Correcting Crime Myths About Immigrants Works—With a Catch
A Swedish study of 1,700 people shows that factual information can narrow the public's exaggerated fears about immigrant crime. But the correction created unintended side effects: people's beliefs about specific crime types shifted in ways not supported by data, suggesting policymakers must be cautious about how they counter misinformation.
Originaltitel: Closing the Perception Gap: How Corrective Information Can Reduce Misperceptions of the Link Between Immigrant Background and Crime
<p>Public perceptions in Western societies often overstate the role of immigration in crime, with important implications for both policy preferences and intergroup relations. Drawing on data from a three-wave experiment in Sweden (N = 1,709), this study evaluates the effectiveness, persistence, and spillover effects of providing corrective information about the risk of being suspected of a crime among individuals with a foreign versus a native background. The results showed that exposure to corrective information improved participants' estimates of risk of crime suspicion for those with a foreign background, including their relative risk compared with natives. At the same time, the correction affected perceived risks associated with specific crime types, not addressed by the same. Taken together, these results suggest that corrective information can improve public knowledge and narrow a perception gap surrounding immigrants' general involvement in crime relative to natives, but also that such corrections might spillover into perceptions about specific crimes, which may not necessarily be more accurate.</p>