Political Science

Locus of Control and Anti‐Immigrant Sentiment in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom

2016
Author(s)
Allison Harell
Stuart Soroka
Locus of Control and Anti‐Immigrant Sentiment in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom

Abstract: Using data collected in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, this article examines the determinants of attitudes toward immigrants. In particular, we draw on the literature in social psychology to explore the role of locus of control in promoting more ethnocentric and restrictive attitudes towards immigration. We conceptualize control at three levels:(1) perceptions of individual locus of control (ie, feeling that one can control one's own circumstances),(2) perceptions of societal control (ie, feeling that one's country has control ...