TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of negative and positive information on attitudes towards immigration
AU - Igarashi, Akira
AU - Ono, Yoshikuni
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Masahiko Asano, Yuya Endo, Koji Kagotani, Tomoya Yokoyama, Michael Zilis, and participants in the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, and the 6th Asian Political Methodology Meeting for their helpful comments. This study is part of the project “Research on Political Behavior and Decision Making: Searching for Evidence-based Solutions to Political Challenges in the Economy and Industry” at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. International Migration © 2021 International Organization for Migration.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Existing research on immigration has highlighted the close relationship between the potential threat posed by immigrants and the development of anti-immigrant sentiment among natives. However, immigrants also benefit the host society, and we know little about the effects of perceived benefits on attitudes towards immigration. We explore how exposure to negative and positive information about immigrants shapes people's attitudes towards immigrants through a vignette survey experiment. Our results revealed that respondents’ hostility towards immigrants decreased when exposed to positive information, but their attitudes did not necessarily change when they were exposed to negative information. Interestingly, these results were similarly observed in four major issue domains discussed in existing studies—jobs, financial burden, culture and physical safety. Furthermore, the effects of exposure to positive information were not modified by respondents’ partisanship, race, education or exposure to immigrants. These results suggest that pro-immigrant rhetoric can be effective in changing people's attitudes towards immigration.
AB - Existing research on immigration has highlighted the close relationship between the potential threat posed by immigrants and the development of anti-immigrant sentiment among natives. However, immigrants also benefit the host society, and we know little about the effects of perceived benefits on attitudes towards immigration. We explore how exposure to negative and positive information about immigrants shapes people's attitudes towards immigrants through a vignette survey experiment. Our results revealed that respondents’ hostility towards immigrants decreased when exposed to positive information, but their attitudes did not necessarily change when they were exposed to negative information. Interestingly, these results were similarly observed in four major issue domains discussed in existing studies—jobs, financial burden, culture and physical safety. Furthermore, the effects of exposure to positive information were not modified by respondents’ partisanship, race, education or exposure to immigrants. These results suggest that pro-immigrant rhetoric can be effective in changing people's attitudes towards immigration.
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U2 - 10.1111/imig.12916
DO - 10.1111/imig.12916
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113817293
SN - 0020-7985
VL - 60
SP - 137
EP - 149
JO - International Migration
JF - International Migration
IS - 4
ER -
