Easing the Heavy Hand: Humanitarian Concern, Empathy, and Opinion on Immigration

ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Todd K Hartman Ph.D., Assistant Professor (Creator)
Institution
Appalachian State University (ASU )
Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/

Abstract: The bulk of the public opinion research on immigration identi?es the factors leading to opposition to immigration. In contrast, we focus on a previously unexplored factor yielding support for immigration: humanitarianism. Relying upon secondary analysis of national public opinion survey data and an original survey experiment, we demonstrate that humanitarian concern signi?cantly decreases support for restrictive immigration policy. Results from our survey experiment demonstrate that in an information environment evoking both threat and countervailing humanitarian concern regarding immigration, the latter can and does override the former. Last, our results point to the importance of individual differences in empathy in moderating the effects of both threat and humanitarian inducements.

Additional Information

Publication
Todd K. Hartman, Benjamin J. Newman, Patrick L. Lown and Stanley Feldman (2015) "Easing the Heavy Hand: Humanitarian Concern, Empathy, and Opinion on Immigration" British Journals of Political Sciences volume 45 Issue 3 pp. 583-607 [DOI: 10.1017/S0007123413000410] Version of Record Available From (journals.cambridge.org)
Language: English
Date: 2015

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