Schahbasi A, Huber S, Fieder M. Factors affecting attitudes toward migrants-An evolutionary approach.
Am J Hum Biol 2021;
33:e23435. [PMID:
32458587 PMCID:
PMC7900986 DOI:
10.1002/ajhb.23435]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2019] [Revised: 04/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To understand migration from an evolutionary perspective, this phenomenon has so far been mainly investigated in animal species. We therefore aim to investigate the potential evolutionary roots of attitudes toward migrants in humans.
METHODS
We used data from the European Social Survey (n = 83 734), analyzing attitudes toward migrants by performing ordinal mixed models.
RESULTS
We found that men have a more restrictive attitude toward migration than women, which increases with age and is stronger with a child in the household. Attitude toward migrants is also more skeptical if migrants have a different ethnicity and are from poorer countries. Increasing education and religiousness are associated with a more positive attitude toward migrants, particularly toward migrants of different ethnicity and from poorer countries.
DISCUSSION
Although migration flows are a hallmark of the human species, previous findings suggest that (pre-)historic migration flows were at times accompanied by conflict and violence, while at the same time, they insured survival by allowing cultural exchange and the avoidance of inbreeding. Accordingly, we assume that contemporary attitudes toward migration are rooted in our evolutionary past. We discuss the respective behavioral patterns from an evolutionary perspective, arguing that both-a negative attitude as well as openness-make sense.
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