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Predicting And Shifting Attitudes Toward Immigrants And Immigration: Testing A Model And Communication Strategy, Tejaswinhi Srinivas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in intergroup relations has found evidence for economic and moral explanations for negative attitudes toward immigrants and immigration (NATII), and has evaluated various communication strategies for shifting these attitudes. However, no research to date has provided a cultural explanation for NATII, or tested and compared the impact of communication strategies for reducing NATII, in the American context. This study extended prior research in three ways. First, we tested a model that linked various psychosocial factors together (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism, intergroup contact, cultural essentialism, and symbolic threat) to provide a cultural explanation for NATII. Second, we tested the effect of …