Abstract
The study examines a model proposing relationships between personal values, positive (i.e., benefits) and negative (i.e., threats) appraisal of immigrants, and social contact. Based on a values-attitudes-behavior paradigm, the study extends previous work on personal values and attitudes to immigrants by examining not only negative but also positive appraisal and their connection with social contact with immigrants. Using a representative sample of 1,600 adults in the majority population in Israel, results showed that higher preference for anxiety-avoidance values (self-enhancement and conservation) was related to higher levels of perceived threat and lower levels of benefit, while higher preference for anxiety-free values (self-transcendence and openness to change) was related to higher levels of perceived benefits and lower levels of threat. Greater opportunities for contact and perceived benefits and lower levels of threats were related to more social contact. The model showed good fit across the total sample, and across four diverse immigrant groups in Israel (diaspora immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, Ethiopia and Western countries, and asylum seekers). In line with a Stereotype Content Model, which suggests that group-specific stereotypes are related to social structural characteristics of the group, associations between variables differed by group. Results strengthen a theoretical conceptualization that posits an indirect relationship between personal value preferences and behavior through group appraisal. They highlight the importance of comprehensive conceptualizations including both positive and negative appraisal of immigrants, which take into account the way different groups may be appraised by the majority population.
Highlights
Based on an attitude-behavior paradigm (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977, 1980), theory and empirical research in the area of intercultural relations has focused on the way the attitudes that we hold toward individuals from a different immigrant, ethnic or racial group can predict how we behave toward and interact with members of those groups
The frequency of social contact between locals and the immigrants varied across immigrant groups: the most frequent social contact was with immigrants from the FSU, followed by immigrants from western countries, Ethiopia, and asylum seekers
The current study tested a theoretical model examining the relationships between personal value preferences (Schwartz et al, 2012) and appraisal of immigrant groups as representing both a threat and a benefit to the receiving population and their association with levels of social contact
Summary
Based on an attitude-behavior paradigm (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977, 1980), theory and empirical research in the area of intercultural relations has focused on the way the attitudes (i.e., cognitions) that we hold toward individuals from a different immigrant, ethnic or racial group can predict how we behave toward and interact with members of those groups These cognitions can include the Threat-Benefit Model of Appraisal stereotypes that we hold (Cuddy et al, 2007) and/or the degree of threat (Stephan and Stephan, 1996, 2000; Stephan et al, 2005) that we perceive these groups to manifest for us. Based on a value-attitude-behavior paradigm (Homer and Kahle, 1988), the current study examines a theoretical Threat-Benefit model (Tartakovsky and Walsh, 2016a,b, 2019) in which the Personal Values (Schwartz, 2006; Schwartz et al, 2012) which an individual holds will predict both directly and indirectly (through group appraisal) (Schwartz et al, 2010; Lönnqvist et al, 2013; Roccas and Sagiv, 2017) levels of chosen social contact with members of an immigrant group
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