Race, Wealth and the Masking of Opposition to Immigrants in the Netherlands

This work uses a list experiment to directly test for differences in attitudes towards poor, racially different and racially similar immigrants to the Netherlands in terms of (1) overt support and (2) covert support and (3) the difference between the two (i.e., social desirability bias). Results show that the expression of opposition to immigrants is significantly masked, suggesting that anonymous acts (e.g., voting) could capture greater opposition. Racially similar immigrants are subject to greater opposition relative to racially different or poorer immigrants, but only when anonymity is offered to respondents. The implication is that overt estimates (i.e., openly expressed) are misleading as levels of support appear consistent across immigrant groups. Going forward, we suggest the utility of the list experiment to better account for observable downward bias in estimates at least on the aggregate level or in contexts with clear normative pressure to appear tolerant.