Table 1 Overview of experimental academic findings on migration communication strategies
From: A review of experimental evidence of how communication affects attitudes to immigration
Strategy | Evidence on effectiveness | Contingencies, mediations, and specificities |
|---|---|---|
1a. Correcting information on stocks/flows | often ineffective (4/8 studies show statistically significant effects) | Shown to be effective when combined with immigrant’s unemployment rate or revenue information |
More effective when exposure was longer | ||
Information on flows shown to lead to greater negativity than stocks | ||
1b. Fact checking on effects of migration | mostly effective (9/11) | More effective when exposure to information was longer |
2. Appeal to emotion | mostly effective (4/5) | More effective when exposure was longer |
Correcting information works less when emotions have been elicited | ||
Shown to be more powerful than information | ||
Anxiety amplifies effects of negative news stories | ||
Emotive language shown to have effects | ||
3a. Appeal to self-interest | mostly ineffective (3/7) | “Self-interest” economic concerns are primarily via concerns on tax burdens, rather than job competition, and can also be conceived as a common interest concern |
Some evidence of depolarisation instead of uniform effects | ||
3b. Appeal to common interest | effective (4/4) | Both economic and otherwise are shown to be effective, if framed as good for country / fellow citizens |
4. Emphasising conformity or diversity (respectively for positive or negative effects) | effective (7/7) | Migrants shown to be attempting to integrate more powerful than already integrated migrants |
Social integration, language and food shown to matter | ||
5. Migrant description | effective (11/12) | Attributes matter less than adherence to rules (regularity) or sense of fairness |
6. Emphasising common ground | effective (2/2) | Bridging shown to be more effective than appeal to political values or information |
7. Appeal to empathy | effective (4/4) | Humanitarian messages shown to elicit empathy |
Communication based on individuals shown to be more effective than groups or statistics | ||
8. Messenger effects | mostly ineffective (1/3) | Â |
9. Appeal to identity | Mostly effective (4/5) | Contingent on (1) assumptions behind the identity and (2) migrants holding that identity |