. less attractive) male immigrants elicit more negative IA. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Author Keywords

Mate value Anti-immigrant attitudes Outgroup hostility Intra-sexual competition

Index Keywords

male case report female human immigrant clinical article masculinity Article hostility competition femininity immigration adult human experiment
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85047405853&doi=10.1016%2fj.paid.2018.05.029&partnerID=40&md5=b7694fcab33af79c6af5761b2d3b70cf
DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.029
ISSN: 01918869
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English