Blaming immigrants to enhance control: Exploring the control‐bolstering functions of causal attribution, in‐group identification, and hierarchy enhancement

Abstract

Blaming immigrants seems to be in part motivated by the need for control. However, three alternative explanations have been proposed as to why blaming bolsters feelings of control. First, blaming may restore a sense of an orderly world in which negative events can be attributed to a clear cause (causal attribution). Second, blaming others may strengthen in‐group identities thereby facilitating group‐based control (in‐group identification). Finally, blaming low‐status groups may enhance individuals' perceptions of dominance and superior status (hierarchy enhancement). Addressing these arguments, we conducted two survey experiments in the German context. In the first experiment, we examined the control‐bolstering functions of causal attribution and in‐group identification. Participants were primed with an economic crisis threat and then, given the opportunity to either blame out‐groups (immigrants and managers), blame an abstract cause (globalization), or affirm their national identity. In the second experiment, we examine control enhancement in the context of political conflict and status hierarchies. Participants had the opportunity to either express prejudice toward low‐status out‐groups (immigrants and obese people) or indicate their opinion on the polarized issue of representation of the far‐right. Both studies replicate earlier findings showing that anti‐immigrant blaming and prejudice enhances the feelings of control. Neither mere causal attribution nor mere in‐group identity salience produce similar control‐bolstering effects. Instead, findings suggest that intergroup conflict and status differences benefit control the enhancement processes supporting accounts of both group‐based control and social dominance. Findings are discussed with respect to social cohesion and the appeal of populist frames promoting antagonistic, unequal intergroup relations.

Investigating the identification-prejudice link through the lens of national narcissism: The role of defensive group beliefs

“…Despite this, we did find interaction effects between the personal control conditions and national narcissism in its continuous form on conspiracy beliefs about immigrants. This result extends previous literature on individuals' motivations to restore personal control through national narcissism (Cichocka et al, 2018;Marchlewska et al, 2020), and derogating immigrants (Hirsch et al, 2021), by suggesting that grouplevel control might influence intergroup conspiracy beliefs.…”

“…In Study 3, our goal was to investigate whether defensive group beliefs would be more pronounced when national narcissism is salient to compensate for low personal control. Previous findings indicated that low personal control increases defensive identification (Goode et al, 2017), and differentially affects the links between national ingroup positivity and outgroup hostility (Cichocka et al, 2018;Marchlewska, Cichocka, Panayiotou, Castellanos, & Batayneh, 2018), in line with the group-based control model (Fritsche et al, 2011(Fritsche et al, , 2013Hirsch et al, 2021). Furthermore, low personal control has also been reported to increase belief in specific conspiracy theories (Stojanov & Halberstadt, 2020).…”

The effects of racial status threat on White Americans’ support for Donald Trump: Results of five experimental tests

“…One version of this claim suggests that some Americans trusted Donald Trump to look out for their economic interests more than other candidates or the traditional party system in the United States (e.g., Frank, 2016). Other varieties of this argument focus on a relationship between economic threat and ingroup–outgroup dynamics such as scapegoating immigrants (Hirsch et al, 2021; Stephan et al, 2005) or a more general relationship between economic threat and authoritarian attitudes (Feldman & Stenner, 1997; Rickert, 1998). There has been disagreement about how to operationalize distinct threats to group (e.g., racial/ethnic) status versus economic anxiety (Morgan, 2018; Mutz, 2018a).…”

Populism Predicts Sympathy for Attacks Against Asylum Seekers Through National Pride and Moral Justification of Political Violence

“…Billig, 1988). Seen this way, immigrants serve as the horizontal nemesis, against which right-wing populists can build their rhetoric and mobilize their followers (Akkerman et al, 2017; Hirsch et al, 2021; Rothmund et al, 2020). Intergroup differentiation between ordinary people and immigrants leads to exclusionist populist beliefs (Bos et al, 2020; Hameelers & Fawzi, 2020), which may lead to political violence following the divisive rhetoric of right-wing populist leaders.…”