What Infl Uences Attitudes Towards Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Italy: An Image-Basedvignette Experiment

Due to its geographical position at the border of Europe, Italy has played a crucial role in managing migration, particularly during the ongoing refugee crisis. This issue has become central in Italian politics and media, often linked to illegal immigration, security, and crime (Nese, 2022). Right-wing parties have adopted strong anti-immigration stances (Colombo, 2018). Meanwhile, media portrayals frequently depict migration as a “massive invasion,” labeling migrants - regardless of their status - as “clandestine” or “illegal” (Quassoli, 2013). Furthermore, the arrival of newcomers from diverse religious backgrounds has fueled anxieties in a country that is the heart of Catholicism (Nese, 2022).

Given the prominence of migration in public discourse, this paper presents the results of a study exploring if, and to what extent, attitudes toward refugees and asylum seekers in Italy vary according to refugees’ gender, ethnicity, age, religion, social class and the contextual setting in which they happen to be. This study is grounded in two main theories: Social Identity Theory and Ethnic Competition Theory, which explain how prejudice and negative emotions can lead to restrictive attitudes toward refugees. Our methodology involves using pre-registered AI-generated image-based vignettes with randomized characteristics. Vignette experiments enable to evaluate in parallel the influence of various characteristics of generated vignettes on respondents’ opinions. Furthermore, image-based vignettes provide a more subtle way to examine how the characteristics of individuals and groups influence attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers while minimizing social desirability bias. To this purpose, we conducted a survey in November 2024 and administered a questionnaire, along with AI-generated image-based vignettes, to a representative sample of 2,000 individuals of the Italian population.

This study is among the first to examine perceptions of migrants in the Italian context (Nese, 2022), with its novelty stemming from the use of AI-generated image-based vignettes to depict refugee profiles.