Social Policy and Society (2025), page 1 of 19 doi:10.1017/S147474642510119X ARTICLE Exploring UK Public Attitudes Towards Stateless People: A Network Analysis Ellie Oppenheim1, Ciarán O’Driscoll2 and Francesca Brady1,3 1 Research Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, UCL, London, UK, 2Research Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, CORE Data Lab, Centre for Outcomes Research and Effectiveness (CORE), UCL, London, UK and 3Woodfield Trauma Service, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK Corresponding author: Francesca Brady; Email: f.brady@ucl.ac.uk (Received 16 November 2023; revised 28 September 2025; accepted 12 October 2025) Abstract This study provides quantitative evidence on UK public attitudes towards stateless people, comparing them with attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers. A cross-sectional UK survey (n = 385) was conducted. Network analysis modelled associations between social policy attitudes and prejudice towards stateless people, refugees, and asylum seekers, alongside other variables, including political orientation and perceived threat. Social policy attitudes were more restrictive towards stateless people than refugees, but less restrictive than towards asylum seekers. Prejudice towards stateless people was not significantly different to that towards refugees or asylum seekers. Prejudice and social policy attitudes were highly interrelated between all three groups, with political orientation and perceived threat the strongest predictors. Findings demonstrate similarities in UK public attitudes towards stateless people, refugees, and asylum seekers. Awareness-raising interventions and interventions addressing political and threat-based narratives may be most effective in reducing discrimination and fostering inclusion of stateless people. Keywords: stateless; prejudice; social policy attitudes; refugee; asylum seeker Introduction A person affected by statelessness is someone who is ‘not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law’ (United Nations (UN) General Assembly, 1954). A person is stateless either where they are unable to acquire any nationality at birth or where they have lost or been deprived of the nationality they once held, without acquiring another one (The Institute of Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), 2014). Although refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless persons are distinct legal categories, some refugees can also be stateless, and statelessness may be relevant to the determination process for some asylum applications. Stateless people share many experiences with asylum seekers and refugees, such as exposure to trauma, persecution, discrimination from governments and the public, being subject to immigration control, and being unable to access key public services before obtaining leave to remain in a host country (Liebling et al., 2014; Küey, 2017; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2017; Schlaudt et al., 2020; Home Office, 2021). © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. https://doi.org/10.1017/S147474642510119X Published online by Cambridge University Press