Demographic and ideological correlates of negative attitudes towards asylum seekers: A meta‐analytic review

Abstract

Objective: A global increase in forced displacement has led to rapid increases in the number of people seeking asylum. Negative attitudes toward these people are pervasive and the literature attempting to understand the prevalence and impact of these attitudes is growing. This article contains a meta-analysis of the Australian quantitative research in this field. Method: We combined effect sizes from published and unpublished Australian data. The primary outcomes were effect size estimates for the correlations between reported attitudes towards asylum seekers and a range of demographic factors (age, gender, education, religious affiliation, political orientation, national identification) and ideological variables (right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, social justice principles). Results: We identified 34 suitable studies (N participants = 5,994). Demographic factors of gender, education, religious affiliation, political orientation, and national identification were related to attitudes. More specifically, being male, having less education, being more politically conservative, and higher in national identification were associated with more negative attitudes (rs = .08, -.18, .24, .23, and .15, respectively; ps < .01). Increases in right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, and decreases in macrojustice principles were also associated with more negative attitudes (rs = .49, .56, and -.28, respectively; ps < .05). Conclusion: Most demographic factors were weakly or moderately related to attitudes. Ideological variables were stronger correlates, with right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientations correlating the most strongly. Significant amounts of heterogeneity for most variables suggest that more research is needed to explore interactions between these variables, and to identify relevant moderators of these relationships.

Classical and Modern Prejudice toward Asylum Seekers: The Mediating Role of Intergroup Anxiety in a Sample of Italians

“…In a recent study, Anderson (2018) found that national identification was strongly associated with conditional prejudice, r = 0.42, p < 0.001, rather than classical prejudice, r = 0.19, p < 0.05, against asylum seekers. A recent literature review suggested that being high in national identification is related to harbouring negative attitudes toward asylum seekers (Anderson and Ferguson 2018). Similar results emerged in another study, where high levels of national identity were more strongly related to negative attitudes than personality-based attitudes, such as self-esteem, toward asylum seekers (Pedersen et al 2005).…”

“…Furthermore, national identification was indirectly related to the outcome variable through intergroup anxiety. Anxiety about interacting with asylum seekers has been found to predict fewer positive attitudes toward them (Anderson 2018;Anderson and Ferguson 2018;Visintin et al 2017). This result can be explained by the context in which the present study measured intergroup anxiety.…”

“…This means that people perceive immigration as a bad condition for the national interest. Previous studies have also shown that the Australian media and federal government have collectively framed asylum seekers as the "other", whose entry into the country poses a threat to national identity (Anderson and Ferguson 2018;Cowling et al 2019). By emphasizing differences rather than commonalities, people may be more willing to endorse the exclusionary policies that safeguard the values, norms, and beliefs of many Australians (Mckay et al 2012).…”

The moderating role of socially desirable responding in implicit–explicit attitudes toward asylum seekers

“…The primary concern for the findings presented in this paper pertain to the composition of the sample; the data were provided by a relatively young student sample which is typically known to have more progressive social attitudes that the wider population. A recent meta‐analysis has shown that the relationship between demographic variables and negative attitudes toward asylum seekers is not moderated by student status (Anderson & Ferguson, ), thus this should be of little concern to the interpretation of these results. Regardless, these sampling factors should be considered when interpreting and generalising these findings.…”

“…Recently, there have been rapid increases in the prevalence of asylum seekers; the end of 2015 reported over 65 million reported cases of displaced individuals (the highest figure in recorded history, including both world wars; Edwards, ). This vast and global increase has resulted in tumultuous social attitudes toward this group ranging from compassionate to hostile (for a recent review, see Anderson & Ferguson, ). In order to produce and evaluate prejudice‐based interventions, researchers have been establishing correlates and predictors of explicit (Hartley & Pedersen, ; Pedersen, Attwell, & Heveli, ) and implicit (Anderson, ; Anderson & Cheers, ) attitudes toward asylum seekers.…”