Immigration, priming and policy collaboration: evidence from a Mexico-United States Policy Survey, 2024
We argue that given the polarization patterns, forthcoming policy elites in the United States do moderate their perspectives on immigration when they are acquainted with anti-stereotype representations of concrete human beings positively influenced by binational cooperation. We use data from a surve...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | Cogent Social Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311886.2025.2534841 |
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| Summary: | We argue that given the polarization patterns, forthcoming policy elites in the United States do moderate their perspectives on immigration when they are acquainted with anti-stereotype representations of concrete human beings positively influenced by binational cooperation. We use data from a survey conducted by the authors applied to graduate students of policy-related fields in Mexico and the United States. In it, we conducted a randomized experiment (n = 332) to test whether priming respondents through anti-stereotypical narratives effectively decreases their views on immigration. We find that respondents who were shown the priming text significantly changed their responses to questions related to immigration in the United States survey. In contrast, in the Mexico survey, there is no measurable effect in any of the measures. For both surveys, the overall collaboration score is higher in the experimental group than the control group, highlighting a measurable difference in perspectives about binational collaboration after a priming experiment. In a context of disagreements between the two countries about the policy measures that should be adopted to deal with illegal immigration, border security, drug consumption, and other crucial topics, these results inform policymakers in both countries by providing experimental evidence of the effects of priming in an age of polarization. |
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| ISSN: | 2331-1886 |