PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This study investigates whether a strong cultural orientation toward so-called marketized values serves as a predictor of hostile attitudes toward immigrants. Using the human values scale of the European Social Survey (ESS), marketized values are defined as a strong commitment to power and achievement (self-enhancement) and a lack of the solidarity values benevolence and universalism (self-transcendence). The underlying assumption is that individuals who embrace marketized values are more prone to reject immigrants because they are stigmatized as ‘unprofitable’ by an economic logic.

Drawing on insights from the Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT), the marketization of cultural values is embedded in a particular institutional setting found in all western societies, namely the dominance of the economy over non-economic institutions, like family, politics, and education. Building on prior efforts that extended the scope of IAT, I argue that a cultural emphasis on material success coupled with a weak control by enfeebled non-economic institutions leads to an anomic state in which economic-based prejudices are more likely to occur and persist.

Consistent with theoretical expectations, multilevel models based on data from the ESS (wave 2018) reveal that hostility towards immigrants is more pronounced among individuals holding marketized values. This association is stronger in countries where the economic sector is left unregulated and non-economic institutions are enfeebled. Moreover, multi-level mediation models show that the country aggregate of marketized values mediate the effect of individual marketized values on anti-immigrant attitudes.

Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the relation between human values and attitudes and how both are shaped by the social structure in a society. It provides new insights for the continuing work on human values by shedding light on a distinct aspect of cultural values reflecting a far-reaching marketization in western nations.