The objective of this study was to examine if big five personality traits, right-wing authoritarianism, gender and religiousness predict attitudes towards migrants. The influence of being exposed to different forms of newspaper articles on attitudes was also examined, as well as the moderator effect of personality traits, right-wing authoritarianism, religiousness and gender in the relationship between article valence and attitudes towards migrants in adolescents. One hundred and two adolescents, with an average age of 18 years, participated in the research. The research was conducted on two occasions. In the first part, participants completed questionnaires measuring right-wing authoritarianism, personality traits (BFI) and attitudes towards migrants. In the second part, participants were presented with a newspaper article containing positive, negative or neutral content regarding the migrant crisis. Afterwards, the adolescents completed the attitudes questionnaire again. The results show that extraversion is negatively associated with the perception of social and health-economic threat. Agreeableness is negatively associated with the perception of social threat, and openness negatively with the perception of cultural threat. More authoritarian individuals, as well as male adolescents, perceive migrants as a bigger threat. In general, we can conclude that the framing effect in the context of the migrant crisis is confirmed and that religiousness and authoritarianism moderate the relationship between article valence and the perception of cultural threat. © 2018, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar. All rights reserved.

Attitudes towards migrants Adolescents Personality traits Framing effect

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