Palliative and hegemonic dimensions of conservatism: the mitigating role of institutional trust in shaping attitudes toward migrants and migration policy preferences

Matúš Grežo; Magdalena Adamus; Jana Tencerová

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1308990

Palliative and hegemonic dimensions of conservatism: the mitigating role of institutional trust in shaping attitudes toward migrants and migration policy preferences

Front Psychol. 2024 Feb 15:15:1308990. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1308990. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Matúš Grežo¹, Magdalena Adamus^{1

2}, Jana Tencerová¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
² Department of Public Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia.

Abstract

The study explores the links between palliative and hegemonic dimensions of conservatism, attitudes toward migrants and restrictive migration policy preferences. Participants reported on their palliative dimension (social conservatism, traditionalism) and hegemonic dimension (social dominance orientation, collective narcissism) of conservatism, trust in government, attitudes toward migrants, and restrictive migration policy preferences. The results show that both dimensions of conservatism are indirectly linked to more restrictive migration policy preferences through negative attitudes toward migrants. Moreover, the present study indicates that increasing institutional trust may be an effective mechanism mitigating negative attitudes toward migrants for individuals high in the palliative dimension of conservatism.

Keywords: attitudes toward migrants; collective narcissism; conservatism; migration policy preferences; social conservatism; social dominance orientation; traditionalism; trust in government.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the VEGA under grant no. 2/0030/24: distrust mindset and non-normative behaviour: from perceptions of social reality to violations of social norms. This output was supported by the NPO “Systemic Risk Institute” no. LX22NPO5101, funded by European Union – Next Generation EU (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, NPO: EXCELES).