Scott Blinder
Biographic Data
| ID | 203480 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Scott Blinder |
| GIVEN NAMES | Scott |
| FAMILY NAME | Blinder |
| SIGNATURE | BLINDER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6451-6266 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 377 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
It's Not the Economy: The Effect of Framing Arguments on Attitudes Toward Refugees
Which arguments for refugee admissions are most persuasive to publics in receiving states? Some refugee scholars and advocates insist that the way to maximize support for refugee admissions is to emphasize their instrumental economic benefit to receiving states. Others prefer arguments based in legal or moral obligations, arguing that economic arguments risk undermining support for the most vulnerable or needy refugees. In this article, we assess…
Victim, perpetrator, neither: Attitudes on deservingness and culpability in immigration law
This study examines whether there is popular support for a restrictive immigration policy aimed at denying safe haven to human rights abusers and those affiliated with terrorism. We designed a public opinion survey experiment that asks respondents to evaluate whether low level or high-level Taliban members who otherwise qualify for refugee status deserve immigration benefits. We found that a majority of respondents did not immediately deny a visa…
Biases at the Ballot Box: How Multiple Forms of Voter Discrimination Impede the Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Ethnic Minority Groups
Research shows that ethnic minority candidates often face an electoral penalty at the ballot box. In this study, we argue that this penalty depends on both candidate and voter characteristics, and that pro-minority policy positions incur a greater penalty than a candidate’s ethnic background itself. Using a conjoint experiment embedded in a panel study of British voters, we investigate the relative contributions of candidate ethnicity, policy pos…
Going with the Flows: Information that Changes Americans’ Immigration Preferences
Immigration has become a salient, polarizing issue in American politics, with unusual power to shift white Americans’ partisanship (Abrajano & Hajnal, 2015) and vote choice (Hooghe & Dassonneville, 2018; Mutz, 2018). The scope of political debate around immigration has expanded along with its prominence. Recently proposed legislation has included changes to the number and type of immigrants authorized to enter the US, alongside long-standing issu…
Acceptable in the EU? Why some immigration restrictionists support European Union mobility
Why do some Europeans support immigration from within the European Union, while rejecting immigration from elsewhere? Acceptance of intra-European Union mobility—even by those who wish to restrict immigration more generally—is important for popular support for the European Union itself. This paper identifies and attempts to explain the preferences of “EU-only inclusionists”: EU nationals who support relatively high levels of immigration, but only…
Discrimination, Antiprejudice Norms, and Public Support for Multicultural Policies in Europe: The Case of Religious Schools
This study examines public support for a key contested multicultural policy in contemporary Europe: the provision of religious schools. It makes two main contributions, one substantive and one theoretical. Substantively, the main contribution is to provide new experimental evidence demonstrating the existence of discrimination against Muslims on a central issue of multicultural social policy. Theoretically, the main contribution is to propose an …
Roots of group threat: Anti-Prejudice Motivations and Implicit Bias in Perceptions of Immigrants as Threats
The perception of "group threat" is well known to predict opposition to immigration and negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities in Europe. However, the relationship between group threat and prejudice remains unclear, theoretically and empirically. We offer a new lens for viewing this relationship, using a dual process model of prejudice to help explain individual perceptions of threat as a function of both implicit prejudice and explicit moti…
Media Independence through Routine Press-State Relations: Immigration and Government Statistics in the British Press
When and how does press coverage maintain independence from governments’ preferred language? Leading scholarship argues that elites shape media content, especially in foreign affairs settings where journalists rely on official sources. But do media push back in domestic policy contexts? Focusing on immigration in Britain, we find press coverage exhibits signs of autonomy that rely on the state’s administrative branches. Our evidence comes from au…
Rethinking Compassion: Toward a Political Account of the Partisan Gender Gap in the United States
Scholarship on the political gender gap in the United States has attributed women's political views to their greater compassion, yet individual‐level measures of compassion have almost never been used to directly examine such claims. We address this issue using the only nationally representative survey to include psychometrically validated measures of compassion alongside appropriate political variables. We show that even though women are more co…
The 'illegal' and the skilled: Effects of media portrayals on perceptions of immigrants in Britain
Public perceptions often diverge widely from reality on the size and make-up of immigrant populations, with likely consequences for public opinion about immigration. Prior research has not established whether the media has any causal role in the construction of these perceptions. This paper examines whether and how actually occurring media portrayals of immigrants in Britain affect perceptions of immigrants among members of the British public. We…
Constructing Immigrants: Portrayals of Migrant Groups in British National Newspapers, 2010–2012
Public opposition to immigration in Britain reflects perceptions of immigrants that focus disproportionately on “illegal” immigration and asylum seekers, rather than more numerous workers, students, and family members. This study examines coverage of immigration in the British national press, to see whether press portrayals of migrants provide a basis for these images of immigration underlying public attitudes. We use corpus linguistic methods to…
Imagined Immigration: The Impact of Different Meanings of ‘Immigrants’ in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in Britain
Public opinion research on immigration attitudes has largely overlooked the question of how survey respondents understand the term ‘immigrants’. This article investigates latent perceptions of immigrants, termed ‘imagined immigration’, among members of the British public. Using novel survey data, I examine who members of the British public have in mind when they think of immigrants. I find that public perceptions of immigration diverge significan…
The Better Angels of Our Nature: How the Antiprejudice Norm Affects Policy and Party Preferences in Great Britain and Germany
Existing research on public opinion related to race and immigration politics emphasizes the role of prejudice or bias against minority groups. We argue that the social norm against prejudice, and individual motivations to comply with it, are crucial elements omitted from prior analyses. In contemporary Western societies, most citizens receive strong signals that prejudice is not normatively acceptable. We demonstrate that many majority‐group indi…
Dissonance Persists: Reproduction of Racial Attitudes Among Post-Civil Rights Cohorts of White Americans
Attitudes toward race and politics continue to show tensions between antiracist norms and racist stereotypes, even among new generations of White Americans raised in an era of consensus on antiracist social norms. I suggest that this “dissonance” stems from a process of “two-tracked socialization” and I demonstrate the persistence of such dissonant attitudes in two ways. First, in the aggregate, the youngest cohorts of White Americans do not grea…
The Better Angels of Our Nature: How the Antiprejudice Norm Affects Policy and Party Preferences in Great Britain and Germany
Existing research on public opinion related to race and immigration politics emphasizes the role of prejudice or bias against minority groups. We argue that the social norm against prejudice, and individual motivations to comply with it, are crucial elements omitted from prior analyses. In contemporary Western societies, most citizens receive strong signals that prejudice is not normatively acceptable. We demonstrate that many majority‐group indi…
Imagined Immigration: The Impact of Different Meanings of ‘Immigrants’ in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in Britain
Public opinion research on immigration attitudes has largely overlooked the question of how survey respondents understand the term ‘immigrants’. This article investigates latent perceptions of immigrants, termed ‘imagined immigration’, among members of the British public. Using novel survey data, I examine who members of the British public have in mind when they think of immigrants. I find that public perceptions of immigration diverge significan…
Constructing Immigrants: Portrayals of Migrant Groups in British National Newspapers, 2010–2012
Public opposition to immigration in Britain reflects perceptions of immigrants that focus disproportionately on “illegal” immigration and asylum seekers, rather than more numerous workers, students, and family members. This study examines coverage of immigration in the British national press, to see whether press portrayals of migrants provide a basis for these images of immigration underlying public attitudes. We use corpus linguistic methods to…
Biases at the Ballot Box: How Multiple Forms of Voter Discrimination Impede the Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Ethnic Minority Groups
Research shows that ethnic minority candidates often face an electoral penalty at the ballot box. In this study, we argue that this penalty depends on both candidate and voter characteristics, and that pro-minority policy positions incur a greater penalty than a candidate’s ethnic background itself. Using a conjoint experiment embedded in a panel study of British voters, we investigate the relative contributions of candidate ethnicity, policy pos…
The 'illegal' and the skilled: Effects of media portrayals on perceptions of immigrants in Britain
Public perceptions often diverge widely from reality on the size and make-up of immigrant populations, with likely consequences for public opinion about immigration. Prior research has not established whether the media has any causal role in the construction of these perceptions. This paper examines whether and how actually occurring media portrayals of immigrants in Britain affect perceptions of immigrants among members of the British public. We…
Discrimination, Antiprejudice Norms, and Public Support for Multicultural Policies in Europe: The Case of Religious Schools
This study examines public support for a key contested multicultural policy in contemporary Europe: the provision of religious schools. It makes two main contributions, one substantive and one theoretical. Substantively, the main contribution is to provide new experimental evidence demonstrating the existence of discrimination against Muslims on a central issue of multicultural social policy. Theoretically, the main contribution is to propose an …
Roots of group threat: Anti-Prejudice Motivations and Implicit Bias in Perceptions of Immigrants as Threats
The perception of "group threat" is well known to predict opposition to immigration and negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities in Europe. However, the relationship between group threat and prejudice remains unclear, theoretically and empirically. We offer a new lens for viewing this relationship, using a dual process model of prejudice to help explain individual perceptions of threat as a function of both implicit prejudice and explicit moti…
Acceptable in the EU? Why some immigration restrictionists support European Union mobility
Why do some Europeans support immigration from within the European Union, while rejecting immigration from elsewhere? Acceptance of intra-European Union mobility—even by those who wish to restrict immigration more generally—is important for popular support for the European Union itself. This paper identifies and attempts to explain the preferences of “EU-only inclusionists”: EU nationals who support relatively high levels of immigration, but only…
Going with the Flows: Information that Changes Americans’ Immigration Preferences
Immigration has become a salient, polarizing issue in American politics, with unusual power to shift white Americans’ partisanship (Abrajano & Hajnal, 2015) and vote choice (Hooghe & Dassonneville, 2018; Mutz, 2018). The scope of political debate around immigration has expanded along with its prominence. Recently proposed legislation has included changes to the number and type of immigrants authorized to enter the US, alongside long-standing issu…
Rethinking Compassion: Toward a Political Account of the Partisan Gender Gap in the United States
Scholarship on the political gender gap in the United States has attributed women's political views to their greater compassion, yet individual‐level measures of compassion have almost never been used to directly examine such claims. We address this issue using the only nationally representative survey to include psychometrically validated measures of compassion alongside appropriate political variables. We show that even though women are more co…
Dissonance Persists: Reproduction of Racial Attitudes Among Post-Civil Rights Cohorts of White Americans
Attitudes toward race and politics continue to show tensions between antiracist norms and racist stereotypes, even among new generations of White Americans raised in an era of consensus on antiracist social norms. I suggest that this “dissonance” stems from a process of “two-tracked socialization” and I demonstrate the persistence of such dissonant attitudes in two ways. First, in the aggregate, the youngest cohorts of White Americans do not grea…
Media Independence through Routine Press-State Relations: Immigration and Government Statistics in the British Press
When and how does press coverage maintain independence from governments’ preferred language? Leading scholarship argues that elites shape media content, especially in foreign affairs settings where journalists rely on official sources. But do media push back in domestic policy contexts? Focusing on immigration in Britain, we find press coverage exhibits signs of autonomy that rely on the state’s administrative branches. Our evidence comes from au…
Dissonance Persists: Reproduction of Racial Attitudes Among Post-Civil Rights Cohorts of White Americans
Attitudes toward race and politics continue to show tensions between antiracist norms and racist stereotypes, even among new generations of White Americans raised in an era of consensus on antiracist social norms. I suggest that this “dissonance” stems from a process of “two-tracked socialization” and I demonstrate the persistence of such dissonant attitudes in two ways. First, in the aggregate, the youngest cohorts of White Americans do not grea…
The Better Angels of Our Nature: How the Antiprejudice Norm Affects Policy and Party Preferences in Great Britain and Germany
Existing research on public opinion related to race and immigration politics emphasizes the role of prejudice or bias against minority groups. We argue that the social norm against prejudice, and individual motivations to comply with it, are crucial elements omitted from prior analyses. In contemporary Western societies, most citizens receive strong signals that prejudice is not normatively acceptable. We demonstrate that many majority‐group indi…
Imagined Immigration: The Impact of Different Meanings of ‘Immigrants’ in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in Britain
Public opinion research on immigration attitudes has largely overlooked the question of how survey respondents understand the term ‘immigrants’. This article investigates latent perceptions of immigrants, termed ‘imagined immigration’, among members of the British public. Using novel survey data, I examine who members of the British public have in mind when they think of immigrants. I find that public perceptions of immigration diverge significan…
Constructing Immigrants: Portrayals of Migrant Groups in British National Newspapers, 2010–2012
Public opposition to immigration in Britain reflects perceptions of immigrants that focus disproportionately on “illegal” immigration and asylum seekers, rather than more numerous workers, students, and family members. This study examines coverage of immigration in the British national press, to see whether press portrayals of migrants provide a basis for these images of immigration underlying public attitudes. We use corpus linguistic methods to…
Media Independence through Routine Press-State Relations: Immigration and Government Statistics in the British Press
When and how does press coverage maintain independence from governments’ preferred language? Leading scholarship argues that elites shape media content, especially in foreign affairs settings where journalists rely on official sources. But do media push back in domestic policy contexts? Focusing on immigration in Britain, we find press coverage exhibits signs of autonomy that rely on the state’s administrative branches. Our evidence comes from au…
Rethinking Compassion: Toward a Political Account of the Partisan Gender Gap in the United States
Scholarship on the political gender gap in the United States has attributed women's political views to their greater compassion, yet individual‐level measures of compassion have almost never been used to directly examine such claims. We address this issue using the only nationally representative survey to include psychometrically validated measures of compassion alongside appropriate political variables. We show that even though women are more co…
The 'illegal' and the skilled: Effects of media portrayals on perceptions of immigrants in Britain
Public perceptions often diverge widely from reality on the size and make-up of immigrant populations, with likely consequences for public opinion about immigration. Prior research has not established whether the media has any causal role in the construction of these perceptions. This paper examines whether and how actually occurring media portrayals of immigrants in Britain affect perceptions of immigrants among members of the British public. We…
Going with the Flows: Information that Changes Americans’ Immigration Preferences
Immigration has become a salient, polarizing issue in American politics, with unusual power to shift white Americans’ partisanship (Abrajano & Hajnal, 2015) and vote choice (Hooghe & Dassonneville, 2018; Mutz, 2018). The scope of political debate around immigration has expanded along with its prominence. Recently proposed legislation has included changes to the number and type of immigrants authorized to enter the US, alongside long-standing issu…
Acceptable in the EU? Why some immigration restrictionists support European Union mobility
Why do some Europeans support immigration from within the European Union, while rejecting immigration from elsewhere? Acceptance of intra-European Union mobility—even by those who wish to restrict immigration more generally—is important for popular support for the European Union itself. This paper identifies and attempts to explain the preferences of “EU-only inclusionists”: EU nationals who support relatively high levels of immigration, but only…
Discrimination, Antiprejudice Norms, and Public Support for Multicultural Policies in Europe: The Case of Religious Schools
This study examines public support for a key contested multicultural policy in contemporary Europe: the provision of religious schools. It makes two main contributions, one substantive and one theoretical. Substantively, the main contribution is to provide new experimental evidence demonstrating the existence of discrimination against Muslims on a central issue of multicultural social policy. Theoretically, the main contribution is to propose an …
Roots of group threat: Anti-Prejudice Motivations and Implicit Bias in Perceptions of Immigrants as Threats
The perception of "group threat" is well known to predict opposition to immigration and negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities in Europe. However, the relationship between group threat and prejudice remains unclear, theoretically and empirically. We offer a new lens for viewing this relationship, using a dual process model of prejudice to help explain individual perceptions of threat as a function of both implicit prejudice and explicit moti…
Biases at the Ballot Box: How Multiple Forms of Voter Discrimination Impede the Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Ethnic Minority Groups
Research shows that ethnic minority candidates often face an electoral penalty at the ballot box. In this study, we argue that this penalty depends on both candidate and voter characteristics, and that pro-minority policy positions incur a greater penalty than a candidate’s ethnic background itself. Using a conjoint experiment embedded in a panel study of British voters, we investigate the relative contributions of candidate ethnicity, policy pos…
Victim, perpetrator, neither: Attitudes on deservingness and culpability in immigration law
This study examines whether there is popular support for a restrictive immigration policy aimed at denying safe haven to human rights abusers and those affiliated with terrorism. We designed a public opinion survey experiment that asks respondents to evaluate whether low level or high-level Taliban members who otherwise qualify for refugee status deserve immigration benefits. We found that a majority of respondents did not immediately deny a visa…
It's Not the Economy: The Effect of Framing Arguments on Attitudes Toward Refugees
Which arguments for refugee admissions are most persuasive to publics in receiving states? Some refugee scholars and advocates insist that the way to maximize support for refugee admissions is to emphasize their instrumental economic benefit to receiving states. Others prefer arguments based in legal or moral obligations, arguing that economic arguments risk undermining support for the most vulnerable or needy refugees. In this article, we assess…
Political science (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Immigration (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (9 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (8 works)