Premium
The mediating role of national identification, binding foundations and perceived threat on the relationship between need for cognitive closure and prejudice against migrants in Malta
Author(s) -
Bianco Fleur,
Kosic Ankica,
Pierro Antonio
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/casp.2559
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , closure (psychology) , maltese , social psychology , psychology , cognition , perception , population , attribution , identification (biology) , sociology , political science , law , linguistics , philosophy , botany , demography , neuroscience , biology
What mitigates the relationship between need for cognitive closure and prejudice against migrants? Addressing this question, we explored how national identification, endorsing binding moral foundations and the perception of threat mediate the relationship between need for cognitive closure and prejudice against migrants in Malta. It was hypothesized that individuals with a high need for cognitive closure are more prone to identify with being Maltese and more probable to endorse binding moral foundations and perceive high threat from migrants, leading to a more prejudiced attitude towards migrants living in Malta. Two hundred and twenty‐two individuals participated in this quantitative study. Results from this study showed that national identification, binding moral foundations and perceived threat mediate the relationship between need for cognitive closure and prejudice against migrants. The implications of the findings for theories about how need for cognitive closure contributes to increased prejudiced attitude in native population is discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.