Characterization of Local Attitudes Toward Immigration Using Social Media

Migration is a worldwide phenomenon that may generate different reactions in the population. Attitudes vary from those that support multiculturalism and communion between locals and foreigners, to contempt and hatred toward immigrants. Since anti-immigration attitudes are often materialized in acts of violence and discrimination, it is important to identify factors that characterize these attitudes. However, doing so is expensive and impractical, as traditional methods require enormous efforts to collect data. In this paper, we propose to leverage Twitter to characterize local attitudes toward immigration, with a case study on Chile, where immigrant population has drastically increased in recent years. Using semi-supervised topic modeling, we situated 49K users into a spectrum ranging from in-favor to against immigration. We characterized both sides of the spectrum in two aspects: the emotions and lexical categories relevant for each attitude, and the discussion network structure. We found that the discussion is mostly driven by Haitian immigration; that there are temporal trends in tendency and polarity of discussion; and that assortative behavior on the network differs with respect to attitude. These insights may inform policy makers on how people feel with respect to migration, with potential implications on communication of policy and the design of interventions to improve inter-group relations.Comment: 8 pages, accepted at Latin American Web Congress 2019 (co-located with The Web Conference

Two social psychologies : an integrative approach

xii, 435 p.; 24 cm

Two social psychologies: An integrative approach

Chicagoxii, 435 p.: illus.; 23 c

The Cross-Cultural study of Emotional Expression in Japan and the United States : The Non-monolithic Nature of Individualism and Collectivism

In this study 3 hypotheses were tested concerning differences between the expression of emotions in collectivistic and individualistic cultures using samples from Japan and the United States. American participants anticipated feeling more comfortable expressing emotions that affirm independence but participants from Japan anticipated feeling equally comfortable expressing independent and interdependent emotions. Japanese participants anticipated feeling equally comfortable expressing emotions to family members and strangers, whereas Americans anticipated feeling more comfortable expressing emotions to family members than to strangers. Japanese participants anticipated feeling less comfortable expressing negative emotions than American participants. These results are discussed in terms of the limits of a monolithic conception of individualism-collectivism

The Effects of Feeling Threatened on Attitudes Toward Immigrants

Three studies tested the integrated threat theory by examining the causal role that threats play in attitudes toward immigrants. In Study I, students were presented with information about an immigrant group indicating that it posed realistic threats, symbolic threats, both types of threat or no threats to the ingroup. Attitudes toward the immigrant group were most negative when it posed both realistic and symbolic threats to the ingroup. In Study II, information was presented indicating that an immigrant group possessed negative traits, positive traits, or a combination of positive and negative traits. The results indicated that the negative stereotypes led to significantly more negative attitudes toward the immigrant group than the other types of stereotypes. In the third study, group descriptions leading to high levels of intergroup anxiety led to negative attitudes toward foreign exchange students. Empathizing with the foreign exchange students reduced these negative attitudes. The implications of the results of these studies for theory and practice are discussed

内集団知覚における弁別効果の比較文化的研究

Based on social identity and self categorization theories, it was predicted that people would make predominantly favorable distinctions between their own and other countries on relevant traits. Subjects from 6 countries (Hong Kong, Japan, Russia, Spain, the United States, and Croatia) rated Japan, Russia, the United States, and their own nation on 10 traits. The results indicated that for traits relevant to the ingroup, a nearly equivalent number of favourable and unfavorable distinctions between the ingroup and the outgroup were made. For non-relevant traits, a greater number of distinctions that were unfavorable to the ingroup were made. Although a substantial number of distinctiveness effects was obtained, the pattern of results did not support social identity theory or social categorization theory. The results were interpreted in terms of the salience of certain traits due to recent events in these countries. It is suggested that nationality may not play an important role in the identity of modern students, except when national identities are threatened during periods of political or economic instability