Exposition to xenophobic content and support for right-wing populism: The asymmetric role of gender

Abstract

This paper studies whether exposure to anti-immigrant sentiment in the online context affects the willingness to support an openly anti-immigration party, and shows how gender moderates the effect. We designed an online experiment in which participants were invited to an online forum to discuss immigration issues. We manipulate the social acceptability of xenophobic views by exposing participants to an increasing proportion of comments with anti-immigrant content. As a proxy for open support for anti-immigrant policies, we ask participants to donate to a well-known German party with a strong anti-immigration discourse: Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany). We find no evidence that exposure to increasing social acceptability of xenophobic content affected the willingness to donate. In an exploratory analysis, we find that women are particularly reluctant to donate after the anti-immigrant comments raised normative concerns. The results can shed light on the heterogeneous effect of counter-normative discourses on support for anti-immigrant parties.