Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of Japan

Previous studies have shown that people oppose refugee resettlement more strongly after being exposed to frames that depict refugees as threatening. However, all people may not perceive such threats the same way. Based on contact theory, we hypothesize that the treatment effects of threatening frame...

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Main Authors: Yusaku Horiuchi, Yoshikuni Ono
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2023-01-01
Series:Research & Politics
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221134200
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author Yusaku Horiuchi
Yoshikuni Ono
author_facet Yusaku Horiuchi
Yoshikuni Ono
author_sort Yusaku Horiuchi
collection DOAJ
description Previous studies have shown that people oppose refugee resettlement more strongly after being exposed to frames that depict refugees as threatening. However, all people may not perceive such threats the same way. Based on contact theory, we hypothesize that the treatment effects of threatening frames on people’s opposition to refugee resettlement are conditional on their contact experience with foreign-national residents. The results of our pre-registered experiment in Japan indicate that exposure to threatening information does not change attitudes toward refugee resettlement among those living in municipalities where the number of foreign-national residents is rapidly increasing . Combined with the analyses of other subjective measures of contact with foreigners, some suggestive patterns emerge that natives with conscious and positive interactions with outgroup members may be unaffected by anti-refugee rhetoric and threatening frames.
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spelling doaj-art-014cf78f02bd4e7784fcec56b836df232025-08-20T02:42:08ZengSAGE PublishingResearch & Politics2053-16802023-01-011010.1177/20531680221134200Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of JapanYusaku HoriuchiYoshikuni OnoPrevious studies have shown that people oppose refugee resettlement more strongly after being exposed to frames that depict refugees as threatening. However, all people may not perceive such threats the same way. Based on contact theory, we hypothesize that the treatment effects of threatening frames on people’s opposition to refugee resettlement are conditional on their contact experience with foreign-national residents. The results of our pre-registered experiment in Japan indicate that exposure to threatening information does not change attitudes toward refugee resettlement among those living in municipalities where the number of foreign-national residents is rapidly increasing . Combined with the analyses of other subjective measures of contact with foreigners, some suggestive patterns emerge that natives with conscious and positive interactions with outgroup members may be unaffected by anti-refugee rhetoric and threatening frames.https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221134200
spellingShingle Yusaku Horiuchi
Yoshikuni Ono
Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of Japan
Research & Politics
title Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of Japan
title_full Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of Japan
title_fullStr Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of Japan
title_full_unstemmed Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of Japan
title_short Social contact and attitudes toward outsiders: The case of Japan
title_sort social contact and attitudes toward outsiders the case of japan
url https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221134200
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AT yoshikuniono socialcontactandattitudestowardoutsidersthecaseofjapan