Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-7lfxl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-27T00:00:33.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do the folk actually hold folk-economic beliefs?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2018

Ben M. Tappin ,
Robert Ross  and
Ryan T. McKay
Ben M. Tappin
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom. benmtappin@googlemail.comryan.mckay@rhul.ac.ukhttp://pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/mab-lab/
Robert Ross
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom. benmtappin@googlemail.comryan.mckay@rhul.ac.ukhttp://pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/mab-lab/ Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UU, United Kingdom. robross46@gmail.comhttp://www.bristol.ac.uk/school-of-arts/people/robert-ross/index.html
Ryan T. McKay
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, United Kingdom. benmtappin@googlemail.comryan.mckay@rhul.ac.ukhttp://pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/mab-lab/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Boyer & Petersen (B&P) argue that folk-economic beliefs are widespread – shaped by evolved cognitive systems – and they offer exemplar beliefs to illustrate their thesis. In this commentary, we highlight evidence of substantial variation in one of these exemplars: beliefs about immigration. Contra claims by B&P, we argue that the balance of this evidence suggests the “folk” may actually hold positive beliefs about the economic impact of immigration.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e190
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

An, B. P. (2015) The role of social desirability bias and racial/ethnic composition on the relation between education and attitude toward immigration restrictionism. The Social Science Journal 52:459–67.Google Scholar
Berinsky, A. J. (2018) Telling the truth about believing the lies? Evidence for the limited prevalence of expressive survey responding. The Journal of Politics 80:211–24.Google Scholar
BSA 33, NatCen Social Research. (2015) Big majority believe immigration increases pressure on schools and hospitals [immigration tables]. British Social Attitudes Survey Report No. 33. Available at: http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/media-centre/archived-press-releases/bsa-33-big-majority-believe-immigration-increases-pressure-on-schools-and-hospitals.aspx.Google Scholar
Bullock, J. G., Gerber, A. S., Hill, S. J. & Huber, G. A. (2015) Partisan bias in factual beliefs about politics. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 10:519–78.Google Scholar
Ford, R. & Lymperopoulou, K. (2017) Immigration: How attitudes in the UK compare with Europe. In: British Social Attitudes 34, pp. 1–30. NatCen Social Research. Available at: http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/media/39148/bsa34_immigration_final.pdf.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, J. & Hiscox, M. J. (2007) Educated preferences: Explaining attitudes toward immigration in Europe. International Organization 61:399–442.Google Scholar
Héricourt, J. & Spielvogel, G. (2014) Beliefs, media exposure and policy preferences on immigration: Evidence from Europe. Applied Economics 46:225–39.Google Scholar
Janus, A. L. (2010) The influence of social desirability pressures on expressed immigration attitudes. Social Science Quarterly 91:928–46.Google Scholar
Kahan, D. M. (2016) The politically motivated reasoning paradigm, Part I: What politically motivated reasoning is and how to measure it. In: Emerging trends in social and behavioral sciences, ed. Scott, R. & Kosslyn, S., pp. 1–16. Wiley.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center (2017) Most say immigrants strengthen the country. Pew Research Center Survey Report. Available at: http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/4-race-immigration-and-discrimination/.Google Scholar
Prior, M., Sood, G. & Khanna, K. (2015) You cannot be serious: The impact of accuracy incentives on partisan bias in reports of economic perceptions. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 10:489–518.Google Scholar
Ueffing, P., Rowe, F. & Mulder, C. H. (2015) Differences in attitudes towards immigration between Australia and Germany: The role of immigration policy. Comparative Population Studies 40:437–64.Google Scholar
van der Linden, S. (2016) A conceptual critique of the cultural cognition thesis. Science Communication 38:128–38.Google Scholar