Exploring UK Public Attitudes Towards Stateless People 3 towards asylum seekers and refugees, as well as other migrant groups. Research indicates that individuals who define themselves as politically conservative or right-wing are more likely to express greater prejudice and more restrictive social policy attitudes towards asylum seekers (Haslam and Holland, 2012; Hartley and Pedersen, 2015; Canetti et al., 2016; Anderson and Ferguson, 2018; Hartley et al., 2019), as well as anti-immigration sentiment more broadly (Gallego and Pardos-Prado, 2014; Plener et al., 2017; Anderson and Ferguson, 2018; Cowling et al., 2019). This may partly reflect the greater emphasis right-wing ideologies place on tradition and conservation – values associated with preserving the past, resisting social change, and protecting the ‘in-group’ and its way of life (Schwartz, 2012). Research has shown that right-wing populist attitudes are similarly shaped by perceived threats to social order, a desire for conservation, and preference for a past in which their group held greater centrality in society (Norris and Inglehart, 2019; Lammers and Baldwin, 2020; Jami, 2025). Another explanatory factor may be differences in empathy: research indicates those who identify as left–wing or liberal score higher on empathy measures than their conservative counterparts, which may contribute to more inclusive or supportive attitudes towards migrants (Hasson et al., 2018; Zebarjadi et al., 2023). Although political orientation may provide some explanation of social policy attitudes and prejudice, other predictors, such as personal contact with migrants and personal experience of migration are also valuable to consider. Intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954) suggests that attitudes towards an outgroup tend to be more favourable if the member of the ingroup has contact with an individual from the outgroup. Although meta-analytic review suggests that approximately 94 per cent of previous studies found a negative association between contact and prejudice, some qualifying factors are relevant. For example, Allport’s original idea that the ‘wrong kind’ of contact can increase negative emotions and stereotypes should be noted, and a significant body of research highlights the importance of the context of the contact, such as whether it is observed in an experimental or natural setting, the power dynamics between the groups engaging in the contact, common goals of the groups, and its duration, frequency and directness (McKeown and Dixon, 2017; Vezzali et al., 2017). Despite these caveats, available literature across multiple settings and contexts suggests that intergroup contact between the public and migrants tends to be a significant predictor of pro-immigrant attitudes (McLaren, 2003; Escandell and Ceobanu, 2009; Ghosn et al., 2019; Kotzur et al., 2019; De Coninck et al., 2021). Personal experience of migration is also shown to foster pro-immigrant attitudes, including more favourable social policy attitudes (Just and Anderson, 2015). This may be to avoid cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) or because the shared processes of moving to another country, such as acculturation and physical and psychological uprooting, create solidarity and kinship between migrants (Just & Anderson, 2015). Research suggests that social policy attitudes and prejudice are associated. A substantial body of literature has demonstrated that prejudice towards asylum seekers, refugees and other migrant groups is associated with discriminatory or negative attitudes, including restrictive social policy preferences (Escandell and Ceobanu, 2009; Pereira et al., 2010; Gallego and Pardos-Prado, 2014; Hartley and Pedersen, 2015; Just and Anderson, 2015; Plener et al., 2017; Anderson and Ferguson, 2018; Cowling et al., 2019; Hartley et al., 2019; De Coninck et al., 2021). A large body of research identifies perceived threat as a key predictor of prejudice and social policy attitude towards outgroups (Stephan and Stephan, 1996; Bizman and Yinon, 2001; Pereira et al., 2010), including towards asylum seekers (Pattison and Davidson, 2019) and refugees (Hartley and Pedersen, 2015). Other psychological factors that could predict social policy attitudes and prejudice towards stateless people include personality traits, such as interpersonal style. The Inventory of Interpersonal skills (IIP) (Horowitz et al., 2000) assesses difficulties that people experience in their interpersonal relationships, organising these difficulties across the dimensions of ‘affiliation’ and ‘dominance’ (Lo Coco et al., 2018). Affiliation entails high warmth/friendliness and correlates positively with is strongly related to the Big Five Trait of Agreeableness (Nysæter et al., 2009). The https://doi.org/10.1017/S147474642510119X Published online by Cambridge University Press