Ankica Kosic

The aim of this study is to examine whether the relationship between populist orientation and attitudes towards the anti‐COVID vaccine and government measures is mediated by conspiracy beliefs and health risk perceptions, and whether these relationships are moderated by trust in institutions. Data were collected in Italy using a questionnaire ( N = 390). The results largely supported our hypotheses of moderated mediation. Basically, while previous studies suggest that populist attitudes are positively associated with conspiracy theories, vaccine hesitancy and limited compliance with government measures, this study shows that these relationships are stronger when people do not trust institutions.

As immigration is one of the dominant issues in contemporary public discourse, it is important to explain the mechanism of prejudice against immigrants from a cultural psychology perspective. Several studies in the literature have confirmed a significant relationship between perceptions of the estimated size of the immigrant population and negative attitudes towards them. This study aims to investigate whether this relationship is moderated by symbolic universes, i.e., affect-laden generalized worldviews. The study involves a representative sample of 3020 Italians who participated in a computer-assisted web survey and completed a questionnaire containing items measuring their estimates of the size of the migrant population in Italy, political orientation, cultural worldviews (symbolic universes), and the perceived threat posed by migrants. The results confirm that the relationship between the estimated size of the migrant population and the perceived threat is moderated by symbolic universes, being stronger for participants who hold both pessimistic and idealizing symbolic universes. The results are interpreted within the framework of semiotic cultural psychology theory.

(1) Background: This study explores how threat perception mediates the relationship between binding moral foundations and prejudice toward migrants. We hypothesized that the relationship between binding moral foundations and prejudice against migrants, which is already established in the literature, is mediated through realistic and symbolic threat perception. (2) Methods: Two separate samples were gathered, in Malta (N = 191) and Italy (N = 189). The participants responded to an anonymous questionnaire containing several scales: the Moral Foundation Questionnaire, perceived threat from migrants, prejudice toward migrants, and social distance from several macro-categories of migrants. (3) Results: We confirmed a significant relationship between binding moral foundations and explicit prejudice toward migrants, and also found that this relationship was mediated by perceived realistic and symbolic threats in both countries. However, when the indices of social distance were considered as criterion variables, the direct relationship between binding moral foundations and social distance was not confirmed for all the migrant macro-groups. In addition, in some migrant groups, we found that this relationship was mediated by perceived realistic and symbolic threats. (4) Conclusions: This study indicates that the perception of realistic threats may have a significant role in determining the effect of binding moral foundations; this may have theoretical and practical implications.