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Publication: Can Political Speech Foster Tolerance of Immigrants?
Politicians frequently use political speech to foster hostility toward immigrants, a strategy that shapes political preferences and behaviour and feeds the success of the populist right. We examined whether political speech can foster tolerance of immigrants in the US when it stresses Americans’ commonalities with immigrants; emphasizes inclusiveness as an American norm; and provides information that counters anti-immigrant stereotypes. Using quotes from US politicians in two survey experiments, we find that pro-immigrant speech that stresses inclusive norms or counters negative stereotypes about immigrants leads to more tolerant attitudes (but not behavior) toward immigrants. These effects are small and detectable only in large samples.
Team: Petra Schleiter, Margit Tavits, Dalston Ward
Other Publications
The Centre-Right versus the Radical Right: the Role of Migration Issues and Economic Grievances (with Denis Cohen, Markus Wagner). Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies: 42(2): 366-384.
When Hearts Meet Minds: Complementary Effects of Perspective-Getting and Information on Refugee Inclusion. 2025. Political Science Research & Methods. (with Claire Adida, Adeline Lo, Melina Platas, and Lauren Prather).
Perspective-getting and correcting misconceptions are two common interventions to promote inclusion toward outgroups. However, each strategy has limitations. Empirical work on information corrections yields inconclusive results, and empathy-based interventions may reproduce the biases they are meant to alleviate. We clarify the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy and offer a design to identify the conditions under which they are most effective. Using three studies on refugee inclusion with nearly 15,000 Americans over three years, we find that information and perspective-getting affect different outcomes. Perspective-getting affects warmth, policy preferences, and behavior, while information leads to factual updating only. We show that combining both interventions produces an additive effect on all outcomes, but neither strategy enhances the other. Bundling the strategies helps guard against potential backfire effects of information, however. Our results underscore the promise and limits of information and perspective-getting for promoting inclusion, highlighting the benefits of integrating the two strategies.
Author: Scott Williamson (with Claire Adida, Adeline Lo, Melina Platas, and Lauren Prather)
Family Matters: How Immigrant Histories Can Promote Inclusion. 2021. American Political Science Review. (with Claire Adida, Adeline Lo, Melina Platas, Lauren Prather, and Seth Werfel).
Immigration is a highly polarized issue in the United States, and negative attitudes toward immigrants are common. Yet, almost all Americans are descended from people who originated outside the country, a narrative often evoked by the media and taught in school curricula. Can this narrative increase inclusionary attitudes toward migrants? We draw from scholarship showing that perspective-taking decreases prejudice toward outgroups to investigate whether reminding Americans about their own immigration history increases support for immigrants and immigration. We propose that priming family experiences can indirectly stimulate perspective-taking and induce empathy toward the outgroup, which we test with three separate survey experiments conducted over two years. Our findings show that priming family history generates small but consistent inclusionary effects. These effects occur even among partisan subgroups and Americans who approve of President Trump. We provide evidence that increased empathy for immigrants constitutes one mechanism driving these effects.
Author: Scott Williamson (with Claire Adida, Adeline Lo, Melina Platas, Lauren Prather, and Seth Werfel)