IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_10306.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Priming Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Implications for Migration Research and Survey Design

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Dylong
  • Paul Setzepfand
  • Silke Uebelmesser

Abstract

Using data from two representative and large-scale population surveys with more than 4000 participants, we investigate the effect of randomized priming interventions on attitudes towards immigrants. We document robust null effects of these interventions under two experimental settings, across two surveys and for a range of specifications. Our results suggest that (economic) attitudes towards immigrants are less sensitive to priming than previous research indicates. We thus provide (i) a reference point for settings in which intentional priming interventions are ineffective, and (ii) an upper bound for unintended priming effects. We argue that researchers should not be overly concerned about confounding priming effects when designing surveys to elicit attitudes towards immigrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Dylong & Paul Setzepfand & Silke Uebelmesser, 2023. "Priming Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Implications for Migration Research and Survey Design," CESifo Working Paper Series 10306, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10306.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Antonio Cabrales & Mathias Dolls & Ruben Durante & Lisa Windsteiger, 2021. "Calamities, Common Interests, Shared Identity: What Shapes Altruism and Reciprocity?," EconPol Working Paper 64, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    2. Barrera, Oscar & Guriev, Sergei & Henry, Emeric & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2020. "Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Felix Chopra & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Andreas Stegmann, 2024. "The Null Result Penalty," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(657), pages 193-219.
    4. Barrera, Oscar & Guriev, Sergei & Henry, Emeric & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2020. "Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    5. Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2023. "Designing Information Provision Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 3-40, March.
    6. Hatton, Timothy J., 2021. "Public opinion on immigration in Europe: Preference and salience," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cristina Cattaneo & Daniela Grieco & Nicola Lacetera & Mario Macis, 2024. "Out-group Penalties in Refugee Assistance: A Survey Experiment," NBER Working Papers 32139, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chopra, Felix & Haaland, Ingar & Roth, Christopher, 2021. "The Demand for Fact Checking," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 563, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    2. Sekou Keita & Thomas Renault & Jérôme Valette, 2024. "The Usual Suspects: Offender Origin, Media Reporting and Natives’ Attitudes Towards Immigration," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(657), pages 322-362.
    3. Assenza, Tiziana & Cardaci, Alberto & Huber, Stefanie, 2024. "Fake News: Susceptibility, Awareness and Solutions," TSE Working Papers 24-1519, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Nov 2024.
    4. Olivier Bargain & Victor Stephane & Jérôme Valette, 2022. "Another brick in the wall. Immigration and electoral preferences: Direct evidence from state ballots," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 1452-1477, November.
    5. Sergei Guriev & Elias Papaioannou, 2022. "The Political Economy of Populism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 753-832, September.
    6. Jordi Brandts & Isabel Busom & Cristina Lopez-Mayan, 2024. "Do voice and social information contribute to changing views about rent control policy?," IREA Working Papers 202405, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Feb 2024.
    7. Martinangeli, Andrea F.M. & Windsteiger, Lisa, 2023. "Immigration vs. poverty: Causal impact on demand for redistribution in a survey experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Dylong, Patrick & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2024. "Biased beliefs about immigration and economic concerns: Evidence from representative experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 453-482.
    9. Cantarella, Michele & Fraccaroli, Nicolò & Volpe, Roberto, 2023. "Does fake news affect voting behaviour?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    10. Robert Gold, 2022. "From a better understanding of the drivers of populism to a new political agenda," Working Papers 4, Forum New Economy.
    11. Schuetz, Jana & Uebelmesser, Silke & Baginski, Ronja & Aprea, Carmela, 2023. "Pension reform preferences in Germany: Does information matter?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Fang, Ximeng & Innocenti, Stefania, 2023. "Increasing the acceptability of carbon taxation: The role of social norms and economic reasoning," INET Oxford Working Papers 2023-25, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    13. Alex Armand & Mattia Fracchia & Pedro C. Vicente, 2024. "Let's call! Using the phone to increase vaccine acceptance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 82-106, January.
    14. Armand, Alex & Augsburg, Britta & Bancalari, Antonella & Kameshwara, Kalyan Kumar, 2022. "Social Proximity and Misinformation: Experimental Evidence from a Mobile Phone-Based Campaign in India," CEPR Discussion Papers 16492, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Jordi Brandts & Isabel Busom & Cristina Lopez-Mayan & Judith Panadés, 2022. "Images Say More Than Just Words: Effectiveness of Visual and Text Communication in Dispelling the Rent–Control Misconception," Working Papers 1322, Barcelona School of Economics.
    16. Ali, Ayesha & Qazi, Ihsan Ayyub, 2023. "Countering misinformation on social media through educational interventions: Evidence from a randomized experiment in Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    17. Assenza, Tiziana, 2021. "The Ability to 'Distill the Truth'," TSE Working Papers 21-1280, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Mar 2022.
    18. Manzoni, Elena & Murard, Elie & Quercia, Simone & Tonini, Sara, 2024. "News, Emotions, and Policy Views on Immigration," IZA Discussion Papers 17017, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Andrea Mattozzi & Samuel Nocito & Francesco Sobbrio, 2022. "Fact-Checking Politicians," CESifo Working Paper Series 10122, CESifo.
    20. Armand, Alex & Augsburg, Britta & Bancalari, Antonella & Kameshwara, Kalyan Kumar, 2024. "Religious proximity and misinformation: Experimental evidence from a mobile phone-based campaign in India," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    attitudes towards immigration; priming; experimental design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10306. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.