Managing immigration is a challenge at the political, economic, and social levels. Clarifying the social psychological antecedents behind the onset of negative attitudes towards immigrants might help overcome this challenge. The present study investigates the relationships between people’s experience of social exclusion, feelings of generalized interpersonal trust, and anti-immigrant attitudes across 23 European countries. We used data from the European Social Survey 8 (2016), employing a representative sample of the European population. A 1–1–1 multilevel mediation model showed that: (a) the higher the experience of social exclusion, the lower the generalized trust towards others; (b) the experience of social exclusion related positively and directly with anti-immigration attitudes; and (c) generalized interpersonal trust mediated the relationship between experienced social exclusion and anti-immigrant attitudes so that the experience of being socially excluded reduced feelings of generalized interpersonal trust that, in turn, promoted hostile attitudes towards immigrants. Taken together, these results create a platform for future research on the emergence of negative attitudes towards immigrants and factors that might facilitate the development of a climate of integration and acceptance.

Previous literature on conspiracy beliefs has an important gap, as it has almost completely excluded conspiracy beliefs relating to LGBTQ+ people. The purpose of the present research was to develop and validate a specific tool to measure the Gender Ideology and LGBTQ+ Lobby Conspiracies Beliefs: the GILC scale. Two independent data collections ( N _tot = 1.908) were run involving both heterosexual and gay, lesbian and bisexual people. We expected a mono‐factorial structure of the tool, with high levels of internal reliability, invariant by respondents' gender, sexual orientation and previous knowledge or hearsay of gender ideology. Furthermore, we expected that GILC scale manages to measure a differentiated construct: (a) compared to other specific and general conspiracy contents; (b) compared to a generic disposition to engage in conspiratorial mentality; (c) compared to existing measures of sexual prejudice, stereotypes and negative attitudes towards sexual minority people. In relation to criterion validity, we expected that several psychosocial and socio‐political ideology variables (i.e. RWA and SDO), would associate with high levels in GILC scale. The results confirmed our expectations, showing that GILC scale is a short tool which include nine items with a mono‐factorial structure and with excellent psychometric properties. Limitations and further research directions are discussed.

The ascent of populism has been linked with economic and cultural disruptions of modernization. From this perspective, it could be implied that factors such as psychological insecurity and uncertainty are key in making voters gravitate toward the populist narrative. The present research aimed at highlighting the psychological determinants that uncertainties deriving from modernization processes may activate in populist voters. Specifically, we focused on immigration in Italy, investigating whether and how support for different populist parties relates to development of negative attitudes toward immigrants. Two samples of Italian adults (total N = 1655), who voted in the Italian general elections of March 4, 2018 took part in the research. Multigroup path analysis showed that assumption of anti‐immigration stances through the joint mediating role of Dangerous World Belief and Right‐Wing Authoritarianism was shared by different groups of populist voters. However, different populist voters differed in the strength of the path passing through Competitive Jungle World Belief and Social Dominance Orientation. Results underline the relevance of social worldviews and ideological attitudes in shaping the attitudes of the Italian populist electorate.

Introduction: Conspiracy theories and beliefs (CTBs) about LGBTQ+ people are often used as arguments in political debate in Italy and across Europe to hinder the passing of protective laws and negatively affect popular consensus regarding the promotion of anti-discrimination policies and the advancement of civil rights. Method: We conducted two correlational studies in Italy starting the data collection at the end of 2022. In Study 1 (N = 589), we investigated which ideological profile was more associated with LGBTQ+ CTBs, between the two profiles identified by Duckitt et al.’s model (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(1), 75–93, 2002): path A) high vision of the world as a competitive jungle and consequent high social dominance orientation; path B) high vision of the world as dangerous and consequent high right-wing authoritarianism. In Study 2 (N = 1581), we have also included three potential outcomes associated with LGBTQ+ CTBs in the model. Results: Through a mediational path model, we found that path B was the strongest associated with LGBTQ+ CTBs. We found that LGBTQ+ CTBs mediated the relationships between the two ideological dispositions and (a) lower support to LGBTQ+ civil rights; (b) lower LGBTQ+ collective action intentions; and (c) higher adherence to economic myths about LGBTQ+ people. Conclusions: Socio-psychological research on LGBTQ+ CTBs may inform social policies that work to lessen the harm these beliefs do and advance a more welcoming and inclusive society. Policy Implications: Such results offer several insights to change and improve the actual debate in political, scientific, and cultural domains, contributing to producing new policies which might increase the self-determination of all LGBTQ+ people.