Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T13:38:09.116Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Easing the Heavy Hand: Humanitarian Concern, Empathy, and Opinion on Immigration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2013

Benjamin J. Newman ,
Todd K. Hartman ,
Patrick L. Lown  and
Stanley Feldman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The bulk of the public opinion research on immigration identifies the factors leading to opposition to immigration. In contrast, we focus on a previously unexplored factor yielding support for immigration: humanitarianism. Relying upon secondary analysis of national public opinion survey data and an original survey experiment, we demonstrate that humanitarian concern significantly decreases support for restrictive immigration policy. Results from our survey experiment demonstrate that in an information environment evoking both threat and countervailing humanitarian concern regarding immigration, the latter can and does override the former. Last, our results point to the importance of individual differences in empathy in moderating the effects of both threat and humanitarian inducements.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 583 - 607
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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

*

Newman: Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut; Hartman: Department of Government & Justice Studies, Appalachian State University; Lown and Feldman: Department of Political Science, Stony Brook University (emails benj.newman@uconn.edu, hartmantk@appstate.edu, patrick.lown@stonybrook.edu, stanley.feldman@stonybrook.edu). An online appendix with supplementary materials is available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0007123413000410.

References

Baron-Cohen, Simon. 2011. The Evolution and Diagnosis of Empathy. Evolutionary Review 2:55–57.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, Simon Wheelwright, Sally. 2004. The Empathy Quotient: An Investigation of Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism, and Normal Sex Differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 34:163–175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Batson, C. Daniel. 1998. Altruism and Prosocial Behavior. Pp. 282–316 in Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th Edition, Volume 2, edited by Daniel T. Gilbert, Susan T. Fiske and Gardner Lindzey. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Batson, C. Daniel, Chang, Johee, Orr, Ryan Rowland, Jennifer. 2002. Empathy, Attitudes, and Action: Can Feeling for a Member of a Stigmatized Group Motivate One to Help the Group? Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin 28:1656–1666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brader, Ted, Valentino, Nicholas A. Suhay, Elizabeth. 2008. What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat. American Journal of Political Science 52:959–978.Google Scholar
Burns, Peter Gimpel, James G.. 2000. Economic Insecurity, Prejudicial Stereotypes, and Public Opinion on Immigration Policy. Political Science Quarterly 1152:201–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Andrea Louise, Wong, Cara Citrin, Jack. 2006. Racial Threat, Partisan Climate, and Direct Democracy: Contextual Effects in Three California Initiatives. Political Behavior 282:129–150.Google Scholar
Chavez, Leo Ralph. 2008. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chong, Dennis Druckman, James N.. 2007. Framing Public Opinion in Competitive Democracies. American Political Science Review 101:637–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack, Reingold, Beth Green, Donald P.. 1990. American Identity and the Politics of Ethnic Change. Journal of Politics 52:1124–1154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack., Reingold, Beth., Walters, Evelyn. Green, Donald P.. 1990. The ‘Official English’ Movement and the Symbolic Politics of Language in the United States. Western Political Quarterly 433:535–559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack., Green, Donald P., Muste, Christopher Wong, Cara. 1997. Public Opinion Toward Immigration Reform: The Role of Economic Motivations. Journal of Politics 59:858–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornelius, Wayne A. Rosenblum, Marc R.. 2005. Immigration and Politics. Annual Review of Political Science 8:99–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancygier, Rafaela Saunders, Elizabeth N.. 2006. A New Electorate? Comparing Preferences and Partisanship between Immigrants and Natives. American Journal of Political Science 50 (4):962–981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinan, Stephan. 2010. Debate on Haitian Refugees Status Begins, Washington Times. Available from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/15/disaster-sets-off-debate-on-haitian-status-in-us/?page=all. Accessed 10 August 2012.Google Scholar
Dixon, Jeffrey C. Rosenbaum, Michael S.. 2004. Nice to Know You? Testing Contact, Cultural, and Group Threat Theories of Anti-Black and Anti-Hispanic Stereotypes. Social Science Quarterly 85:257–280.Google Scholar
Dymond, R. 1949. A Scale for the Measurement of Empathic Ability. Journal of Consulting Psychology 13:127–133.Google Scholar
Espenshade, Thomas J. Calhoun, Charles A.. 1993. An Analysis of Public Opinion Toward Undocumented Immigration. Population Research and Policy Review 123:189–224.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley. 1988. Structure and Consistency in Public Opinion: The Role of Core Beliefs and Values. American Journal of Political Science 31:416–440.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley. 1999. Economic Values and Inequality. Pp. 159–202 in Measures of Political Attitudes, edited by John P. Robinson, Phillip R. Shaver and Lawrence S. Wrightsman. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley Zaller, John. 1992. The Political Culture of Ambivalence: Ideological Responses to the Welfare State. American Journal of Political Science 36:268–307.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley Steenbergen, Marco R.. 2001. The Humanitarian Foundation of Public Support for Social Welfare. American Journal of Political Science 45:658–677.Google Scholar
Fetzer, Joel S. 2000. Public Attitudes Toward Immigration in the United States, France, and Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gentile, Carmen. 2010. Earthquake Leads US to Relax Policy on Haitian Refugees, Time. Available from http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1953379_1953494_1954262,00.html. Accessed 10 August 2012.Google Scholar
Guimond, Serge, De Oliveira, Pierre, Kamiesjki, Rodolphe Sidanius, Jim. 2010. The Trouble with Assimilation: Social Dominance and the Emergence of Hostility Against Immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 34:642–650.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jesn, Hopkins, Daniel J.. 2014. Public Attitudes toward Immigration. Annual Review of Political Science [Vol. 17, forthcoming].Google Scholar
Haubert, Jeannie Fussell, Elizabeth. 2006. Explaining Pro-Immigrant Sentiment in the US: Social Class, Cosmopolitanism, and Perceptions of Immigrants. International Migration Review 40:489–507.Google Scholar
Hetherington, Marc J. Weiler, Jonathan D.. 2009. Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hood, M.V. Morris, Irwin L.. 1997. Amigo o Enemigo? Context, Attitudes, and Anglo Public Opinion toward Immigration. Social Science Quarterly 782:7813–7819.Google Scholar
Hood, M.V. Morris, Irwin L.. 2000. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Racial/Ethnic Context and the Anglo Vote on Proposition 187. Social Science Quarterly 81:194–206.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel J. 2010. Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition. American Political Science Review 104:40–60.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie Sears, David O.. 1995. Opposition to Bilingual Education: Prejudice or the Defense of Realistic Interests? Social Psychology Quarterly 58 (2):133–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, Jones, Jeffrey M. Chard, Richard E.. 2001. Compassionate Politics: Support for Old-Age Programs among the Non-Elderly. Political Psychology 22 (3):443–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto Kinder, D.R.. 1987. News that Matters: Agenda-Setting and Priming in a Television Age. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Tomz, Michael Wittenberg, Jason. 2000. Making the Most of Statistical Analyses: Improving Interpretation and Presentation. American Journal of Political Science 44 (2): 347–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kluegel, James R. Smith, Elliot R.. 1986. Beliefs about Inequality: Americans’ Views of What Is and What Ought to Be. Piscataway, N.J.: Aldine Transaction.Google Scholar
Lipsey, Mark W. 1990. Design Sensitivity: Statistical Power for Experimental Research. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Malka, Ariel, Soto, Christopher J., Cohen, Adam B. Miller, Dale T.. 2011. Religiosity and Social Welfare: Competing Influences of Cultural Conservatism and Prosocial Value Orientation. Journal of Personality 79 (4):763–792.Google Scholar
McCloskey, Herbert Zaller, John. 1984. The American Ethos: Public Attitudes Toward Democracy and Capitalism. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mehrabian, Albert Epstein, Norman. 1972. A Measure of Emotional Empathy. Journal of Personality 40:525–543.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newman, Benjamin J., Hartman, Todd K. Taber, Charles S.. 2012. Foreign Language Exposure, Cultural Threat, and Opposition to Immigration. Political Psychology 33 (5):635–657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nteta, Tatishe M. 2013. United We Stand? African Americans, Self Interest, and Immigration Reform. American Politics Research 41 (1):147–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pagano, Sabrina J. Huo, Yuen J.. 2007. The Role of Moral Emotions in Predicting Support for Political Actions in Post-War Iraq. Political Psychology 28:227–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passel, Jeffrey S. Fix, Michael. 1994. Myths About Immigrants. Foreign Policy 95:151–160.Google Scholar
Peterson, Michael B., Slothuus, Rune, Stubager, Rune Togeby, Lisa. 2010. Deservingness Versus Values in Public Opinion on Welfare: The Automaticity of the Deservingness Heuristic. European Journal of Political Research 50:24–52.Google Scholar
Quillian, Lincoln. 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
Rocha, Rene R. Espino, Rodolfo. 2009. Racial Threat, Residential Segregation, and the Policy Attitudes of Anglos. Political Research Quarterly 62:415–426.Google Scholar
Sides, John Citrin, Jack. 2007. European Opinion about Immigration: The Role of Identities, Interests, and Information. British Journal of Political Science 37:477–504.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul, Hagendoorn, Louk Prior, Marcus. 2004. Predisposing Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities. American Political Science Review 981:35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M. Theriault, Sean M.. 2004. The Structure of Political Argument and the Logic of Issue Framing. Pp. 133–165 in Studies in Public Opinion: Attitudes, Nonattitudes, Measurement Error, and Change, ed. William Saris and Paul Sniderman. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Staub, Ervin. 1989. Individual and Societal (Group) Values in a Motivational Perspective and Their Role in Benevolence and Harmdoing. Pp. 45–61 in Social and Moral Values: Individual and Societal Perspectives, ed. Nancy Eisenberg, Janusz Reykowski, and Ervin Staub. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Steenbergen, Marco R. 1996. Compassion and American Public Opinion: An Analysis of the NES Humanitarianism Scale. NES Pilot Study Report.Google Scholar
Stein, Robert M., Shirley Post, Stephanie Rinden, Allison L.. 2000. Reconciling Context and Contact Effects on Racial Attitudes. Political Research Quarterly 53:285–303.Google Scholar
Stephan, Walter G., Renfro, C. Lausanne, Esses, Victoria M., Stephan, Cookie White Martin, Tim. 2005. The Effects of Feeling Threatened on Attitudes toward Immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 29:1–19.Google Scholar
Stephan, Walter G., Ybarra, Oscar Bachman, Guy. 1999. Prejudice Toward Immigrants. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2911:2221–2237.Google Scholar
Stotland, E. 1969. Exploratory Investigations of Empathy. Pp. 271–314 in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology Volume 4, edited by L. Berkowitz. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Stanford E. 1965. Eye Movements in Reading: Facts and Fallacies. American Educational Research Journal 4:187–202.Google Scholar
Thomsen, Lotte, Green, Eva G.T. Sidanius, Jim. 2008. We Will Hunt Them Down: How Social Dominance and Right-Wing Authoritarianism Fuel Ethnic Persecution of Immigrants in Fundamentally Different Ways. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44:1455–1464.Google Scholar
Tolbert, Caroline J. Grummel, John A.. 2003. Revisiting the Racial Threat Hypothesis: White Voter Support for California's Proposition 209. State Politics & Policy Quarterly 3:183–202.Google Scholar
Van Laar, Colette, Levin, Shana, Sinclair, Stacey Sidanius, Jim. 2005. The Effect of University Roommate Contact on Ethnic Attitudes and Behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 41:329–345.Google Scholar
Wakabayashi, Akio, Baron-Cohen, Simon, Wheelwright, Sally, Goldenfeld, Nigel, Delaney, Joe, Fine, Debra, Smith, Richard Weil, Leonora. 2006. Development of Short Forms of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-Short) and the Systemizing Quotient (SQ-Short). Personality and Individual Differences 41:929–940.Google Scholar
Waldman, Paul, Ventura, Elbert, Savillo, Robert, Lin, Susan, Lewis, Greg. 2008. Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News. Media Matters Action Network Report. http://mediamattersaction.org/reports/fearandloathing/online_version. Accessed: August 28, 2012.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 103.9 KB
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Data

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 333 Bytes
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 6.9 MB
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Data

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 204 Bytes
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 2.1 MB
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Data

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 225 Bytes
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 359.5 KB
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Data

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 417 Bytes
Supplementary material: File

Newman et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Newman et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 145.3 KB