Which immigrants are welcome: The role of worldview conflict and immigrants' social status

Abstract

Worldview conflict has been shown to determine prejudice toward members of groups holding opposite views. In two experimental studies, we aimed at generalizing the consequences of worldview conflict to the reception of immigrants by a host population. We hypothesized that members of a host population have a more favorable attitude toward immigrants when they share the same worldviews. In Study 1 (N = 181), we took the example of same-sex marriage and showed that participants rated immigrants who held worldviews congruent with their own more favorably. In Study 2 (N = 467), we found that members of the host population were more favorable to a naturalization request by a high-social-status immigrant when s/he agreed with them concerning the Black Lives Matter movement. However, that worldviews congruency effect was not found for a low-social-status immigrant. Consequences of worldview conflict on the reception of immigrants are discussed.