The Influence of Social Desirability Pressures on Expressed Immigration Attitudes

Objective. Immigration scholars have found that the highly educated and political liberals are considerably less likely to support restrictionist immigration policies than other groups. I ask whether the influence of social desirability pressures in the survey interview is responsible for this findi...

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Published inSocial science quarterly Vol. 91; no. 4; pp. 928 - 946
Main Author Janus, Alexander L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.12.2010
Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley
Southwestern Social Science Association
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
SeriesSocial Science Quarterly
Subjects
Attitude surveys
Attitudes
College Graduates
Conservatism
Educational attainment
Experiments
Graduates
Hispanics
Human ecology and demography
Immigration
Immigration Policy
Liberalism
Liberals
Noncitizens
Of General Interest
Political attitudes
Political behavior
Political ideologies
Politics
Pressure
Public opinion
Social Desirability
Social desirability bias
Social Scientists
Social surveys
Sociology
Sociology of migrations
Surveys
Telephone Surveys
U.S.A
United States Of America
Telephone Survey
Attitude towards
Racial relation
Social Desirability
Immigration
Immigration Policy
Liberalism
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Summary:Objective. Immigration scholars have found that the highly educated and political liberals are considerably less likely to support restrictionist immigration policies than other groups. I ask whether the influence of social desirability pressures in the survey interview is responsible for this finding. Methods. An unobtrusive questioning technique known as the list experiment is used to measure Americans' support for immigration restrictionism. The list experiment can easily be embedded in a standard telephone survey and has been used by previous investigators to study racial attitudes. Results. Restrictionist sentiments are found to be more widespread among the U.S. populace than previous studies have estimated, especially among college graduates and political liberals. Conclusion. My findings have implications for immigration scholars and social scientists who study other sensitive attitudes and behaviors. The most commonly employed strategies to reduce socially desirable responding may not be enough.
Bibliography:Direct correspondence to Alexander L. Janus, 410 Barrows Hall, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1980 〈ajanus@berkeley.edu〉; website 〈http://www.alexjanus.com〉. He thanks the following people for providing enormously helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article: several anonymous SSQ reviewers, Brian An, Irene Bloemraad, Claude Fischer, Michael Hout, Samuel R. Lucas, John Levi Martin, and Robb Willer. Janus will share all data and coding information necessary to replicate the study.
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SSQ
website
He thanks the following people for providing enormously helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article: several anonymous
*
reviewers, Brian An, Irene Bloemraad, Claude Fischer, Michael Hout, Samuel R. Lucas, John Levi Martin, and Robb Willer. Janus will share all data and coding information necessary to replicate the study.
ajanus@berkeley.edu
http://www.alexjanus.com
Direct correspondence to Alexander L. Janus, 410 Barrows Hall, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720‐1980
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ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00742.x