Victoria M Esses

Western University | UWO · Department of Psychology

Canadian immigration programs are increasingly emphasizing regionalization in order to contribute to the population base of smaller Canadian communities and to address local labour market needs. Despite frequent Canadian national surveys of public attitudes toward immigrants and immigration, however, little is known about the warmth of the welcome...

Much opposition to migration centers on worries that migrants are too culturally and socially different from the host population, that they will fail to integrate, or that they will change the demographics and culture of a destination society too dramatically. In both public and academic discourse, there is a tendency to assume that the “problem” o...

We investigate discrimination experiences of (1) immigrants and racialized individuals, (2) Indigenous peoples, and (3) comparison White non-immigrants in nine regions of Southwestern Ontario containing small- and mid-sized communities. For each region, representative samples of the three groups were recruited to complete online surveys. In most re...

A cross‐national representative survey in Canada and the U.S. examined ageism toward older individuals during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic, including ageist consumption stereotypes and perceptions of older people's competence and warmth. We also investigated predictors of ageism, including economic and health threat, social dominance ori...

Although Canada has long been regarded as a global leader in immigration policies and practices (Esipova et al., 2020), the COVID-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated existing challenges and vulnerabilities in Canada’s immigration system (Esses et al., 2021). Border closures restricted who was able to travel, favoring temporary foreign workers who...

Research has shown high levels of housing precarity among government-assisted refugees (GARs) connected to difficult housing markets, limited social benefits, and other social and structural barriers to positive settlement (Lumley-Sapanski, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic has likely exacerbated this precarity. Research to date demonstrates the negativ...

Using a cross-national representative survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, we examine predictors of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration in Canada and the United States, including general and COVID-related nationalism, patriotism, and perceived personal and national economic and health threats. In both countries, nationalism, parti...

The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nations and individuals has almost certainly led to increased feelings of threat and competition, heightened uncertainty, lack of control, and a rise in authoritarianism. In this paper we use social psychological and sociological theories to explore the anticipated effects on xenophobia and anti-im...

Some scholars claim that identifying with religious groups leads to a greater inclination toward violence than identifying with secular groups and we test this proposition in a unique experimental threat paradigm. We examine the possibility that threats toward individuals’ religious identities will result in greater aggression relative to threats t...

Link: https://ppforum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BeyondTheBigCity_AppendixA-JurisdictionalScan-PPF-July2019-1.pdf

Supporters of the Confederate battle flag often argue that their support is driven by pride in the South, not negative racial attitudes. Opponents of the Confederate battle flag often argue that the flag represents racism, and that support for the flag is an expression of racism and an attempt to maintain oppression of Blacks in the Southern United...

The number of refugees across the globe is at an alarming high and is expected to continue to rise for the foreseeable future. As a result, finding durable solutions for refugees has become a major challenge worldwide. The literature reviewed and policy implications discussed in this article are based on the premise that one of the major solutions...

This report focuses on promising practices for Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) related to governance models, priority setting, developing local settlement strategies, and implementing action plans that are in alignment with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) policy directions on LIP activities. We begin by describing IRCC’s...

Immigrants' perceptions of discrimination (PD) correlate strongly with various political outcomes, including group consciousness and partisan identity. Here, we examine the hypothesis that immigrants' PD vary across US localities, as threatened responses by native-born residents may increase perceived discrimination among neighboring immigrants. We...

This report provides a review and analysis of the literature on the social, economic, and other factors determining migration patterns to Canada and Alberta. It is based on a comprehensive systematic scoping review of the relevant literature. A push-pull framework is used to understand the negative social, economic, and other factors associated wit...

News media make an essential contribution to the way in which the public processes and understands controversial issues such as the arrival of refugees in western countries. Indeed, they can have an important role in shaping the public’s responses to these issues by framing arguments to encourage a particular interpretation of an issue. The current...

Hostility to immigration has deep roots in human psychology that will be difficult to overcome, says Victoria Esses

Using a social identity theory approach, we theorized that recruiters might be particularly biased against skilled immigrant applicants. We refer to this phenomenon as a skill paradox, according to which immigrants are more likely to be targets of employment discrimination the more skilled they are. Furthermore, building on the common ingroup ident...

This report focuses on current and predicted trends in immigration to Hamilton, and possible impacts on how best to serve the needs of immigrants and promote Hamilton as a welcoming community. Based on available data, we start off by describing the characteristics of current immigrants in Hamilton, how they are faring, and evidence of the welcome t...

The underutilization of immigrants’ skills, particularly the skills of ethnic and religious minorities, is of considerable concern to policy makers because of its economic and social costs. Recent research suggests that discrimination may be contributing to this well-documented unemployment and underemployment of skilled minority immigrants. In par...

This research aimed to examine lay beliefs about the causes of and solutions to ethnic prejudice towards immigrant populations in the Italian context. The research had two main goals: (a) to explore in Italy what non-experts think causes ethnic prejudice against immigrants, and how they suggest we combat it; (b) to assess whether lay perceptions of...

Three studies showed that social dominance orientation could contribute to environmental inequality through its association with environmental and economic ideologies, pursuit of ingroup interest, and relative indifference toward groups with low economic standing. Study 1 showed that social dominance orientation is correlated with a lack of concern...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers and facilitators to health and social service access and utilization for immigrant parents raising a child with a physical disability, in order to understand their specific needs and experiences of care. Design/methodology/approach – The research involves qualitative interviews with fi...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers and facilitators to health and social service access and utilization for immigrant parents raising a child with a physical disability, in order to understand their specific needs and experiences of care. Design/methodology/approach – The research involves qualitative interviews with fi...

Immigration policies and the treatment of immigrants and refugees are contentious issues involving uncertainty and unease. The media may take advantage of this uncertainty to create a crisis mentality in which immigrants and refugees are portrayed as “enemies at the gate” who are attempting to invade Western nations. Although it has been suggested...

The interplay of nationalistic threat perceptions, dehumanizing beliefs and intergroup emotions, and anti-immigrant sentiment is analyzed in a cross-national context with Australian (N = 124) and Canadian (N = 126) samples. National identification was linked to negative attitudes toward immigrants indirectly, via perceptions of immigrants as being...

Immigrants' perceptions of discrimination correlate strongly with various political outcomes, including group consciousness and partisan identity. Here, we examine the hypothesis that immigrants' perceptions of discrimination vary across U.S. localities, as threatened responses by native-born residents may increase perceived discrimination among ne...

Perceptions of economic costs and benefits play an important role in determining attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. The Unified Instrumental Model of Group Conflict, and the correlational and experimental research supporting it, indicate that when immigrants are seen as competing with members of the host society for economic resources, ne...

The authors developed a new dispositional measure of Commitment to Beliefs (CTB)—the degree to which people feel it is important to follow their value-expressive beliefs—across three phases of research. In Phases 1 and 2 (Studies 1–4), the CTB scale demonstrated strong internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity. Phase 3 demonstr...

Purpose: Although providing culturally sensitive care is an important element of family-centered rehabilitation very is little known about providers' experiences working with immigrant families in pediatric settings. The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of the experiences of service providers working with immigrant famili...

In this reflection on our term as coeditors of Social Issues and Policy Review (SIPR), we consider what we have learned from our work on the journal and what challenges lie ahead. We suggest that SIPR has been successful as a platform for work demonstrating the relevance of psychological research to issues of concern to policy makers and to the gen...

This research examined the effects of the labels “fat” vs. “overweight” in the expression of weight bias, with the prediction that the label “fat” biases individuals to respond more negatively than does the label “overweight.” In Study 1, participants' attitudes toward people labeled as fat were less favorable than were their attitudes toward peopl...

Three studies examined the role of trait-laden stereotypes (i.e. beliefs concerning the characteristics or attributes of target group members) and other components of inter-group attitudes in predicting evaluations of Native peoples in Canada. In Studies 1 and 2, measures of stereotypes, symbolic beliefs, affect, and attitudes toward Native peoples...

We use the integrative prejudice framework to further our understanding of weight prejudice, while simultaneously testing the generalizability of this framework. Participants completed measures of implicit and explicit weight prejudice, egalitarian-based nonprejudicial goals, and perceived weight discrimination. In line with predictions of the inte...

We introduce this issue by describing recent trends in migration and immigration policy, and the challenges faced by immigrants and by immigrant-receiving nations around the world. We then discuss the many contributions that psychology can make to understanding and optimizing the benefits of migration from the perspective of both immigrants and mem...

Bias against foreign-born or -trained medical students and doctors is not well understood, despite its documented impact on recruitment, integration and retention. This research experimentally examines the interaction of location of medical education and nationality in evaluations of doctors' competence and trustworthiness. A convenience sample of...

The current study used a double primed semantic decision task to investigate the role of social group information in mental representations of familiar others. Extrapolating from social role theory, we predicted that social role information would facilitate responding to familiar targets regardless of the specific task at hand. The names of celebri...

High levels of worldwide migration paired with increasingly negative attitudes toward immigrants and immigration in host countries indicate that it is crucial to gain an understanding of the bases of these attitudes. This article discusses one determinant of negative attitudes toward immigrants and immigration: perceived competition for resources....

Prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination: Theoretical and empirical overview This chapter has two main objectives: to review influential ideas and findings in the literature and to outline the organization and content of the volume. The first part of the chapter lays a conceptual and empirical foundation for other chapters in the volume. Specific...

Representing both traditional and emerging perspectives, this multi-disiplinary and truly international volume will serve as a seminal resource for students and scholars. © John. F. Dovidio, Miles Hewstone, Peter Glick and Victoria M. Esses 2010.

This study examined the influence of affectively-based weight prejudice versus weight control beliefs on perceptions of and support for an ambiguously discriminatory medical policy: denying surgery to overweight patients. Participants read a news article describing a new policy in the United Kingdom of denying surgery to overweight patients, and re...

The Unified Instrumental Model of Group ConflictNegative Consequences of GlobalizationApplication to the Ongoing Conflict in SudanConclusions AcknowledgmentReferences

Theories of subtle prejudice imply that personnel decision makers might inadvertently discriminate against immigrant employees, in particular immigrant employees form racial minority groups. The argument is that the ambiguities that are associated with immigrant status (e.g., quality of foreign credentials) release latent biases against minorities....

Three studies were conducted to test the role of the dehumanization of refugees (through claims that they are immoral) in determining emotional reactions to refugees, attitudes toward refugees, and attitudes toward current refugee policy in Canada. We also examined determinants of such perceptions. In Studies 1 and 2, correlational analyses and str...

Allport's Perspective on Instrumental Intergroup RelationsAllport's Foundation for Subsequent Developments in the FieldA New Framework: Unified Instrumental Model of Group ConflictHas Allport Been Supported?Future Research Directions

Research on modem, subtle manifestations of prejudice is currently characterized by the existence of diverse concepts that are not well integrated from a general perspective. The present chapter reviews a new framework that integrates several of these concepts from a cognitive consistency perspective, and the data collected to date that support thi...

Opportunities for communicating psychological findings beyond the discipline are limited and often under-rewarded. In this article, we discuss reasons why psychological research often fails to be communicated beyond the discipline, and we provide suggestions for what needs to be changed in order to bridge this gap. Specifically, we identify barrier...

This research attempted to extend the classic cognition study, Neely (1977), to the domain of social stereotypes. Neely demonstrated the existence of automatic and controlled processing in the same paradigm and the differing effects these processes have on accessing category information. The current research extended these findings by using social...

In the current research, we examined whether promoting an inclusive national ingroup that includes both immigrants and nonimmigrants would improve attitudes toward immigrants and immigration among members of receiving societies. We also determined whether one's nation of citizenship and individual differences in social dominance orientation would m...

This article discusses the role of lay perceptions of ethnic prejudice in the maintenance and perpetuation of prejudicial attitudes. We first discuss the importance of lay beliefs about ethnic prejudice for understanding processes underlying prejudice and its reduction. We also discuss the potential relations between two individual differences—soci...

This study determined whether ambivalence toward Native peoples would result in amplified, or polarized, responses to members of the group, as assessed in terms of both general attitudes and social policy endorsements. In addition, it examined whether priming would mediate these effects, based on the notion that ambivalent attitudes contain both po...

The Canadian Criminal Code contains provisions for labelling certain convicted criminal offenders as Dangerous Offenders. Sentences of indefinite duration are usually imposed on these offenders in place of the fixed sentences that would normally be imposed. The present study examined one potential source of bias in the use of the Dangerous Offender...

Attitudes toward immigrants and obstacles to their successful integration into receiving societies have emerged as important areas of investigation for the 21st century. Immigration rates have risen to unprecedented levels globally, and western countries increasingly depend on immigrants to maintain their population size and labor force (UN Departm...

Color-coded terrorism alerts are issued, then lifted with no explanation. False alarms can, like crying wolf, desensitize people to a real need to be on alert. And that psychic numbing is just one effect discussed in this book by fifteen psychologists teamed up to take a critical look at the U.S. war on terrorism. These experts are led by the Chair...

This research examined the effects of Personal Need for Structure, Need for Closure, and Personal Fear of Invalidity on information processing during the development of stereotypes. In Study 1, participants read as many group member descriptions as they wanted before expressing group stereotypes. Participants higher in Personal Fear of Invalidity s...

Presents an obituary for Kenneth Lucien Dion (1944-2004). His unexpected death on November 16, 2004, of a heart attack, came at a time when Dion was at the height of his career, having just started work on several new programs of research.

We assessed lay perceptions of the causes of and solutions to ethnic prejudice, and determined whether individual differences related to intergroup relations (social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism) and to cognitive style (personal need for structure, need for cognition) were predictive of these perceptions. Results revealed clea...

Three studies tested the integrated threat theory by examining the causal role that threats play in attitudes toward immigrants. In Study I, students were presented with information about an immigrant group indicating that it posed realistic threats, symbolic threats, both types of threat or no threats to the ingroup. Attitudes toward the immigrant...

In this chapter, we describe open-ended measures for assessing the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitudes, and the use of these measures to assess a variety of properties relating to attitude structure. In describing the utility of these measures to assess both intergroup and more general attitudes, we highlight situations in...

In this chapter, we explore the role of national and international identity in determining attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. We begin by describing nativist versus civic/cultural definitions of national identity, and the distinction between patriotism and nationalism. We also outline two more international perspectives--internationalism...

The present work investigated mechanisms by which Whites' prejudice toward Blacks can be reduced (Study 1) and explored how creating a common ingroup identity can reduce prejudice by promoting these processes (Study 2). In Study 1, White participants who viewed a videotape depicting examples of racial discrimination and who imagined the victim's fe...

This research investigated the relation between sexism, general prejudice, and reactions to sexist humor. Eighty-one male participants completed measures of modern sexism, ambivalent sexism, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation, and rated the funniness, offensiveness, and likelihood of repeating female-disparaging and male-...

A field experiment provided the first test of the hypothesis that intergroup attitudes within a nation predict the group members' attitudes toward the break-up of the nation. Prior to a referendum on the devolution of power from Britain to Wales, Welsh (minority) and English (majority) participants indicated their attitudes towards each other and t...

This chapter examines psychological perspectives on intergroup relations, their implications for reducing bias and conflict, and their potential applications for enhancing social integration. Psychological research on social conflict, harmony, and integration has adopted one of two general perspectives. One perspective places an emphasis on functio...

Group members typically favour ingroups over outgroups, particularly when distributing positive rather than negative resources. The present investigation examined whether the positive–negative discrimination asymmetry in the minimal group paradigm varies as a function of ingroup identification. After being categorized into arbitrary groups, partici...

This article, which provides an introduction to the issue, discusses the role of psychology in understanding the processes associated with immigrants and immigration, and in meeting the challenge of managing immigration successfullyά—in ways that facilitate the achievement and well-being of immigrants, that benefit the country collectively, and tha...

In this paper, we describe recent trends in attitudes toward immigration in North America, and we suggest how these attitudes are likely to be affected by the September 11, 2001 “Attack on America.” We begin by explaining why public attitudes toward immigration are important, and describe recent trends in these attitudes in the United States and Ca...

The personal/group discrimination discrepancy (PGDD) refers to greater reporting of discrimination at the group than personal level. We examined whether the PGDD is one example of people's general tendency to distance themselves from negative attributes related to the social categories to which they belong, and whether this tendency varies as a fun...

This research explored the role of affect (i.e., emotions) and cognitions (i.e., stereotypes and symbolic beliefs) in Whites’ willingness to engage in contact with Blacks and, in a comparison behavior, endorsement of social policies for Blacks. Specifically, participants were instructed to focus on their feelings or on their thoughts while watching...

This research investigated whether ambivalence-induced response amplification occurs because of a motivation to reduce ambivalence. In Study 1, participants’ ambivalence toward Native people was assessed and they then read a positive or negative essay on Native land claims. As predicted, ambivalent participants displayed a significant difference be...

In this chapter, we describe open-ended measures for assessing the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitudes, and the use of these measures to assess a variety of properties relating to attitude structure. In describing the utility of these measures to assess both intergroup and more general attitudes, we highlight situations in...

Previous research has found that people who are ambivalent toward a group process new information about the group more carefully than people who are nonambivalent toward the group. It has been suggested that this effect occurs because people who are ambivalent toward a group (a) experience a high level of physiological arousal when they think about...

The present research developed and tested a new individual-difference measure of the need for affect, which is the motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations. The first phase of the research developed the need for affect scale. The second phase revealed that the need for affect is related to a number of individual differences in co...

In this article, we discuss the role of perceived competition for resources in determining negative attitudes toward immigrants and immigration in North America. We first provide background information on immigration policies and levels of immigration to Canada and the United States. Following an overview of our theoretical perspective, we then des...

The role of attitudinal ambivalence and 9 other attitude properties in determining responsiveness to consensus information were examined in this experiment. We expected attitude ambivalence, but not the other attitude properties, to moderate the effects of consensus information on final attitudes expressed. After completing initial measures of atti...

This article, which provides an introduction to the issue, discusses the role of psychology in understanding the processes associated with immigrants and immigration, and in meeting the challenge of managing immigration successfully in ways that facilitate the achievement and well-being of immigrants, that benefit the country collectively, and that...

The present research developed and tested a new individual-difference measure of the need for affect, which is the motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations. The first phase of the research developed the need for affect scale. The second phase revealed that the need for affect is related to a number of individual differences in co...

This research examined the effect of race of test administrator, White vs Black, on the intellectual test performance of White participants. Social dominance orientation was also assessed as a potential moderator of effects obtained. Results indicated that participants who were tested by a Black experimenter performed better on the ability test tha...

The authors investigated the relation between attributions of responsibility and reactions to affirmative action. Participants read one of four fictitious editorials about visible minority under-employment in which responsibility for causing the underemployment problem and responsibility for solving it were manipulated. Results indicated that ratin...

Three studies supported the proposal that one important aspect of contemporary sexism is greater respect for men than for women and that this differential respect has a unique role to play in mediating hiring discrimination, distinct from gender stereotypes. In Studies 1 and 2, participants in a hiring paradigm evidenced bias favoring men on both r...

Based on models of intergroup competition and social dominance, we examined the impact of perceived economic competition with immigrants on support for empowering and non-empowering forms of assistance for immigrants. In Study 1, a manipulation of perceived economic competition with immigrants caused attenuated support for empowerment but not for n...

Past research has shown that attitudes can be based on different types of psychological information or components. It has also been suggested that the amount of ambivalence and inconsistency between and within these components are important aspects of attitude structure. In this paper, the authors discuss the relation between ambivalence and incons...

Des travaux antérieurs ont révélé que les attitudes peuvent être fondées sur différents types de renseignements ou d'éléments d'ordre psychologique, tels que les émotions et les croyances. Il a également été suggéré que les degrés d'ambivalence et d'incohérence entre ces éléments et au sein de ceux-ci sont d'importants aspects de la structure des a...

The authors investigated the accuracy of stereotypes of the academic performance of ethnic groups. Ninety-four participants estimated the mean academic performance of Toronto highschool students from nine ethnic groups and completed measures of right-wing authoritarianism, intelligence, and attitudes toward the groups. The estimated academic perfor...