Intergroup contact and prejudice toward immigrants: A multinational, multilevel test of the moderating role of individual conservative values and cultural embeddedness

Abstract

We performed a multilevel, multinational analysis of the 2014 European Social Survey dataset (N = 33,597, nested in 19 countries) to study how individual conservative values and cultural embeddedness moderate the link between contact with immigrants and the attitudes toward them. A combination of frequency and positivity of contact with immigrants showed a negative association with ethnic prejudice while, conversely, participants’ conservative basic values were directly and positively associated with prejudice. National cultural embeddedness was not associated with the dependent variable. Neither individual conservative values nor cultural embeddedness moderated the association between contact and prejudice. Strengths, limitations, implications and future directions of this study are discussed.