How Social Desirability Bias Affects Immigration Attitudes in a Hyperpolarized Political Environment

Abstract

ObjectiveImmigration attitudes have become increasingly polarizing in recent years with Democrats becoming less likely to support restrictionist policies and Republicans more likely to favor such policies. This paper examines the impact of social desirability bias on such attitudes.MethodUsing a list experiment, we examine whether Democrat (and liberal) opposition to the building of a wall at the Mexican border and to the deportation of undocumented immigrants are due to societal pressures to adopt inclusive positions and whether Republicans (and conservatives) hide their negative immigrant attitudes.ResultsWe find that Democrats and liberals' views on these two issues do indeed reflect their true preferences. Conversely, we find that Republicans and conservatives do feel the need to conceal their anti‐immigrant stances.ConclusionOur results suggest that the extent of asymmetric polarization on immigration policy might even be larger because partisans also differ in their social desirability concerns.