Development and preliminary validation of the Negative Attitude Toward Immigrants Scale.

Abstract

Two studies describing the development of the Negative Attitude Toward Immigrants Scale (NATIS) are presented. In Study 1, undergraduates (N = 167) responded to a pool of 40 researcher-developed items measuring attitudes toward immigrants and immigration, as well as measures of legal authoritarianism, dogmatism, and Five-Factor Model personality traits. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a single 30-item factor, which was reduced to 12 items when all immigration-themed items were removed. The 12-item NATIS demonstrated good internal consistency and correlated positively with political orientation, legal authoritarianism, dogmatism, and extraversion, and negatively with openness. In Study 2, community members called for jury duty (N = 224) completed the 12-item NATIS as well as the same measures as Study 1 (with the exception of dogmatism). Significant positive correlations were found in Study 2 between NATIS score and conservative political orientation and legal authoritarianism, and significant negative correlations with openness and agreeableness. Participants in Study 2 also read one of three vignettes describing an assault against an unauthorized Mexican immigrant, authorized Mexican immigrant, or Caucasian victim, and provided ratings of perpetrator guilt. NATIS scores were inversely related with perpetrator guilt ratings among participants high in authoritarianism when the hate crime victim was an undocumented immigrant. Future directions for research with the NATIS are discussed.

Development and Psychometric Properties of the Hate-Motivated Behavior Checklist (HMBC)

“…Immigration-related beliefs were measured with the Negative Attitudes Toward Immigrants Scale (NATIS; Varela et al, 2013), a 12-item measure yielding a single summed score (higher scores reflect more negative attitudes; response options: 1 = Completely disagree through 5 = Completely agree). The NATIS has very high internal consistency (α = .93).…”

“…Construct validity is appropriate, as the scale correlates positively with measures of conservative political orientation and legal authoritarianism. Furthermore, predictive validity is demonstrated through prediction of mock juror decision-making in a case involving an immigrant offender (Varela et al, 2013).…”

The surprising politics of anti‐immigrant prejudice: How political conservatism moderates the effect of immigrant race and religion on infrahumanization judgements

“…Political conservatism is a well-established predictor of attitudes towards a number of outgroups. Those who identify as politically conservative (an ideology defined by 'resistance THE SURPRISING POLITICS OF ANTI-IMMIGRANT PREJUDICE 4 to change and [a] tendency to prefer safe, traditional and conventional forms of institution and behaviour'; Wilson, 1973c, p. 4) tend to harbour more negative attitudes towards immigrants (Varela, Gonzalez, Clark, Cramer, & Crosby, 2013), Black people (Lambert &Chasteen, 1997), andMuslims (De Zavala, Cisłak, &Wesołowska, 2010). Furthermore, highly conservative individuals are less likely to show reductions in prejudice when evaluating immigrants who share a social category with them (Prati, Moscatelli, Pratto, & Rubini, 2017).…”

We Are the “Human Family”

“…First, we used a more representative sample of United States adults rather than undergraduate participants. Second, in order to extend our findings and assess the generalizability of our model, we operationalized prejudice as negative attitudes toward immigrants and measured this with the validated Negative Attitudes toward Immigrants Scale (Varela, Gonzalez Jr., Clark, Cramer, & Crosby, 2013). Finally, we used a more psychometrically valid measure of identification with humanity, the IWAH (McFarland et al, 2012), instead of only the single-item measure of self-other overlap from Study 1.…”