Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"

There is little research regarding the social psychological processes shaping community opinions about asylum seeker policy. Here, we explored two issues by way of a random community survey of the Perth metropolitan area. We first examined whether the intergroup perceptions that occur when individua...

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Main Authors: Hartley, Lisa, Pedersen, Anne
Format: Journal Article
Published: Australian Psychological Association 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/00049530701449455/abstract
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48323
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author Hartley, Lisa
Pedersen, Anne
author_facet Hartley, Lisa
Pedersen, Anne
author_sort Hartley, Lisa
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description There is little research regarding the social psychological processes shaping community opinions about asylum seeker policy. Here, we explored two issues by way of a random community survey of the Perth metropolitan area. We first examined whether the intergroup perceptions that occur when individuals focus upon the Australian community (self-focus) or asylum seekers themselves (other-focus) when evaluating the issue of asylum seekers in detention affected community opinions. Regarding self-focus, perceiving the Australian community as stable (not seeing asylum seekers as a threat to the stability of Australian society) predicted a more lenient policy orientation, as did perceiving the government's policy as illegitimate. Regarding other-focus, perceiving asylum seekers as legitimate, their situation in detention as unstable, and empathy predicted a more lenient policy orientation. Second, we examined the accuracy with which participants estimated wider community consensus for their respective policy orientation. As predicted, over-estimation increased as participants favoured tougher policy.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-483232019-02-19T04:26:33Z Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other" Hartley, Lisa Pedersen, Anne Mandatory Detention Emotions Asylum seekers Australians There is little research regarding the social psychological processes shaping community opinions about asylum seeker policy. Here, we explored two issues by way of a random community survey of the Perth metropolitan area. We first examined whether the intergroup perceptions that occur when individuals focus upon the Australian community (self-focus) or asylum seekers themselves (other-focus) when evaluating the issue of asylum seekers in detention affected community opinions. Regarding self-focus, perceiving the Australian community as stable (not seeing asylum seekers as a threat to the stability of Australian society) predicted a more lenient policy orientation, as did perceiving the government's policy as illegitimate. Regarding other-focus, perceiving asylum seekers as legitimate, their situation in detention as unstable, and empathy predicted a more lenient policy orientation. Second, we examined the accuracy with which participants estimated wider community consensus for their respective policy orientation. As predicted, over-estimation increased as participants favoured tougher policy. 2007 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48323 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/00049530701449455/abstract Australian Psychological Association restricted
spellingShingle Mandatory Detention
Emotions
Asylum seekers
Australians
Hartley, Lisa
Pedersen, Anne
Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"
title Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"
title_full Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"
title_fullStr Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"
title_full_unstemmed Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"
title_short Asylum seekers: How attributions and emotion affect Australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"
title_sort asylum seekers: how attributions and emotion affect australians' views on mandatory detention of " the other"
topic Mandatory Detention
Emotions
Asylum seekers
Australians
url http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/00049530701449455/abstract
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48323