The Effect of Immigrant Integration Policies on Public Immigration Attitudes: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in the United Kingdom

Drawing on intergroup threat theory, this article argues that immigrant integration policies can improve public attitudes toward immigrants and, particularly, toward refugees and asylum-seekers. Examining evidence from an original survey experiment conducted in the United Kingdom, I find that support for admitting asylum-seekers increases when respondents are made aware that prospective asylum-seekers will be required to partake in language and civic-education courses. This effect is particularly strong among respondents who were more likely to perceive asylum-seekers as a symbolic threat (i.e., conservatives). Similarly, support for admitting asylum-seekers increases when respondents are told that future asylum-seekers will only have limited access to welfare. This effect is stronger among respondents who were more likely to view asylum-seekers as a material threat (i.e., conservatives and individuals with low socioeconomic status). These findings have important implications for the literatures on immigrant integration policies, intergroup threat theory, and public immigration attitudes generally. Importantly, the results reported in this article illustrate the significance of structural determinants for the study of immigration attitudes and demonstrate the importance of disaggregating immigrant integration policies when evaluating their effects.

Sources of prejudice among police cadets toward foreigners: A test of intergroup threat theory

Literature in policing has mostly overlooked the antecedents of prejudice, especially those who choose a police career. Such a choice is important given the results of prejudice that might cause police misconduct toward regular migrants, irregular migrants, and refugees. This study aims to examine the factors that explain prejudice among police cadets toward other ethnic groups. This study’s data come from a survey of 725 police cadets in three police vocational schools in Turkey. We employed structural equation modeling to examine the antecedents of prejudice toward foreigners within the framework of intergroup threat theory. More specifically, in this study, we included factors such as anomie, authoritarianism, and nationalism and participants’ symbolic and realistic threat perceptions in shaping prejudice toward foreigners. The findings suggest that police cadets’ realistic threat perception was the most salient antecedent of prejudice toward foreigners.

News About Terrorism and Attitudes Toward Countries: The Role of Mortality Salience and Intergroup Threat

Background. Media reports on armed fights or terror attacks introduce reminders of death into people’s daily lives. When people feel non-specific threats (mortality salience) or specific threats (intergroup threats), they may demonstrate unfavorable attitudes toward national outgroups. The issue is mostly analyzed today in line with Terror Management Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory. Objective. To examine such threats in the Russian context, and the impact of mortality salience (MS) on attitudes toward national outgroups that induced different levels of perceived intergroup threat. Design. In two studies, participants watched films and completed questionnaires about social distance, social thermometer, and trust toward “more or less threatening” countries. In Study 1, 120 Russian students were assigned to six groups via experimental design: 3 (MS: terrorist attacks in Europe, terrorist attacks in Russia, or a control group watching a video about dental treatment) x 2 (country: Ukraine and Belarus). In Study 2, 122 participants were similarly divided into six groups, evaluating attitudes toward the USA and China. Results. Study 1 showed that MS mostly increased unfavorable attitudes toward a country perceived as more threatening (Ukraine) than toward one perceived as less threatening (Belarus). Study 2 indicated the same effect on attitudes toward both more (the USA) and less (China) threatening outgroups. Conclusion. The results identified contradictory tendencies in MS effect, in line with Terror Management Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory. The findings could be used in improving relationships from an international perspective.

Contact, Threat, and Prejudice: A Test of Intergroup Threat Theory Across Three Samples and Multiple Measures of Prejudice

Across three studies we applied predictions from Intergroup Contact Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory to an examination of the role of contact and threats in predicting prejudice toward three outgroups. Reactions to African Americans (n = 227), Hispanic Americans (n = 155), and gay men (n = 217), largely supported predictions. Positive contact experiences consistently related to more favorable evaluations and reduced perceptions of threats. Each study largely supported ITT’s proposition that threats indirectly influence the contact-prejudice relationship, with the most consistent findings found for negative contact. We found little support for relationships between contact, threats, and implicit preferences or for positive-negative asymmetry effects.

Translating Ideology: An Intergroup Mediation Perspective

Ideology is an important component of text production and reception, and therefore of translation. In the paper, we address the translation of ideology through the prism of the intergroup threat theory. The resulting intergroup mediation perspective is a practical framework aimed at helping translators to evaluate whether an ideological recontextualisation may be desirable when dealing with divergence in ideological contexts between the author, the source text readership and the target text audience. The framework includes ideology shifts analysis in terms of the roles ideology can play in a text: it can constitute a part of the message (foreground) or belong to the background. Although applicable rather generally, the framework is derived from an example-based study of news translation. The study focuses on translation between French, English and German using examples form online versions of major European news media, such as the French Le Monde and Le Figaro , the German Zeit Online and Die Welt , and the British The Independent , The Telegraph and Guardian . The paper allows for a better understanding of ideology-related problems in translation, helps identify essential factors influencing translator’s choices and could be used as a guidance in translation practice. Also, considering the formal character of the framework, it could eventually serve as a basis for handling ideology-related issues in machine translation in the news industry.

Indirect Effects of Threat on the Contact–Prejudice Relationship

This meta-analysis examines propositions derived from Intergroup Threat Theory (ITT; Stephan, Ybarra, & Morrison, 2009 ) regarding the role of symbolic and realistic threats on the relationship between contact and prejudice. Specifically, analyses examined whether threat has an indirect effect on the contact–prejudice relationship (aka mediation). Thirty-nine papers comprising 54 samples and over 25,000 participants provided 347 effects for analysis. Supporting ITT predictions, results clearly demonstrated the presence of an indirect effect. Tests of several moderators, including type of contact measure, type of threat, dimension of prejudice, and target of bias suggest that indirect effects are largely consistent across each domain of comparison. Findings are consistent with ITT’s propositions that contact influences threat and feelings of threat lead to prejudice.

Testing intergroup threat theory: Realistic and symbolic threats, religiosity and gender as predictors of prejudice

The complex phenomenon of prejudice has been the focus of interest among social psychologists since the mid-20th century. The Intergroup Threat Theory (ITT) is one of the most efficient theoretical frameworks to identify the triggers of prejudice. In this study, using experimental design, we examined the effects of symbolic and realistic threats on prejudice that was measured by means of a modified social distance scale. The study participants were 611 undergraduate students from the country of Georgia. In addition to providing further support for ITT, the study showed that the level of religiosity moderated the effects between both types of threats and prejudice, although it had different indications for realistic and symbolic threats, while gender interacted only with symbolic threat. Implications of the findings are discussed.