The proposed research project aims to investigate how Cultural Tightness-Looseness, or the degree to which social norms and sanctions for deviation are important for a given culture, can facilitate negative attitudes towards immigrants in different geographical areas of Italy. This area of research is of critical importance given that both immigration and anti-immigrant prejudice is on the rise in Italy, and will likely continue to rise in the future. Conceptually, individuals in cultures who experience ecological threat (e.g., natural disasters, pandemics) can react by becoming "tight" that is, by having a preference for rigid social norms, along with strict sanctions for deviating from these norms. However, there are other routes to "tightness"; we propose that individuals characterized by a Need for Closure (NFC; i.e., the desire for epistemic certainty), are also likely to prefer "tight" cultures. We expect that these individuals will prefer "tight" cultures not because they experience a specific external threat, but rather because these cultures can more efficiently effect and disseminate stable, secure knowledge. Regardless of this route, we propose that individuals with a preference for "tight" cultures should be more likely to have negative attitudes towards immigrants, as they represent "outsiders" which are less likely to be perceived to share natives' social norms. We aim investigate the role of Cultural Tightness-Looseness in three ways and across six studies. First, in Study 1, we aim to establish that Cultural Tightness-Looseness is associated with negative attitudes towards immigrants in different geographical areas of Italy (i.e., North, Central, South). Second, in Studies 2-4, we will assess the indirect effect of ecological threat (e.g., COVID-19) on negative attitudes towards immigrants. Third, in Studies 5-6, we will assess the indirect effect of the NFC on negative attitudes towards immigrants through Cultural Tightness-Looseness.
The proposed research is primarily based on two previous lines of research: Jackson et al. (2019), who found that Tightness mediated the effect of ecological threat on generalized prejudice, and Baldner and Pierro (2019), who argued that NFC had an indirect effect on anti-immigrant attitudes through attitudes consistent with traditional Western values. The former research involved participants from many nations, excluding Italy, whereas the latter research consisted of both Italian and American samples.
Although this is valuable research, each of these lines have as of yet unexplored directions which we propose to investigate in the proposed research. First, Jackson et al.¿s (2019) research did not directly address attitudes towards immigrants, an increasingly important topic in Italy and worldwide. Second, Baldner and Pierro' s (2019) research limited their analysis to the consequences of the NFC; although this has been shown to be a powerful predictor, its effects are circumscribed to cases in which the stability of knowledge is salient. Third, although research has independently investigated the NFC and Cultural Tightness-Looseness, research has not yet investigated if, and how, these constructs could be studied together. Fourth, of these works, only Baldner and Pierro (2019) studied the Italian case and there is a need for more research in this culture. This is particularly critical with regards to Cultural Tightness-Looseness; there has not yet been research that has investigated Cultural Tightness-Looseness within Italy. These four innovations will be explored below in more detail.
First, although Jackson et al.' s (2019) conclusions with regard to generalized prejudice are likely relevant for negative attitudes towards immigrants, it is still necessary to explicitly investigate these specific attitudes given the increasing immigrant population in Italy. This line of research can have a much larger impact if it can advise and guide stakeholders and policy makers; in order for this to occur, research should specifically address topics relevant to immigration. Moreover, this line of research is critical in order to ascertain if there are unique aspects of negative attitudes towards immigrants that could be obscured by studying generalized prejudice.
Second, the Baldner and Pierro (2019) research only investigated the role of NFC on negative attitudes towards immigrants; although this research advanced our understanding of prejudice towards immigrants, it remains limited to the perspective of a single theory. In the case of this previous research, it could be argued that negative attitudes towards immigrants reflect immigrant stereotypes that are already present in American and Italian culture and that are particularly attractive to high NFC individuals. However, these attitudes persist even among individuals that do not evidence an NFC. Simply put, the strengths of these two lines of research can be combined in order to create a stronger work.
Third, although this previous research has independently investigated Tightness-Looseness and the NFC, our understanding of both theories can be advanced if we are able to study how these constructs can co-exist in the same model. This is particularly relevant for Tightness-Looseness as it is a relatively more recent construct. Whereas the extant research on this theory has focused on differences between and within different nations, in order to advance this research we must also study connections between other constructs. Moreover, this research also provides an avenue to investigate if Tightness-Looseness can also be a consequence of individual-level variables.
Fourth, although Tightness-Looseness has been studied in Italy, there has not yet been research on the variation of Tightness-Looseness within different Italian geographical areas. they also observed variations within tightness-looseness with regions. For instance, Gelfand et al. (2011) found that Italy, as a whole, had a tightness score (6.8) that was nearly equivalent to the total study average (6.5). Although this research can provide important information about Italian culture, there is a major limitation of these results which must be addressed. Italian data, ostensibly representative of the entire nation, was collected solely in the city of Padua, located in the North of Italy. It is far from clear if these results would generalize across the whole of Italy. Indeed, more recent research (Harrington & Gelfand, 2014) has found variation in tightness-looseness within the United States and it is likely that there exists a similar variability in Italy. These studies will check for this possibility, as well as how intra-national variability is associated with differences in negative attitudes towards immigrants.