RT Article
T1 Stepping in the shoes of leaders of populist right-wing parties: promoting anti-immigrant views in times of economic prosperity
JF Social psychology
VO 48
IS 1
SP 40
OP 46
A1 Jetten, Jolanda 1970-
A2 Ryan, Rachel
A2 Mols, Frank
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1582257183
AB What narrative is deemed most compelling to justify anti-immigrant sentiments when a country’s economy is not a cause for concern? We predicted that flourishing economies constrain the viability of realistic threat arguments. We found support for this prediction in an experiment in which participants were asked to take on the role of speechwriter for a leader with an anti-immigrant message (N = 75). As predicted, a greater percentage of realistic threat arguments and fewer symbolic threat arguments were generated in a condition in which the economy was expected to decline than when it was expected to grow or a baseline condition. Perhaps more interesting, in the economic growth condition, the percentage realistic entitlements and symbolic threat arguments generated were higher than when the economy was declining. We conclude that threat narratives to provide a legitimizing discourse for anti-immigrant sentiments are tailored to the economic context.
K1 Opposition to immigration
K1 Economic decline
K1 Economic growth
K1 Leadership
K1 Realistic entitlement
DO 10.1027/1864-9335/a000289