Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: American Public Opinion and the Politics of Immigration

政治学博士论文研究：美国舆论与移民政治

• 批准号: 0717558
• 负责人: Paula McClain
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0717558&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

This project investigates how attitudes toward Latino immigrants color American support for immigration policies. More than once, public misgivings about foreigners have been expressed through support for exclusionary immigration policies (e.g., Higham 1955; King 2000). Political scientists concur that Americans are generally predisposed against immigration, yet it remains unclear whether one or all immigrant groups activate this stance (e.g., Harwood 1986; Simon and Alexander 1993; Citrin et al. 1997). Though history records numerous outbursts of opposition to Irish, Chinese, German, and Italian newcomers (e.g., Shankman 1982; Takaki 1989; Ignatiev 1995; King 2005), we lack a systematic understanding of the degree to which attitudes toward one immigrant group shape public opposition to immigration. Using two original survey-experiments which incorporate an Implicit Association Test (IAT), this project endeavors to demonstrate how Americans'' evaluations of immigration policies are subtly-but indelibly-influenced by anti-Latino attitudes. A growing volume of polling data on immigration reveals two things: sizeable opposition to immigration and solid support for stronger measures to curb it (Gallup 2000; Lapinski et al. 1997). Yet what these polls do not reveal-and in fact, cannot fully reveal-is the extent to which support for immigration policies is influenced by misgivings about particular immigrants. That is because surveys generally query respondents about these policies without identifying immigrants by ethnicity. And, when group-specific questions are asked, the validity of responses is threatened by strong social norms against the expression of negative attitudes toward ethnic and racial groups (Mendelberg 2001; Banaji et al.1995). To overcome these challenges, this project employs two survey-experiments which incorporate an Implicit Association Test (IAT) designed to capture negative implicit attitudes toward Latino immigrants. In these experiments, all subjects complete standard self-reports of attitudes toward various immigrant groups, as well as evaluations of policy proposals addressing illegal and legal immigration. During these evaluations, subjects are asked about these policy proposals with reference to either Latino immigrants or non-Latino immigrants. This design aims to demonstrate two things. First, in lieu of implicit attitude measures, Americans should display a markedly even-handed evaluation of immigrants and immigration policies. For instance, it is expected that subjects will support stronger measures to curb immigration regardless of the ethnicity and legal status of foreigners. Yet when implicit attitude measures are introduced, it is anticipated that anti-Latino attitudes will be stamped onto evaluations of these policy proposals, even when they make no reference to Latinos. The findings from this research have implications both for society in general and the social science community in particular. By documenting how implicit anti-Latino attitudes mold individuals'' preferences for immigration policy, this study systematically challenges the view that opposition to immigration has nothing to do with the ethnicity of immigrants. To the contrary, the evidence from this investigation will suggest that implicit anti-Latino attitudes are activated by merely broaching the issue of immigration, as occurs through public opinion polls. In this way, these findings will raise questions about the validity of standard survey items on immigration by diagnosing how far these questions capture implicit anti-Latino attitudes in addition to policy preferences. Equally important, the evidence will suggest revisions to standard models of survey response to account for an important omitted variable, namely, the influence of implicit attitudes on survey items.

这个项目调查了对拉丁裔移民的态度如何影响了美国人对移民政策的支持。公众对外国人的担忧不止一次地通过支持排他性移民政策来表达（例如，highham 1955; King 2000）。政治学家一致认为，美国人普遍倾向于反对移民，但尚不清楚是否是一个或所有移民群体激活了这种立场（例如，Harwood 1986; Simon and Alexander 1993; Citrin et al. 1997）。虽然历史记录了许多反对爱尔兰、中国、德国和意大利新移民的爆发（例如，Shankman 1982; Takaki 1989; Ignatiev 1995; King 2005），但我们缺乏对一个移民群体的态度在多大程度上影响了公众对移民的反对。本项目采用了两个原始的调查实验，并结合了内隐联想测试（IAT），试图证明美国人对移民政策的评价是如何微妙但不可磨灭地受到反拉丁裔态度的影响。越来越多的关于移民的民意调查数据揭示了两件事：对移民的强烈反对和对遏制移民的更强有力措施的坚定支持（盖洛普2000；Lapinski et al. 1997）。然而，这些民意调查没有揭示——事实上，也不能完全揭示——对移民政策的支持在多大程度上受到对特定移民的担忧的影响。这是因为调查通常会询问受访者对这些政策的看法，而不会按种族来识别移民。而且，当问及特定群体的问题时，回答的有效性受到强烈的社会规范的威胁，这些社会规范反对对民族和种族群体表达负面态度（Mendelberg 2001; Banaji et al.1995）。为了克服这些挑战，本项目采用了两个调查实验，其中包括内隐联想测试（IAT），旨在捕捉对拉丁裔移民的负面内隐态度。在这些实验中，所有受试者都完成了对各种移民群体态度的标准自我报告，以及对处理非法和合法移民的政策建议的评估。在这些评估过程中，受试者被问及有关拉丁裔移民或非拉丁裔移民的政策建议。这个设计旨在展示两件事。首先，美国人应该对移民和移民政策表现出明显的不偏不倚的评价，而不是含蓄的态度衡量。例如，预计受试者将支持更强有力的措施来限制移民，无论外国人的种族和法律地位如何。然而，当采取含蓄的态度措施时，预计反拉丁裔的态度将烙印在对这些政策建议的评价上，即使这些政策建议没有提到拉丁裔。这项研究的结果对整个社会，特别是社会科学界都有影响。通过记录隐性反拉丁裔态度如何影响个人对移民政策的偏好，这项研究系统地挑战了反对移民与移民种族无关的观点。相反，这项调查的证据将表明，只要一提到移民问题，就会激发隐性的反拉丁裔态度，正如民意调查所发生的那样。通过这种方式，这些发现将通过诊断这些问题在多大程度上捕捉到除政策偏好之外的隐性反拉丁裔态度，从而对移民标准调查项目的有效性提出质疑。同样重要的是，证据将建议修订调查反应的标准模型，以说明一个重要的遗漏变量，即内隐态度对调查项目的影响。