Judith Knausenberger, Jens H. Hellmann, Franziska A. Stanke, Inga Bechler, Lea Sophie C. Haarmann, Marvin Jehn, Gerald Echterhoff
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Migrants who flee their home country for economic (vs. political) reasons often elicit more negative responses in receiving countries. We examined psychological processes underlying this flight-reason bias, focusing on majority residents’ perceptions of migration circumstances and their emotional responses. In three preregistered studies (total N = 1394), participants read texts about an individual refugee (Studies 1 and 2) or groups of refugees (Study 3) who fled because of economic versus political reasons. Overall, participants perceived migration as less forced in the economic-flight reason condition. Economic (vs. political) flight reasons also elicited less willingness to accept refugees. Additional analyses suggest that the flight-reason bias was driven by greater perceived control of refugees over emigration (for perceived forcedness), by lower empathy (for willingness to accept refugees) and by lower perceived pre-migration perils (for both outcomes) in the economic-flight reason conditions. We discuss implications for political and humanitarian issues surrounding refugee immigration and integration.
期刊介绍:
Topics covered include, among others, intergroup relations, group processes, social cognition, attitudes, social influence and persuasion, self and identity, verbal and nonverbal communication, language and thought, affect and emotion, embodied and situated cognition and individual differences of social-psychological relevance. Together with original research articles, the European Journal of Social Psychology"s innovative and inclusive style is reflected in the variety of articles published: Research Article: Original articles that provide a significant contribution to the understanding of social phenomena, up to a maximum of 12,000 words in length.