Waves of immigration in Italy, immigrants’ dehumanization and proposal of defensive strategies.

conceive strategies for containing the economical and social consequences of immigration. In addition, we expect that the proposal of defensive strategies (e.g., reduction in monthly expenses for each immigrant; stricter criteria for receiving refugees) is justified by using immigrants‘ dehumanization (see the concept of moral disengagement by Bandura, 1999; see also Castano & Giner-Sorolla, 2006). In the experiment, two conditions were created: in one condition (Salience of immigration), participants saw four images reproducing boats of immigrants or protest behaviors by immigrants; in the other condition (Control), they saw four Escher‘s abstract paintings. Participants were psychology students (N=172). The main measures were: uniquely human and non-uniquely human traits assigned to Italians and immigrants (Capozza, Trifiletti, Vezzali, & Favara, 2013); items assessing the policies which could be used to contain immigration problems. As expected, in the condition in which the constant immigration and protest behaviors were made salient, participants were more willing to reduce the Italian financial commitment for immigrants compared to the control condition. This lower disposition to help immigrants was associated with the perception of immigrants as not-fully human. Interestingly, only in the experimental condition infrahumanization of immigrants was revealed. Practical implications of findings for a stronger acceptance of immigrants will be discussed.