Intergroup threat and natives’ racial self-classification and conception of ethnic identity: A survey experiment

Abstract

There is a substantial body of research focusing on natives’ prejudice toward the foreign born and support for restrictive immigration policies. The present study contributes to the literature by shifting the empirical context to a newly emerging immigrant destination in East Asia (South Korea). It also examines two novel outcomes in response to perceived demographic threat: South Korean citizens’ racial self-classification and ethnic conception of national identity. To that end, an original survey experiment was carried out, whereby the randomly assigned treatment group was primed with a threatening forecast about the native population’s numerical decline due to decreasing fertility and rising immigration. Statistical analysis yields significant average treatment effects: the experimentally manipulated subjects exhibit racial boundary contraction by way of describing the Korean phenotype in terms of lighter skin tone. Contrary to expectation, the treatment group is less supportive of common heritage or shared ancestry as a prerequisite for citizenship.