Ricerc@Sapienza

Why do people have anti-immigrant attitudes? We proposed that individuals' need for cognitive closure, an epistemic motivation associated with an aversion to change in established environments, is predictive of a dislike of immigrants through the mechanism of increased binding to superordinate cultural systems (e.g., cultural institutions, traditions, groups). In five studies, we will collect in both Italy (Studies 1, 3, and 5) and the United States (Studies 2 and 4), we expect that there are effects of need for cognitive closure on anti-immigrant attitudes, as well as indirect effects through cultural binding. The relationship will be controlled for participants' political orientation in all studies. The mediation hypothesis will be tested through either dispositional measure (Studies 1-4) or an experimental induction (Study 5) of need for cognitive closure. General Attitudes towards immigrants (implicit and explicit) and attitudes towards immigrants' economic impact will be assessed.