Personal values and the acceptance of immigrants: why national identification matters / Los valores personales y la aceptación de inmigrantes: ¿Por qué es importante la identificación nacional?

Abstract : The study focused on the relations between Italian nationals’ personal values and their expectations towards the way ethnic minorities should acculturate. The main aim was to understand whether nationals’ personal values predict their acculturation preferences towards immigrants, both directly and through national identity. Four hundred and forty-six Italian high school students (Mage = 19.1; SD = 0.57; females = 54.4%) completed a self-administered questionnaire assessing personal values, nationalism, patriotism, acculturation preferences and demographics. An SEM model with bootstrapping estimations was tested. As expected, the results highlighted that personal values predict acculturation preferences towards immigrants in two ways — directly and also through an indirect effect on nationalism — supporting the claim that ingroup and outgroup definitions are closely intertwined. The results also highlighted the need to differentiate between nationalism and patriotism, with the latter having no influence on Italian nationals’ readiness to accept immigrants. Overall, the research demonstrates the relevance of personal values in studying intergroup relations and draws attention to the potential value of communication policies centred on self-transcendence values to improve interethnic relations.