Ricerc@Sapienza

The aim of this research is to investigate the increasingly positive attitudes towards weapon ownership in Italy, attitudes that have recently been reflected in a recent relaxation of the regulations of weapon ownership. The rise of these attitudes has accompanied a rise in immigration into Italy, even as the overall crime rate has fallen in recent years. We propose that a fear of immigrants drives the motivation to own deadly weapons, but that not all individuals will be susceptible to this fear. Instead, we propose that individuals who are characterized by an acute or chronic need for cognitive closure (NCC), or the desire for epistemic certainty, will be more likely to approve of weapon ownership in the face of the rising social uncertainty that accompanies the rise in immigration. We will test this hypothesis in eight studies arranged in three blocks. In Block 1 (Studies 1, 2), we will test the basic relationship between NCC and approval of weapon ownership and fear of immigrants; NCC will be both assessed via self-report and be manipulated experimentally. In Block 2 (Studies 3-6), we will test several potential mediators of the association between NCC and approval of weapon ownership. Each mediator reflects different ways in which Italians can position themselves towards Italian culture. We posit that high NCC individuals will identify with powerful ingroups, such as represented by fellow Italians, in part as these ingroups can protect the stability of their knowledge. Consequently, they should be more likely to approve of taking up arms in order to defend their ingroup from an outgroup that is perceived to be dangerous, in our case, immigrants. In Block 3 (Studies 7,8), we will test if these attitudes can be reversed when high NCC individuals are presented with positive information about immigrants: if the fear of immigrants drives the motivation to own weapons, then the motivation should be reduced when this fear is also reduced.