Skye Herrick and Dr. Joshua Gubler, Political Science
In 2004, immigration issues surged to the center of national attention and 10% of Americans rated immigration as the number one issue facing America1. Since 2004, the economic downturn and healthcare reform have increased the discussion of immigration and its economic impact on average Americans and the economy as a whole. Hypotheses for opposition to immigration have included economic2, political, racial, and psychological cues3. None however, have focused on the effects of fear or hopelessness on a population’s mobilization against an outgroup. In addition to the lack of experimental research on the causes of opposition to illegal immigration, no experiment in political science has ever attempted to manipulate hopelessness and measure its effects on a subject. This research not only provided new information in the discussion of the effects of fear and hopelessness, but also began the process of ethically measuring the effects of fearlessness in an experimental environment.
The purpose of this project was to analyze the effect of fear and hopelessness on an individual’s willingness to engage in self-sacrificial behavior. The research was conducted using a survey experiment programmed on Qualtrics.com and administered using Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. My hypothesis was that individuals experiencing increased levels of fear and hopelessness with regard to an outgroup are more likely to engage in self-sacrificial behavior in an effort to negatively affect the outgroup. The dependent variable was an individual’s desire to participate in self-sacrificial behavior. The two independent variables were an individual’s level of fear and an individual’s level of hopelessness vis-à-vis an outgroup. Table 1 describes the factorial design of this experiment.
In this experiment, the treatment groups read quotes about the possible effects of illegal immigrants/undocumented workers designed to prime fear and hopelessness. After reading these statements individuals were asked a series of questions designed to understand their trait aggression and level of hopelessness. These questions were derived from Gubler’s group justifying belief index that measure fear, aggression, anger, and anxiety as well as Beck’s Hopelessness Scale which has been used for over 30 years to diagnose potential suicidal individuals4. Beck’s Hopelessness Scale has been modified in this experiment to measure an individual’s hopelessness about illegal immigration rather than their own hopelessness5. Finally, test subjects were asked questions designed to measure their willingness to engage in aggressive sacrificial behavior towards illegal immigrants. These questions were based of measures designed by Findley, Milner, and Nielson6.
Our results showed that fear and hopelessness had a statistically significant affect on an individual’s willingness to engage in aggressive sacrificial behavior when paired with an interacting variable called Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). SDO is “the degree to which individuals desire and support a group-based hierarchy and the domination of ‘inferior’ groups by ‘superior’ groups”7. SDO, along with another measure called Right Wing Authoritarianism, has been shown to accurately predict discrimination and prejudice and was extremely important to this experiment. Our results showed that the fear and hopelessness treatments, when combined with SDO, caused a twenty percent increase in an individual’s willingness to engage in aggressive sacrificial behavior. This was a much larger and more significant impact than either fear or hopelessness had independently. The main results are shown below in Figure 1.
These results are extremely significant within the framework of illegal immigration/undocumented workers and intergroup conflicts around the world. The results of this experiment will help policy makers address individuals or small groups that take extreme measures against out groups. In order for policy makers to limit aggressive sacrificial behavior they must ensure that neither group in an intergroup conflict believes that the outcome is hopeless and that there is no amicable solution. These results also help clarify what type of propaganda from extremist or fringe organizations is likely to induce more aggressive sacrificial behavior and hopefully help prevent those mobilizations. We anticipate that as this experiment is replicated we will discover new ways to address aggressive sacrificial behavior found in intergroup conflicts around the world.
References
- Ted Brader, Nicholas A. Valentino, and Elizabeth Suhay, “What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration?
- Diane Mackie, From Prejudice to Intergroup Emotions: Differentiated Reactions to Social Groups (Psychology Press, 2004).
- Nicholas A. Valentino, Vincent L. Hutchings, and Ismail K. White, “Cues That Matter: How Political Ads Prime Racial Attitudes During Campaigns,” American Political Science Review 96, no. 01 (2002): 75–90, doi:10.1017/S0003055402004240.
- Joshua R. Gubler, “The Micro-Motives of Intergroup Aggression: A Case-Study in Israel,” Ann Arbor: University of Michigan (2011).
- Aaron T. Beck et al., “The Measurement of Pessimism: The Hopelessness Scale,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 42, no. 6 (1974): 861–865, doi:10.1037/h0037562.
- Mike Findley, Helen Milner, and Dan Nielson, “Which Devil in Development? A Large N-Survey and Randomized Field Experiment Comparing Bilateral Aid, Multilateral Assistance, and Government Action in Uganda.,” In Progress (2012).
- Felicia Pratto et al., “Social Dominance Orientation and the Legitimization of Inequality Across Cultures,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 31, no. 3 (May 1, 2000): 369–409, doi:10.1177/0022022100031003005.