Joel R. Anderson

Does the Dark Triad Predict Prejudice?: The Role of Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Narcissism in Explaining Negativity Toward Asylum Seekers

Objective Personality has a long history of being linked to attitudes toward various social groups, but little research has explored how darker aspects of personality might contribute to social attitudes. In this article, we explore the role of the ominous personality traits in the Dark Triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) in accounting for prejudice, in the specific case of antipathy toward asylum seekers. Method A community sample of 173 Australians (Mage = 23.37-years, SD = 7.88; 74% females) responded to measures of classical and modern explicit attitudes and implicit attitudes toward this group. This study used a correlational research design. Results The sample reported neutral explicit attitudes (both classical and modern) but implicit attitudes were negative. Classical attitudes were less negative than modern attitudes. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses revealed political conservatism and psychopathy predicted modern explicit attitudes while political conservatism and Machiavellianism predicted classical attitudes. Narcissism was unrelated to all attitudes, and none of the Dark Triad personality traits were related to implicit attitudes. Conclusion The implications of the relationships between sub‐clinical personality traits and social attitudes are discussed in reference to intervening with punitive attitudes towards this vulnerable social group. This article presents new evidence that Machiavellianism is related to classic attitudes, and provides more evidence that psychopathy is related to modern attitudes. Finally, this article adds to the scarce literature on implicit attitudes towards asylum seekers.

Demographic and ideological correlates of negative attitudes towards asylum seekers: A meta‐analytic review

Objective A global increase in forced displacement has led to rapid increases in the number of people seeking asylum. Negative attitudes toward these people are pervasive and the literature attempting to understand the prevalence and impact of these attitudes is growing. This article contains a meta‐analysis of the Australian quantitative research in this field. Method We combined effect sizes from published and unpublished Australian data. The primary outcomes were effect size estimates for the correlations between reported attitudes towards asylum seekers and a range of demographic factors (age, gender, education, religious affiliation, political orientation, national identification) and ideological variables (right‐wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, social justice principles). Results We identified 34 suitable studies (N participants = 5,994). Demographic factors of gender, education, religious affiliation, political orientation, and national identification were related to attitudes. More specifically, being male, having less education, being more politically conservative, and higher in national identification were associated with more negative attitudes (rs = .08, –.18, .24, .23, and .15, respectively; ps < .01). Increases in right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, and decreases in macrojustice principles were also associated with more negative attitudes (rs = .49, .56, and –.28, respectively; ps < .05). Conclusion Most demographic factors were weakly or moderately related to attitudes. Ideological variables were stronger correlates, with right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientations correlating the most strongly. Significant amounts of heterogeneity for most variables suggest that more research is needed to explore interactions between these variables, and to identify relevant moderators of these relationships.

Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Towards Asylum Seekers in Australia: Demographic and Ideological Correlates

Objective Attitudes toward asylum seekers that have been reported in Australia are negative and pervasive. To date, this body of literature has explored only measured explicit responses. This article is the first to explore their implicit counterpart. Method Two cross‐sectional studies measured explicit and implicit attitudes towards asylum seekers. The first study used a community sample (N = 183, M age = 24.98-years, 115 females), and the second used a sample of students (N = 106, M age = 22.75-years, 87 female). The sample in Study 2 also responded to scales measuring levels of ideological orientations toward social dominance orientation (SDO), right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), and principle of social justice. Results In Study 1, an exploration of demographic variables revealed that gender predicted explicit attitudes, but gender and religious affiliation predicted implicit attitudes. In Study 2, an exploration of ideological variables revealed that higher levels of SDO and RWA predict negative explicit attitudes, and macrojustice principles predict positive explicit attitudes, but only SDO predicts (negative) implicit attitudes. Conclusions The evidence presented reveals some discrepancies between factors that predict explicit and implicit attitudes toward this socially vulnerable group, and the findings are interpreted as evidence for a dual‐construct model of attitudes toward asylum seekers.

The moderating role of socially desirable responding in implicit–explicit attitudes toward asylum seekers

Implicit and explicit attitudes correlate under certain conditions and researchers are interested in the moderating factors of this relationship. This paper explored the role of socially desirable responding in this relationship by testing the hypothesis that impression management (IM; i.e., deliberate response modification) and self-deceptive enhancement (SDE; i.e., positive self-bias) play moderating roles in the relationship of implicit-explicit attitudes toward asylum seekers in Australia. Seventy-four students responded to a battery of measures and the results revealed that IM (but not SDE) moderated this relationship to the extent that higher IM scores weakened the correspondence between implicit and explicit attitude scores. This suggests that attitudes toward asylum seekers might be susceptible to socially desirable response tendencies and in combination with the finding that IM was negatively related to explicit attitudes, it is argued that self-presentation concerns result in the deliberate attenuation of reported negative explicit attitudes.

The prejudice against asylum seekers scale: presenting the psychometric properties of a new measure of classical and conditional attitudes

ABSTRACT This paper reports the initial psychometric properties for the recently developed prejudice against asylum seekers scale (PAAS)—a new measure of the classical and conditional components of negative attitudes towards asylum seekers. Across three studies the initial psychometric evidence is presented: An exploratory factor analysis suggested that the 16 items of the PAAS accurately factor onto the two hypothesized subscales (Study 1), which was ratified using a confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2). The presented reliability estimates (internal consistency: Studies 1–3; test-retest reliability: Study 3) verified the stability of the measure. Finally, evidence of the validity for the scale (criterion, construct, and known-groups; Study 2) and for the independent predictive validity of each subscale is presented. In summary, the evidence presented here suggests that the PAAS is a psychometrically sound measure of classical and contemporary prejudice against asylum seekers.

Predicting support for marriage equality in Australia

Objective The marriage equality debate is becoming increasingly prominent in Australian political and media discourse. Moreover, as policy that would legislate marriage equality continues to be debated in political circles, public opinion on the topic appears to be becoming increasingly divided. This article presents a cross‐sectional study exploring predictors of support for marriage equality. Method A sample of 137 Australians (66% females) responded to a series of demographic items, a measure of attitudes towards gay men and lesbian women, and a forced‐choice question asking whether or not they would support marriage between two people—regardless of their gender. Results The results revealed that support for marriage equality in this sample was predicted by religious affiliation, political orientation, and sexual prejudice. More specifically, individuals in support of marriage equality were more likely to be non‐religious, politically liberal, and have more positive attitudes towards gay men (attitudes towards lesbian women were unrelated to support for marriage equality). Age and gender did not predict support for marriage equality. Conclusions Support for marriage equality in Australia can be predicted by social attitudes and demographic variables. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications of maintaining the legal status quo, which mandates marriage inequality.

The English Version of the Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Scale

The present study reports the psychometric properties of the English version of the short form of the Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Scale (ATHS; Falomir-Pichastor & Mugny, 2009). Workers from Amazon’s MTurkTM (n = 235 for validation, n = 60 for test-retest) completed the short form of the ATHS, translated from French, and the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale (ATLG; Herek, 1998) and responded to a series of demographic questions. In this paper, we present evidence for a single-factor structure of the scale, along with evidence for the validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability of the measure. The data revealed distinct patterns in participants’ ATHS scores as a function of their religious affiliation and political conservatism. Finally, positive ATHS scores predicted support for gay rights over and above that predicted by ATLG scores (Herek, 1984). The evidence presented suggests that the ATHS is a psychometrically reliable and valid tool for assessing attitudes toward homosexuality.

Revisiting the Jezebel Stereotype: The Impact of Target Race on Sexual Objectification

The overt objectification and dehumanization of Black people has a long history throughout the Western world. However, few researchers have explored whether such perceptions still persist implicitly and whether Black women are sexually objectified at an interpersonal level. We sought to address this gap by exploring whether Black women are sexually objectified to a greater extent than White women and whether target sexualization exacerbates this effect. In Study 1, using eye-tracking technology (N = 38), we provide evidence that individuals attend more often, and for longer durations, to the sexual body parts of Black women compared to White women, particularly when presented in a sexualized manner. In Studies 2a (N = 120) and 2b (N = 131), we demonstrated that Black women are implicitly associated with both animals and objects to a greater degree than White women with a Go/No-Go Association Task. We discuss the implications of such dehumanizing treatment of Black people and Black women in U.S. society. We hope that this evidence will increase awareness that objectification can happen outside the realm of conscious thought and that related interventions ought to include an ethnicity-specific component. Additional online materials for this article, including online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching, are available on PWQs website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index

Implicit Acculturation and the Academic Adjustment of Chinese Student Sojourners in Australia

Objective Chinese students comprise the largest group of foreign‐born tertiary students studying in Australia, and these students face unique challenges when striving toward their academic goals. The challenges including acculturation stress, culture shock, and studying in a foreign language. In this article, we explore implicit acculturation strategies of China‐born student sojourners in Australia, and how this relates to academic outcomes. Method In Study 1, the capacity for the go/no‐go association task to assess implicit cultural identification was established in local samples of local students (39 in Australia, 36 in China). These data were then used as a comparison after measuring the implicit acculturation of students studying abroad. Thus, in Study 2, 68 China‐born student sojourners in Australia responded to this measure of implicit acculturation, as well as levels of academic adjustment, acculturation stress, and life satisfaction. Results The sojourning sample demonstrated implicit separation acculturation attitudes, and moreover the excessive implicit associations with their home (Chinese) culture suggested an implicit cultural reaffirmation effect. Implicit acculturation was associated with increases in acculturation stress and decreases in life satisfaction, academic lifestyle, and motivation. Conclusions These findings suggest that Chinese student sojourners may not be able to (or choose not to) self‐integrate within the Australian‐based education community; however, this implicit cultural reaffirmation may be beneficial for ameliorating education‐related outcomes.