Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Social scientists of various stripes have built a comprehensive research program studying public attitudes towards immigrants. Immigration is currently among the most contentious political issues in the United States and Europe—evidenced in part by the election of Donald Trump, the UK’s Brexit vote, and the recent rise of nationalist parties on the continent. Drawing from the moral foundations theory perspective (Haidt 2013) and the entrenching and the persuasion hypotheses (Day, Fiske, Downing, and Trail 2014), we conducted experiments in the United States and United Kingdom. Results confirmed moral foundations significantly influence how political ideology relates to immigration attitudes, but the way it does so is more complex than originally expected. Further information around the amplification hypothesis (Clarkson, Tormala and Rucker 2008) plus work on novel information by Petty, Tormala, Brinol, and Jarvis (2006) is considered. Implications and recommended changes for future research is discussed.