A new study claims that individuals possessing higher levels of the personality trait openness are less prone to antisemitic attitudes, and that this relationship is partially mediated by interpersonal contact with Jewish individuals. This is based on research published in the August issue of Personality and Individual Differences.
Talia Morstead and Anita DeLongis from the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia conducted the study. The researchers set out to explore the psychosocial mechanisms underlying antisemitic attitudes, noting that “antisemitism is an enduring phenomenon with parallels to other forms of prejudice yet demonstrates a distinctive capacity to adapt in rhetorical form to the prevailing sociocultural context."
According to the authors, while previous literature has established a clear link between personality traits and prejudice, “compared to work examining effects of intergroup contact, the role that individual differences play in the propensity to seek out contact is under-examined.”
The study was prompted by the need to identify “potential intervention targets that are contextually enduring and less tied to the prevailing socio-cultural climate,” particularly in the context where “recent years have witnessed surges in antisemitic incidents across Western democracies.”
To test their hypotheses, the researchers utilized data from non-Jewish individuals collected as part of the Understanding America Study, which is an internet-based probability panel study administered by the Center for Economic and Social Research at the University of Southern California.
Interpersonal contact accounts for 25% of effect between openness, antisemitism
The analyzed dataset included 1,442 non-Jewish participants from a nationally representative sample of Americans.
Openness was assessed using 10 items from the Big Five Inventory, while antisemitic attitudes were measured using an 11-item scale developed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to “quantify global acceptance of antisemitism.”
Interpersonal contact with Jewish individuals was measured by asking participants how often they interact with Jewish people, with responses coded on a scale from one to six.
The researchers performed causal mediation analyses while controlling for demographic covariates including age, gender, political orientation, education, and household income.
According to the results, openness positively predicted Jewish contact and negatively predicted antisemitic attitudes.
The mediation analysis indicated that interpersonal contact with Jewish individuals partially mediated the relationship between openness and antisemitic attitudes, accounting for “approximately 25% of the total effect.”
Additional pathways for antisemitism exist independent of contact with Jews
The authors noted that a significant direct effect of openness on antisemitic attitudes remained even when controlling for Jewish contact, pointing to “additional pathways beyond interpersonal contact through which openness might contribute to reduced antisemitic attitudes.”
In their discussion specifically addressing the challenge of fighting antisemitism, the authors note that because antisemitism features a “uniquely conspiratorial nature” that makes it “often resistant to change through educational interventions or appeals to reason,” behavioral approaches are vital.
They highlight that “interpersonal contact predicted reduced antisemitic attitudes,” which “highlights the potential value of behavioral intervention approaches” as alternatives or complements to traditional education.
Furthermore, the researchers point out that contact interventions have “proven effective in reducing endorsement of antisemitic conspiracies.”
However, the authors also acknowledge methodological limitations, including the cross-sectional nature of the data, which “precludes examination of causality, including whether the assumptions of temporal ordering hold.”