Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 28, 2026
10:40
Assessment of Dictyostelium discoideum Response to Acute Mechanical Stimulation
Published on: November 9, 2017
Regulatory focus and attitudes to migrants
Jennifer Whelan1, Simon M Laham, Kim Peters
1Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. jwhelan@unimelb.edu.au
Summary
Regulatory focus influences migrant attitudes. Promotion focus predicts positive views of beneficial migrants, while prevention focus predicts negative views of dissimilar migrants. Threat concerns also impact attitudes.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Attitude Formation
- Migration Studies
Background:
- Regulatory Focus Theory distinguishes between promotion (gains, aspirations) and prevention (security, obligations) self-regulation.
- These foci influence sensitivity to positive and negative outcomes, respectively.
- Understanding these psychological drivers is crucial for analyzing attitudes toward migrants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of promotion and prevention regulatory foci in shaping Australian attitudes towards different migrant groups.
- To examine how concerns with gains and threats predict attitudes based on migrant characteristics (cultural similarity, economic benefit).
Main Methods:
- Two studies were conducted involving Australian participants.
- Participants' regulatory foci (promotion vs. prevention) and concerns with gains/threats were assessed.
- Attitudes towards hypothetical migrant groups (culturally similar/dissimilar, economically beneficial/less beneficial) were measured.
Main Results:
- Promotion focus positively predicted attitudes towards culturally similar and economically beneficial migrants.
- Prevention focus predicted more negative attitudes towards culturally dissimilar migrants.
- A lack of concern with threats positively predicted attitudes towards culturally similar and economically beneficial migrants.
- For economically less beneficial migrants, only lower concerns with threats predicted more positive attitudes.
Conclusions:
- Regulatory foci significantly predict attitudes towards migrants, with promotion orientation favoring beneficial migrants and prevention orientation showing negativity towards dissimilar ones.
- Concerns about threats play a distinct role, particularly for less economically beneficial migrant groups.
- Findings have implications for migration policy and public perception of asylum seekers.
Related Concept Videos
01:03Drug Control Governance: Regulatory Bodies and Their Impact
Drug control governance involves the oversight and regulation of pharmaceuticals to ensure their safety and efficacy while preventing illegal drug use and trafficking. Regulatory bodies, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Union's European Medicines Agency (EMA), play a central role in this process. These agencies evaluate the safety and efficacy of drugs before they can be marketed. They fund clinical trials and assess the benefits and risks associated with a...
02:55Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. The social groups we belong to help form our identities (Tajfel, 1974). These differences may be difficult for some people to reconcile, which may lead to prejudice toward people who are different. Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). Prejudice is common against people who are...
01:54Attitudes
Attitude is our evaluation of a person, an idea, or an object. We have attitudes for many things ranging from products that we might pick up in the supermarket to people around the world to political policies. Typically, attitudes are favorable or unfavorable: positive or negative (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). And, they have three components: an affective component (feelings), a behavioral component (the effect of the attitude on behavior), and a cognitive component (belief and knowledge;...
01:28Global Regulatory Systems
Global regulatory systems in bacteria enable rapid and coordinated responses to environmental changes by integrating sensory inputs with gene expression, ensuring efficient adaptation to fluctuating conditions. Key global regulatory mechanisms include regulons, two-component systems, sigma factors, and secondary messengers.Regulons and Global RegulatorsA regulon is a collection of genes and operons controlled by a common global regulator. These regulators enable bacteria to prioritize resource...
00:53Migration
Migration is long-range, seasonal movement from one region or habitat to another. This common strategy, carried out by many different organisms around the world, is an adaptive response that typically corresponds to changes in an organism’s environment, like resource availability or climate. Migrations can involve huge groups of thousands of animals as well as single individuals traveling alone and can range from thousands of kilometers to just a few hundred meters.
02:16Stereotype Content Model
The Stereotype Content Model (SCM) was first proposed by Susan Fiske and her colleagues (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick & Xu, 2002; see also Fiske, 2012 and Fiske, 2017). The SCM specifies that when someone encounters a new group, they will stereotype them based on two metrics: warmth—or that group’s perceived intent, and how likely they are to provide help or inflict harm—and competence—or their ability to carry out that objective. Depending on the warmth-competence categorization, a person will feel...