A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Does In-Group Consolidation Polarize Attitudes Toward Immigrants?
Authors: Leino Mikko, Ylisalo Juha
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Political Studies
Journal name in source: POLITICAL STUDIES
Journal acronym: POLIT STUD-LONDON
Article number: 0032321721998929
Volume: 70
Issue: 4
First page : 1028
Last page: 1047
Number of pages: 20
ISSN: 0032-3217
eISSN: 1467-9248
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321721998929
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321721998929
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/57629885
Scholars have identified a host of individual-level and contextual factors associated with variation in people's attitudes toward immigrants. In this article, we argue that individual traits that are conducive to a positive or negative attitude toward immigrants tend to be more strongly connected to attitudes the larger the share of people with similar traits in the individual's immediate living environment. This is because interacting with like-minded people is likely to strengthen one's pre-existing views. We test this reasoning using data on more than 3000 individuals nested within more than 100 neighborhoods in the city of Turku, Finland. We find that the attitudes of young adults tend to be more positive the more people with characteristics predicting a positive attitude there are in their neighborhood, while their attitudes tend to be more negative the more people there are with a low level of education, a strong predictor of negative attitudes.
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