Abstract
Based on the Dual Process Model (DPM), this study investigates the relationship among the perception of in-group threats, conservative ideologies (social dominance orientation, SDO, and right-wing authoritarianism, RWA), prejudice, and prosocial behavioural intentions (PBI) towards asylum seekers. A sample of 200 people living in Italy answered an anonymous questionnaire administered using a cross-sectional design. The results partially supported the DPM’s expectations while also showing, however, some unexpected effects with respect to behavioural intentions to help asylum seekers. As predicted by the DPM, the perception of in-group threats, whether realistic or symbolic, directly and indirectly (via SDO and RWA) affected prejudice against asylum seekers. SDO and RWA did not have a direct effect on behavioural intentions but their effects were totally mediated by prejudice. This is a novel finding and suggests that conservative ideologies can positively affect people’s behaviour but only through a decreased attitudinal disposition towards asylum seekers. The theoretical and practical implications derived from the data are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T.
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Akrami, N., Ekehammar, B., & Araya, T. (2000). Classical and modern racial prejudice: A study of attitudes toward immigrants in Sweden. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30(4), 521–532. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0992(200007/08)30:4<521::AID-EJSP5>3.0.CO;2-N.
Altemeyer, B. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
Albarracín, D., Fishbein, M., Johnson, B. T., & Muellerleile, P. A. (2001). Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior as models of condom use: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 127(1), 142–161. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.1.142.
Anderson, J. R. (2017). The prejudice against asylum seekers scale: Presenting the psychometric properties of a new measure of classical and conditional attitudes. Journal of Social Psychology, 16, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2017.1404958.
Anderson, J. R. (2018). Implicit and explicit attitudes towards asylum seekers in Australia: Demographic and ideological correlates. Australian Psychologist, 53(2), 181–191. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12229.
Anderson, J. R., & Cheers, C. (2017). Does the dark triad predict prejudice? The role of machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism in explaining negativity toward asylum seekers. Australian Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12283.
Anderson, J. R., & Ferguson, R. (2018). Demographic and ideological correlates of negative attitudes toward asylum seekers: A meta-analytic review. Australian Journal of Psychology, 70(1), 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12162.
Anderson, J. R., Stuart, A., & Rossen, I. (2015). Not all negative: Macro justice principles predict positive attitudes towards asylum seekers in Australia. Australian Journal of Psychology, 67(4), 207–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12085.
Barretta, P. ed. (2015). Notizie di confine. Terzo rapporto Carta di Roma 2015. http://www.cartadiroma.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rapporto-2015_-cartadiroma.pdf. Accessed 3 April 2016.
Bottura, B., & Mancini, T. (2016). Psychosocial dynamics affecting health and social Care of Forced Migrants: A narrative review. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 12(2), 109–119. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-04-2014-0012.
Canetti, D., Snider, K. L. G., & Pedersen, A. (2016). Threatened or threatening? How ideology shapes asylum seekers’ immigration policy attitudes in Israel and Australia. Journal of Refugee Studies, 29(4), 583–606. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/few012.
Caricati, L., Mancini, T., & Marletta, G. (2017). The role of ingroup threat and conservative ideologies on prejudice against immigrants in two samples of Italian adults. The Journal of Social Psychology, 156(1), 86–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2016.1176552.
Cohrs, J. C., & Stelzl, M. (2010). How ideological attitudes predict host society members’ attitudes toward immigrants: Exploring cross-national differences. Journal of Social Issues, 66(4), 673–694. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2010.01670.x.
Core Team, R. (2015). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing https://www.R-project.org/.
Duckitt, J. (2001). A dual process cognitive-motivational theory of ideology and prejudice. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 22, 41–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(01)80004-6.
Duckitt, J. (2006). Differential effects of right wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation on outgroup attitudes and their mediation by threat from and competitiveness to outgroups. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(5), 684–696. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167205284282.
Duckitt, J., & Sibley, C. G. (2010). Personality, ideology, prejudice, and politics: A dual-process motivational model. Journal of Personality, 78(6), 1861–1894. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00672.x.
Esses, V. M., Dovidio, J. F., Jackson, L. M., & Armstrong, T. L. (2001). The immigration dilemma: The role of perceived group competition, ethnic prejudice and national identity. Journal of Social Issues, 57(3), 389–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00220.
Esses, V. M., Veenvliet, S., Hodson, G., & Mihic, L. (2008). Justice, morality, and the dehumanization of refugees. Social Justice Research, 21(1), 4–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-007-0058-4.
Fishbein, M. (2008). A reasoned action approach to health promotion. Medical Decision Making, 28(6), 834–844. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X08326092.
Goodman, S., & Burke, S. (2010). “Oh you don’t want asylum seekers, oh you’re just racist”: A discursive analysis of discussions about whether it’s racist to oppose asylum seekers. Discourse & Society, 21(3), 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926509360743.
Goodman, S., & Burke, S. (2011). Discursive Deracialization in talk about asylum seeking. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 21, 111–123. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.1065.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118.
Hutchison, P., & Rosenthal, H. E. S. (2011). Prejudice against Muslims: Anxiety as a mediator between intergroup contact and attitudes, perceived group variability and behavioural intentions. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(1), 40–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419871003763312.
IMF Staff (2016). The refugee surge in Europe: Economic challenges. SDN/16/06. http://www.imf.org/en/publications/staff-discussion-notes/issues/2016/12/31/the-refugee-surge-in-europe-economic-challenges-43609. Accessed 5 January 2018.
Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W., & Sulloway, F. J. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339–375. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.339.
Klocker, N. (2004). Community antagonism towards asylum seekers in Port Augusta, South Australia. Australian Geographical Studies, 42(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8470.2004.00239.x.
Louis, W. R., Duck, J. M., Terry, D., Schuller, R., & Lalonde, R. (2007). Why do citizens want to keep refugees out? Threats, fairness and hostile norms in the treatment of asylum seekers. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(1), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.329.
Lynn, N., & Lea, S. (2003). A phantom menace and the new apartheid: The social construction of asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. Discourse & Society, 14(4), 425–452. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926503014004002.
Mancini, T., Bottura, B., & Rossi, M. (2018a). Settlement approaches in the Italian asylum system from the point of view of professionals. Analyses of social issues and public policy In revision.
Mancini, T., Caricati, L., & Marletta, G. (2018b). Does contact at work extend its influence beyond prejudice? Evidence from healthcare settings. The Journal of Social Psychology, 158(2), 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2017.1319792.
Manganelli, A. M., Bobbio, A., & Canova, L. (2007). A short version of the right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(5), 1223–1234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.03.013.
Matthews, M., Levin, S., & Sidanius, J. (2009). A longitudinal test of the model of political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Political Psychology, 30(6), 921–936. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00733.x.
Moloney, G. (2010). Acknowledging Gerard. Articulating social representations and identity through process and content: the resettlement of refugees in regional Australia. Papers on Social Representations, 19, 15.1–15.16.
Nickerson, A. M., & Louis, W. R. (2008). Nationality versus humanity? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 796–817. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00327.x.
Pearce, J. M., & Stockdale, J. E. (2009). Responses to the asylum issue: A comparison of lay and expert views. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 19, 142–155. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.982.
Pedersen, A., Attwell, J., & Heveli, D. (2005). Prediction of negative attitudes toward Australian asylum seekers: False beliefs, nationalism, and self-esteem. Australian Journal of Psychology, 57(3), 148–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530500125157.
Pedersen, A., Watt, S. E., & Griffiths, B. (2007). Prejudice against asylum seekers and the fear of terrorism: The importance of context. In V. Colic-Peisker & F. Tilbury (Eds.), Settling in Australia: The social inclusion of refugees (pp. 38-55). Perth, Western Australia: Murdoch University: Centre for Social and Community Research.
Pehrson, S., Brown, R., & Zagefka, H. (2009). When does national identification lead to the rejection of immigrants? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence for the role of essentialist in-group definitions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466608X288827.
Perry, R., Paradies, Y., & Pedersen, A. (2015). Religious ambivalence: Suppression of pro-social attitudes toward asylum seekers by right-wing authoritarianism. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 25, 230–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2014.921473.
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L., & Malle, B. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 741–763. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.4.741.
Pratto, F., Çidam, A., Stewart, A. L., Zeineddine, F. B., Aranda, M., Aiello, A., et al. (2013). Social dominance in context and in individuals contextual moderation of robust effects of social dominance orientation in 15 languages and 20 countries. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4(5), 587–599. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550612473663.
Rossi, M., & Mancini, T. (2016). I processi di acculturazione Dei migranti forzati tra comunità ospitanti, comunità etniche e comunità virtuali (acculturation processes of forced migrants within host, ethnic and virtual communities. A review of the literature). Psicologia Sociale, 2, 105–140. https://doi.org/10.1482/84095.
Saunders, B. A., Kelly, E., Cohen, N. P., & Guarino, C. (2016). Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation indirectly predict support for new York City’s stop-&-frisk policy through prejudice. Current Psychology, 35(1), 92–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9364-4.
Schweitzer, R., Perkoulidis, S. A., Krome, S. L., & Ludlow, C. N. (2005). Attitudes towards refugees: The dark side of prejudice in Australia. Australian Journal of Psychology, 57(3), 170–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530500125199.
Stephan, W. G., Ybarra, O., & Rios Morrison, K. (2009). Intergroup threat theory. In T. D. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 43–60). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Stilwell, F. (2003). Refugees in a region: Afghans in young, NSW. Urban Policy and Research, 21, 235–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/0811114032000113635.
Suhnan, A., Pedersen, A., & Hartley, L. K. (2012). Re-examining prejudice against asylum seekers in Australia: The role of people smugglers, the perception of threat, and acceptance of false beliefs. The Australian Community Psychologist, 24, 79–97 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11049.
Sutton, S. (1998). Predicting and explaining intentions and behavior: How well are we doing? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28(15), 1317–1338. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1998.tb01679.x.
Turoy-Smith, K. M., Kane, R., & Pedersen, A. (2013). The willingness of a society to act on behalf of indigenous Australians and refugees: The role of contact, intergroup anxiety, prejudice, and support for legislative change. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(S2), E179–E195. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12017.
UNHCR (2016). Global Trends. Forced displacement in 2016. http://www.unhcr.org/5943e8a34.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2018.
Verkuyten, M. (2004). Emotional reactions to and support for immigrant policies: Attributes responsibilities to categories of asylum seekers. Social Justice Research, 17(3), 293–314 0885-7466/04/09900-0293/0.
Funding
The authors declare that they have no funding source to report.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mancini, T., Bottura, B. & Caricati, L. The Role of Perception of Threats, Conservative Beliefs and Prejudice on Prosocial Behavioural Intention in Favour of Asylum Seekers in a Sample of Italian Adults. Curr Psychol 39, 2252–2261 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9909-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9909-4