At the roots of attribution of human rights to migrants

Addressing Adolescents' Prejudice toward Immigrants: The Role of the Classroom Context

According to social learning theory, classrooms are essential socialization contexts for intergroup attitudes, but analyses of contextual factors net of the impact of individual variables affecting prejudice toward immigrants are very limited. This study was conducted on a large sample of Italian adolescents (N = 2904; Mage = 13.70; females = 48.5%; 168 classrooms). It examined the role of classroom contextual factors affecting adolescents' prejudice toward immigrants, relying on the combination of groups' warmth and competence, and their antecedents (i.e., competition and status). Multilevel structural equation analyses revealed that classroom contextual factors (i.e., classroom socio-economic status-SES; classroom open to discussion climate; classroom educational achievements) indirectly affected, at the class level, adolescents' perceived warmth and competence of immigrants through the mediating role of perceived competition (and status) of immigrants. These findings suggest that interventions targeting the classroom context can help to hinder prejudice in adolescence at the class level.

Addressing the effect of concern with COVID-19 threat on prejudice towards immigrants: The sequential mediating role of need for cognitive closure and desire for cultural tightness

The link between threat and anti-immigrant prejudice is well-established. Relatedly, recent research has also shown that situational threats (such as concern with COVID-19 threat) increase anti-immigrant prejudice through the mediating role of desire for cultural tightness. This study aims to further our understanding of the psychological processes underlying the relation between concern with COVID-19 threat and increased negative attitudes towards immigrants by considering the mediational role of an individual epistemic motivation (i.e., the need for cognitive closure). A study was conducted on a large sample of Italian respondents covering all the Italian regions. Findings revealed that high concern with COVID-19 threat led to increased negative attitudes towards immigrants through the sequential mediating role of higher need for cognitive closure, leading in turn to higher desire for cultural tightness. Implications of these findings for a timely contextualized study of anti-immigrant prejudice will be highlighted.