Personal values and immigrant group appraisal as predictors of voluntary contact with immigrants among majority students in Israel.

Abstract

What predicts whether young people will establish contacts with immigrants? Students are at a pivotal point in which the campus environment can enable substantial contact with immigrants, and where world views and behavioural patterns are formed which can follow through their adult lives. Through a value-attitude-behavior paradigm we examine a conceptual model in which appraisal of an immigrant group as a threat and/or benefit to the host society mediates the relationship between personal values and contact. Findings among 252 students in Israel showed that (1) threat/benefit appraisal of immigrants predicted voluntary contact; (2) personal values of self-direction and hedonism directly predicted voluntary contact; and (3) Threat/benefit appraisal mediated the relationship between self-direction and power and contact. Results suggest that increasing awareness of benefits of immigrants can promote positive inter-group relations.