Social Psychology Commons^™

Easing The Heavy Hand: Humanitarian Concern, Empathy, And Opinion On Immigration, Benjamin J. Newman, Todd K. Hartman, Patrick L. Lown, Stanley Feldman

Todd K. Hartman

The bulk of the opinion research on immigration identifies the factors leading to opposition to immigration among the American public. In contrast, we identify a key factor and condition under which citizens embrace more permissive and supportive positions on immigration. Past research indicates that humanitarianism is a core value orientation promoting support—albeit limited—for social welfare policy. Extending this research into another highly salient policy domain—immigration—we find that humanitarian concern serves as a significant source of support for permissive positions on government immigration policy. Relying upon secondary analysis of national survey data and an original survey experiment, we demonstrate that humanitarian …

Decoding Prejudice Toward Hispanics: Group Cues And Public Reactions To Threatening Immigrant Behavior, Todd K. Hartman, Benjamin J. Newman, C. Scott Bell

Todd K. Hartman

Consistent with theories of modern racism, we argue that white, non-Hispanic Americans have adopted a “coded,” race-neutral means of expressing prejudice toward Hispanic immigrants by citing specific behaviors that are deemed inappropriate—either because they are illegal or threatening in an economic or cultural manner. We present data from a series of nationally representative, survey-embedded experiments to tease out the distinct role that anti-Hispanic prejudice plays in shaping public opinion on immigration. Our results show that white Americans take significantly greater offense to transgressions such as being in the country illegally, “working under the table,” and rejecting symbols of American identity, …

Social Dominance And The Cultural Politics Of Immigration, Benjamin J. Newman, Todd K. Hartman, Charles S. Taber

Todd K. Hartman

We argue that conflict over immigration largely concerns who bears the burden of cultural transaction costs, which we define as the costs associated with overcoming cultural barriers (e.g., language) to social exchange. Our framework suggests that the ability of native-born citizens to push cultural transaction costs onto immigrant outgroups serves as an important expression of social dominance. In two novel studies, we demonstrate that social dominance motives condition emotional responses to encountering cultural transaction costs, shape engagement in cultural accommodation behavior toward immigrants, and affect immigration attitudes and policy preferences.

[Impact Factor: 1.614 (2011); Rank: 12 of 148 (Political Science); …

Socially-Mediated Internet Surveys (Smis): Recruiting Participants For Online Experiments, Erin C. Cassese, Leonie Huddy, Todd K. Hartman, Lilliana Mason, Christopher R. Weber

Todd K. Hartman

Socially-Mediated Internet Surveys (SMIS) is a new method to obtain web-based, adult samples for experimental political science research. SMIS targets central figures in online social networks to help recruit participants, who visit their websites. We present data from six samples collected using the SMIS method and compare them to those gathered by other sampling approaches such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. While not representative of the general adult population, our SMIS samples are significantly more diverse than undergraduate convenience samples, not just demographically but also politically. Moreover, we also discuss how the SMIS approach can be used to target special subpopulations …

Foreign Language Exposure, Cultural Threat, And Opposition To Immigration, Benjamin J. Newman, Todd K. Hartman, Charles S. Taber

Todd K. Hartman

In the present article, we extend the notion of cultural threat posed by immigrants beyond its current conceptualization as symbolic, collective-level threats to American culture and identity. Instead, we argue that routine encounters with non-English-speaking immigrants cause many individuals to feel threatened because of real barriers to interpersonal communication and exchange. We draw upon survey and experimental data to demonstrate that local contact with immigrants who speak little to no English, as well as incidental exposure to the Spanish language, heighten feelings of cultural threat, which increases anti-immigrant sentiment and policy preferences.

[Impact Factor: 1.614 (2011); Rank: 12 of 148 …

Motivated Reasoning, Political Sophistication, And Associations Between President Obama And Islam, Todd K. Hartman, Adam J. Newmark

Todd K. Hartman

Recent polls reveal that between 20% and 25% of Americans erroneously indicate that President Obama is a Muslim. In this article, we compare individuals' explicit responses on a survey about religion and politics with reaction time data from an Implicit Association Test (IAT) to investigate whether individuals truly associate Obama with Islam or are motivated reasoners who simply express negativity about the president when given the opportunity. Our results suggest that predispositions such as ideology, partisanship, and race affect how citizens feel about Obama, which in turn motivates them to accept misinformation about the president. We also find that these …

Toll Booths On The Information Superhighway? Policy Metaphors In The Case Of Net Neutrality, Todd K. Hartman

Todd K. Hartman

Scholars have argued for centuries that metaphors are persuasive in politics, yet scant experimental research exists to validate these assertions. Two experiments about the issue of federally regulating the Internet were conducted to test whether metaphors confer a unique persuasive advantage relative to conventional messages. The results of these studies confirm that an apt metaphor can be a powerful tool of persuasion. Moreover, the evidence suggests that metaphor-induced persuasion works particularly well for politically unsophisticated citizens by increasing assessments of message quality. Ultimately, this research concerns how individuals make sense of politics and how policymakers can use what we know …