World Immigration News

An authoritarianism-compatible text changes British attitudes towards EU immigration

Release Date: 2025-09-12
Media: Nature
Summary: This study investigates whether British attitudes toward immigration can be made more positive by exposing people to short, psychologically tailored texts. Conducted in the context of 2024—a year marked by widespread global elections where immigration was a major issue—the research used a representative sample of 3,067 participants recruited via YouGov.

Participants were randomly assigned to read one of three short texts: a neutral control text, a text designed to appeal to people with moderate levels of authoritarianism (emphasizing values like order, duty, tradition, and hygiene), or a text aimed at those low in authoritarianism (emphasizing diversity, creativity, and openness). Both persuasive texts featured a fictitious Polish immigrant named Sonia and included identical factual information and emotional appeals.

The results showed that the authoritarianism-compatible text was the most effective. Compared to the control, participants who read this text reported feeling closer in values to the immigrant, had significantly more positive views of EU immigration, and—though to a lesser extent—also became slightly more positive toward immigration overall. The low-authoritarianism text also improved attitudes compared to the control, but with smaller effect sizes.

Crucially, those higher in authoritarianism responded more positively to the authoritarianism-compatible text, especially on the measure of shared values. This suggests that framing messages in line with psychological predispositions can be an effective strategy for changing minds on divisive political issues.

The study concludes that even brief, well-framed messages combining trusted facts with emotional resonance can shift public opinion on contentious topics like immigration. This approach may be particularly effective when discussing culturally similar migrants, such as EU immigrants in the UK, and could inform future communication strategies in politics and policymaking.
Tags: United Kingdom

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