Who considers migrants' competent traits important? The role of political ideology

Abstract

Established theories have recognized competence as one of the fundamental dimensions in social judgements on migrants, but who particularly considers competent traits to be important remains unclear. We propose an experimental study with British participants, examining how majority group members' political ideology influences their judgements about the importance of migrants' competence and how migrants' warmth might moderate this relationship. We also test individuals' competitive and dangerous worldviews as potential mediators of this process. Specifically, we propose that, compared to liberals, conservatives are more likely to consider migrants' competence important when a migrant group is stereotypically described as warm and are less likely to consider migrants' competence important when a migrant group is stereotypically described as lacking warmth. We expect the former effect to be mediated by a competitive worldview and the latter effect to be mediated by a dangerous worldview.