Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T19:44:34.845Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When ethnic prejudice is political: an experiment in beliefs and hostility toward immigrant out-groups in Italy

Part of: IPSR-RISP Migration collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2019

Mauro Barisione Open the ORCID record for Mauro Barisione [Opens in a new window]
Mauro Barisione*
Affiliation:
University of Milan, Milan, Italy
*
Corresponding author. Email: mauro.barisione@unimi.it
Get access

Abstract

When the immigration issue has been strongly politicized, prejudice toward minority out-groups can be profoundly imbued with politics, to the point that citizen responses to partisan cues about immigrants tend to operate on the basis of a ‘political sympathy/antipathy bias’. This article demonstrates that there is a direct causal relation between the nature (i.e. contents and sources) of political communication over immigrants and voters' responses. Drawing on an experimental design based on ITANES (Italian National Election Studies) 2018 election survey data, it isolates the effect that the voters' ideology and party alignments, as well as the partisan source of a message, exert on manifestations of ethnic prejudice, operationalized as the refusal to accept a plausibile and counter-stereotypical statement about immigrants. It concludes that even a mere symbolic change in communication by those party actors (i.e. the League) which ‘own’ the issue would suffice to attenuate hostility toward out-groups, to the extent that it results from sustained partisan rhetoric and mobilization.

Keywords

DiscourseimmigrationItalypoliticizationvoting behavior
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 213 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Data Science Research Center (DSRC) and Public Opinion and Media Lab (POMLAB), Università degli Studi di Milano.

References

Adida, CL, Laitin, DD and Valfort, MA (2016) Why Muslim Integration Fails in Christian-Heritage Societies. Harvard: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adorno, TW (1950) The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Albertazzi, D, Giovannini, A and Seddone, A (2018) ‘No regionalism please, we are Leghisti!’. The transformation of the Italian Lega Nord under the leadership of Matteo Salvini. Regional & Federal Studies 28, 645–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allport, GW (1954) The Nature of Prejudice. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Bachelard, G (1949) Le rationalisme appliqué. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Baldassarri, D and Segatti, P (2018) Ancora sinistra-destra?. In Itanes, (ed). Vox Populi: Il voto ad alta voce del 2018. Bologna: Il Mulino, pp. 179–196.Google Scholar
Barisione, M (2016) The partisan gap in leader support and attitude polarization in a campaign environment: the cases of Germany and Italy. International Journal of Public Opinion Research 29, 604–630.Google Scholar
Barisione, M (2018) L'ascesa degli esperimenti di survey: per un uso mirato in sociologia. Sociologia e ricerca sociale 116, 33–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barisione, M and Iyengar, S (2016) Too much an out-group? How nonverbal cues about gender and ethnicity affect candidate support. Journal of Experimental Political Science 3, 140–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barisione, M, Bellucci, P and Vezzoni, C (2018) Vox Populi: Il voto ad alta voce del 2018. Bologna: Il Mulino, pp. 7–16.Google Scholar
Betz, HG (2019) Facets of nativism: a heuristic exploration. Patterns of Prejudice (53), 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blalock, HM (1967) Toward a theory of minority-group relations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Blumer, H (1958) Race prejudice as a sense of group position. Pacific Sociological Review 1, 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobba, G (2019) Social media populism: features and ‘likeability’ of Lega Nord communication on Facebook. European Political Science 18, 11–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boomgaarden, H and Vliegenthart, R (2009) How news content influences anti-immigration attitudes: Germany, 1993–2005. European Journal of Political Research 48, 516–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bos, L and Brants, K (2014) Populist rhetoric in politics and media: a longitudinal study of the Netherlands. European Journal of Communication 29, 703–719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P (1988) Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P (2000) Pascalian meditations. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P (2018) On the State: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1989–1992. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P and Wacquant, L (1992) An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bracciale, R and Martella, A (2017) Define the populist political communication style: the case of Italian political leaders on Twitter. Information, Communication & Society 20, 1310–1329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caricati, L, Mancini, T and Marletta, G (2017) The role of ingroup threat and conservative ideologies on prejudice against immigrants in two samples of Italian adults. The Journal of Social Psychology 157, 86–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castells, M (2009) Communication power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ceccarini, L and Bordignon, F (2017) Referendum on Renzi: The 2016 vote on the Italian constitutional revision. South European Society and Politics 22, 281–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancygier, RM and Laitin, DD (2014) Immigration into Europe: economic discrimination, violence, and public policy. Annual Review of Political Science 17, 43–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, CE and Hobolt, SB (2012) When dimensions collide: the electoral success of issue entrepreneurs. European Union Politics 13, 246–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druckman, JN, Peterson, E and Slothuus, R (2013) How elite partisan polarization affects public opinion formation. American Political Science Review 107, 57–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, M (1964) The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Fussell, E (2014) Warmth of the welcome: Attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the United States. Annual review of sociology 40, 479–498.Google Scholar
Gattinara, PC (2016) The Politics of Migration in Italy: Perspectives on Local Debates and Party Competition. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givens, TE (2007) Immigrant integration in Europe: empirical research. Annual Review of Political Science 10, 67–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grande, E and Hutter, S (2016) Beyond authority transfer: explaining the politicisation of Europe. West European Politics 39, 23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallin, DC and Mancini, P (2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hameleers, M, Bos, L and de Vreese, CH (2017) They did it: the effects of emotionalized blame attribution in populist communication. Communication Research 44, 870–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastorf, AH and Cantril, H (1954) They saw a game; a case study. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 49, 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Itanes (2018) Vox Populi: Il voto ad alta voce del 2018. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Ivaldi, G, Lanzone, ME and Woods, D (2017) Varieties of populism across a left-right spectrum: the case of the Front National, the Northern League, Podemos and Five Star Movement. Swiss Political Science Review 23, 354–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, S and Barisione, M (2015) Non-verbal cues as a test of gender and race bias in politics: the Italian case. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 45, 131–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, S and Kinder, DR (1987) News That Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Iyengar, S and Westwood, SJ (2015) Fear and loathing across party lines: New evidence on group polarization. American Journal of Political Science 59, 690–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jagers, J and Walgrave, S (2007) Populism as political communication style: an empirical study of political parties’ discourse in Belgium. European Journal of Political Research 46, 319–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, DR and Sears, DO (1981) Prejudice and politics: Symbolic racism versus racial threats to the good life. Journal of personality and social psychology 40, 414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesi, H (2015) Populism. Concepts and conditions for its rise in Europe. Comunicazione Politica 16, 175–194.Google Scholar
Kriesi, H and Pappas, TS (2015) European populism in the shadow of the great recession. Colchester: Ecpr Press.Google Scholar
Kriesi, H, Grande, E, Lachat, R, Dolezal, M, Bornschier, S and Frey, T (2008) West European Politics in the Age of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krysan, M (2000) Prejudice, politics, and public opinion: Understanding the sources of racial policy attitudes. Annual Review of Sociology 26, 135–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuklinski, J (2001) Citizens and Politics. Perspectives from Political Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levendusky, M (2009) The Partisan Sort: How Liberals Became Democrats and Conservatives Became Republicans. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lippmann, W (1922) Public Opinion. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.Google Scholar
Matthes, J and Schmuck, D (2017) The effects of anti-immigrant right-wing populist ads on implicit and explicit attitudes: a moderated mediation model. Communication Research 44, 556–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, N, Michelat, G, Tiberj, V and Vitale, T (2017) Le regard des chercheurs: evolution et structure des préjugés. In La lutte contre le racisme, l'antisémitisme et la xénophobie. Paris: La Documentation française, pp. 51–124.Google Scholar
Mazzoleni, G (2003) The media and the growth of neo-populism in contemporary democracies. In Mazzoleni, G, Stewart, J and Horsfield, B (eds), The Media and Neo-Populism: A Contemporary Comparative Analysis. Westport, CT: Praeger, pp. 1–21.Google Scholar
McDermott, R (2011) Internal and external validity. In Druckman, JN, Green, DP, Kuklinski, JH and Lupia, A and Lupia, (eds). Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 27–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milgram, S (1963) Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67, 371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mutz, D (2011) Population-Based Survey Experiments. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Negri, F and Rebessi, E (2018) Was Mattarella worth the trouble? Explaining the failure of the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 48, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padovani, C (2018) Lega Nord and anti-immigrationism: the importance of hegemony critique for social media analysis and protest. International Journal of Communication 12, 27.Google Scholar
Parker, CS (2016) Race and Politics in the Age of Obama. Annual Review of Sociology 42, 217–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passarelli, G and Tuorto, D (2018) La Lega di Salvini. Estrema destra di governo. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, TF (1998) Reactions toward the new minorities of Western Europe. Annual Review of Sociology 24, 77–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, TF and Tropp, LR (2006) A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90, 751.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prior, M (2013) Media and political polarization. Annual Review of Political Science 16, 101–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quillian, L (1995) Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe. American Sociological Review (60), 586–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quillian, L (2006) New approaches to understanding racial prejudice and discrimination. Annual Review of Sociology 32, 299–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schattschneider, E (1960) The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America. Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press.Google Scholar
Schmitt, C (1996) The Concept of the Political. 1932. Trans. George Schwab. Chicago: U of Chicago P.Google Scholar
Schneider, SL (2008) Anti-immigrant attitudes in Europe: out-group size and perceived ethnic threat. European Sociological Review 24, 53–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuman, H, Steeh, C, Bobo, L and Krysan, M (1997) Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations. Harvard: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sidanius, J and Pratto, F (1993) The inevitability of oppression and the dynamics of social dominance. In Sniderman, PM, Tetlock, PE and Carmines, EG (eds). Prejudice, politics, and the American dilemma. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 173–211.Google Scholar
Sniderman, PM, Piazza, T and Harvey, H (1998) Prejudice and politics: an intellectual biography of a research project. In Hurwitz, J and Peffley, M (eds). Perception and Prejudice. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 17–34.Google Scholar
Sniderman, PM, Peri, P, De Figueiredo, Jr RJP and Piazza, T (2000) The Outsider: Prejudice and Politics in Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sniderman, PM, Peri, P, de Figueiredo, Jr RJP and Piazza, T (2002) The Outsider: Prejudice and Politics in Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stephan, WG, Renfro, CL, Esses, VM, Stephan, CW and Martin, T (2005) The effects of feeling threatened on attitudes toward immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 29, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockemer, D and Barisione, M (2017) The ‘new’ discourse of the Front National under Marine Le Pen: a slight change with a big impact. European Journal of Communication 32, 100–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H and Turner, JC (1979) An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In Austin, WG and Worchel, S (eds). The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole, pp. 33–47.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H, Billig, MG, Bundy, RP and Flament, C (1971) Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European journal of social psychology 1, 149–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tesler, M (2012) The spillover of racialization into health care: How President Obama polarized public opinion by racial attitudes and race. American Journal of Political Science 56, 690–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tesler, M (2013) The return of old-fashioned racism to White Americans' partisan preferences in the early Obama era. The Journal of Politics 75, 110–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urso, O (2018) The politicization of immigration in Italy. Who frames the issue, when and how. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica 48, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Brug, W and Van Spanje, J (2009) Immigration, Europe and the ‘new’ cultural dimension. European Journal of Political Research 48, 309–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Brug, W, D'Amato, G, Ruedin, D and Berkhout, J (eds) (2015) The Politicisation of Migration. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Weber, M (1919) Politics as a vocation. In Owen, D and Strong, TB (eds). The Vocation Lectures. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub, pp. 32–94.Google Scholar
Wimmer, A (2012) Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation, and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wirz, DS, Wettstein, M, Schulz, A, Müller, P, Schemer, C, Ernst, N, Esser, F and Wirth, W (2018) The effects of right-wing populist communication on emotions and cognitions toward immigrants. The International Journal of Press/Politics 23, 496–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zelditch, M (2007) The External Validity of Experiments that Test Theories. In Webster, M and Sell, J (eds). Laboratory Experiments in the Social Sciences. Burlington: Academic Press, pp. 517–531.Google Scholar
Zick, A, Pettigrew, TF and Wagner, U (2008) Ethnic prejudice and discrimination in Europe. Journal of Social Issues 64, 233–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar