For every action a reaction? The polarizing effects of women's rights and refugee immigration: A survey experiment in 27 EU member states
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
Standard
in: European Journal of Political Research, Jahrgang 63, Nr. 4, 11.2024, S. 1557-1577.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - For every action a reaction? The polarizing effects of women's rights and refugee immigration
T2 - A survey experiment in 27 EU member states
AU - Alexander, Amy
AU - Charron, Nicholas
AU - Off, Gefjon
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. European Journal of Political Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research.
PY - 2024/11
Y1 - 2024/11
N2 - Building on research on cultural threat-induced polarization, we investigate the effect of the individual-level salience of cultural threats on polarization between social liberals and conservatives. In a unique survey experiment conducted with 129,000 respondents nested in 208 regions in 27 European Union (EU) member states, we manipulate the presence of two cultural threats, women's rights, and refugee immigration, to test their polarizing effects on social liberals’ and social conservatives’ support for traditional values. We find that priming the threat of refugee immigration polarizes conservatives and liberals equally. Yet, introducing the salience of women's rights leads to lower preferences for traditional values, particularly among more liberal respondents. Our findings demonstrate: 1) the study of backlash should distinguish individuals by their predisposition to backlash, rather than studying the population as a whole; and 2) social conservatives’ backlash should be studied conjointly with social liberals’ counter-reactions to backlash. Future research may investigate why different cultural threats provoke different reactions.
AB - Building on research on cultural threat-induced polarization, we investigate the effect of the individual-level salience of cultural threats on polarization between social liberals and conservatives. In a unique survey experiment conducted with 129,000 respondents nested in 208 regions in 27 European Union (EU) member states, we manipulate the presence of two cultural threats, women's rights, and refugee immigration, to test their polarizing effects on social liberals’ and social conservatives’ support for traditional values. We find that priming the threat of refugee immigration polarizes conservatives and liberals equally. Yet, introducing the salience of women's rights leads to lower preferences for traditional values, particularly among more liberal respondents. Our findings demonstrate: 1) the study of backlash should distinguish individuals by their predisposition to backlash, rather than studying the population as a whole; and 2) social conservatives’ backlash should be studied conjointly with social liberals’ counter-reactions to backlash. Future research may investigate why different cultural threats provoke different reactions.
KW - cultural threats
KW - polarization
KW - refugee immigration
KW - survey experiment
KW - women's rights
KW - Politics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85185136832&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/63244918-72c2-3f42-bb14-96680a574d23/
U2 - 10.1111/1475-6765.12664
DO - 10.1111/1475-6765.12664
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85185136832
VL - 63
SP - 1557
EP - 1577
JO - European Journal of Political Research
JF - European Journal of Political Research
SN - 0304-4130
IS - 4
ER -