Exploring inclusiveness towards immigrants as related to basic values: A network approach.

Using the 9th round of European Social Survey (ESS), we explored the relationship between Europeans' basic values and their attitudes towards immigrants. Employing a latent class analysis (LCA), we classified the respondents based on three items capturing the extent to which participants would support allowing three groups of immigrants to enter and live in their countries: immigrants of same ethnic groups, immigrants of different ethnic groups, and immigrants from poorer countries outside Europe. Four classes of Europeans with mutually exclusive response patterns with respect to their inclusive attitudes towards immigrants were found. The classes were named Inclusive (highly inclusive), Some (selective), Few (highly selective), and Exclusive (highly exclusive). Next, using a network technique, a partial correlation network of 10 basic human values was estimated for each class of participants. The four networks were compared to each other based on three network properties namely: global connectivity, community detection, and assortativity coefficient. The global connectivity (the overall level of interconnections) between the 10 basic values was found to be mostly invariant across the four networks. However, results of the community detection analysis revealed a more complex value structure among the most inclusive class of Europeans. Further, according to the assortativity analysis, as expected, for the most inclusive Europeans, values with similar motivational backgrounds were found to be interconnected most strongly to one another. We further discussed the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Anti-roma Bias (Stereotypes, Prejudice, Behavioral Tendencies): A Network Approach Toward Attitude Strength.

The Roma have been and still are a target of prejudice, marginalization, and social exclusion across Europe, especially in East-Central European countries. This paper focuses on a set of stereotypical, emotional, and behavioral evaluative responses toward Roma people selected as representing the underlying components of anti-Roma bias. Employing network analysis, we investigated if attitude strength is associated with stronger connectivity in the networks of its constituent elements. The findings from representative surveys carried out in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, France, and Ireland supported our assumption, as high attitude strength toward the Roma resulted in stronger connectivity in all pairs of high- versus low-attitude-strength networks. Our finding yields a solid theoretical framework for targeting the central variables-those with the strongest associations with other variables-as a potentially effective attitude change intervention strategy. Moreover, perceived threat to national identity, sympathy, and empathy were found to be the most central variables in the networks.