What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat
Open accessAbstract
We examine whether and how elite discourse shapes mass opinion and action on immigration policy. One popular but untested suspicion is that reactions to news about the costs of immigration depend upon who the immigrants are.We confirm this suspicion in a nationally representative experiment: news about the costs of immigration boosts white opposition far more when Latino immigrants, rather than European immigrants, are featured. We find these group cues influence opinion and political action by triggering emotions—in particular, anxiety—not simply by changing beliefs about the severity of the immigration problem. A second experiment replicates these findings but also confirms their sensitivity to the stereotypic consistency of group cues and their context. While these results echo recent insights about the power of anxiety, they also suggest the public is susceptible to error and manipulation when group cues trigger anxiety independently of the actual threat posed by the group.
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Emotions such as anxiety, anger, fear, and contempt mediate the relation between some threats and prejudice toward immigrants.
“There is also evidence that emotions such as anxiety, anger, fear, and contempt mediate the relation between some of the threats mentioned above and prejudice toward immigrants (Brader et al. 2008, Gadarian & Albertson 2014, Landmann et al. 2019).”
From Prejudice and Discrimination Toward Immigrants (2021) · cites this paper as Brader et al. 2008
Cites
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A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.7.1.83 · Cited by 9,406 · see citing works
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With Malice toward Some: How People Make Civil Liberties Judgments
Marcus, G. E., Sullivan, J. L., Theiss-Morse, E., & Wood, S. L. (1995) · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139174046 · Cited by 387 · see citing works
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Who Gets a Swiss Passport? A Natural Experiment in Immigrant Discrimination
HAINMUELLER, J., & HANGARTNER, D. (2013) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055412000494 · Cited by 433 · see citing works
Experimental Designs for Identifying Causal Mechanisms
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Information equivalence in survey experiments
Dafoe, A., Zhang, B., & Caughey, D. (2018) · Political Analysis · doi:10.1017/pan.2018.9 · Cited by 356 · see citing works
Different groups, different threats: public attitudes towards immigrants
Hellwig, T., & Sinno, A. (2017) · Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies · doi:10.1080/1369183x.2016.1202749 · Cited by 285 · see citing works
Divine Boundaries: How Religion Shapes Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Immigrants
Leon McDaniel, E., Nooruddin, I., & Faith Shortle, A. (2011) · American Politics Research · doi:10.1177/1532673x10371300 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
Prejudice and Discrimination Toward Immigrants
Esses, V. M. (2021) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-080520-102803 · Cited by 273 · see citing works
Anxiety, Immigration, and the Search for Information
Gadarian, S. K., & Albertson, B. (2014) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12034 · Cited by 231 · see citing works
De Coninck, D. (2020) · Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies · doi:10.1080/1369183x.2019.1694406 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Cheng, Z., & Li, Y. (2024) · Social Science Computer Review · doi:10.1177/08944393231178603 · Cited by 131 · see citing works
“Similarly, Brader et al. (2008) and Hutchings et al. (2006) have found that anxiety can increase threat-relevant information-seeking behavior and learning about politics.”
BackgroundDo National Feelings Influence Public Attitudes towards Immigration?
Jeong, H. O. (2013) · Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies · doi:10.1080/1369183x.2013.815428 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Castillo-de-Mesa, J., Méndez-Domínguez, P., Carbonero-Muñoz, D., & Gómez-Jacinto, L. (2021) · Redes. Revista hispana para el análisis de redes sociales · doi:10.5565/rev/redes.913 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
- Authors
- Brader, T., Valentino, N. A., & Suhay, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Venue
- American Journal of Political Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2008-09-29
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 959-978
- ISSN
- 0092-5853 (ISSN-L)
- 1540-5907
- OpenAlex
- W2130649638
- Cited by
- 1,313
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 91 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 78 · 2023: 81 · 2022: 89 · 2021: 131 · 2020: 160 · 2019: 137 · 2018: 78 · 2017: 78 · 2016: 59 · 2015: 61 · 2014: 53 · 2013: 42 · 2012: 48
- FWCI
- 76.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Journal of Political Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
- Keywords
- immigration policy, Latino immigrants, European immigrants, anxiety, elite discourse, news framing, political action, stereotypes, emotional responses to news
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