Anti-Immigrant Prejudice Scale
Also known as: Subtle and Blatant Prejudice Scale, Pettigrew-Meertens Prejudice Scale, Anti-Immigrant Attitudes Scale, Subtle Prejudice Toward Immigrants Measure
The Anti-Immigrant Prejudice Scale, developed by Thomas Pettigrew and Roel Meertens in 1995, measures prejudice toward immigrants along two dimensions: blatant prejudice, which is hot, close, and direct, expressing open rejection and perceived threat, and subtle prejudice, which is cool, distant, and indirect, expressing defense of traditional values, denial of positive emotion, and exaggeration of cultural difference. Built from national samples across western Europe, the scale captures the modern, socially acceptable face of anti-immigrant attitudes that overt-prejudice items miss, while its two-factor structure remains the subject of ongoing psychometric debate.
Key highlights
- Captures subtle, socially acceptable prejudice that overt-hostility items miss.
- Two-dimensional structure distinguishes harsh rejection from deniable, modern prejudice.
- Validated across multiple western European nations and languages.
- Predicts distinct discriminatory attitudes and policy preferences for each dimension.
Intuition
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How it works
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When to use it
Use the Anti-Immigrant Prejudice Scale when you need to measure prejudice toward immigrants or ethnic minorities in contexts where overt hostility is suppressed, and you want to capture its subtle as well as blatant expressions. It is well suited to European and cross-cultural studies of immigration attitudes, discrimination, and intergroup contact. It is less appropriate when the two-factor distinction is not central and a single prejudice index suffices, when the target group or context makes the original wording inappropriate without revalidation, or when the documented construct-validity problems cannot be addressed through testing and adaptation in the sample at hand.
Strengths & limitations
- Captures subtle, socially acceptable prejudice that overt-hostility items miss.
- Two-dimensional structure distinguishes harsh rejection from deniable, modern prejudice.
- Validated across multiple western European nations and languages.
- Predicts distinct discriminatory attitudes and policy preferences for each dimension.
- The discriminant validity of the blatant versus subtle factors is contested in some samples.
- Original wording is anchored in western European contexts and needs revalidation elsewhere.
- As a self-report it remains vulnerable to social-desirability bias, especially on blatant items.
- Classifying respondents into prejudice types depends on cutpoints that can be arbitrary.
Common pitfalls
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Applications
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Frequently asked
What is the difference between subtle and blatant prejudice?
Blatant prejudice is hot, direct, and openly hostile, expressed as perceived threat, rejection, and opposition to close contact with immigrants. Subtle prejudice is cool, indirect, and socially acceptable, expressed as defending traditional values, exaggerating cultural differences, and withholding positive emotion rather than voicing open hostility. Pettigrew and Meertens argue that in societies where overt prejudice is taboo, the subtle form predominates, so measuring both gives a fuller and more accurate picture of anti-immigrant attitudes.
Is the two-factor structure of the scale reliable?
It is debated. The distinction between blatant and subtle prejudice is the scale's central claim, but confirmatory factor analyses in some samples, including work by Arancibia-Martini and colleagues, report construct-validity problems and difficulty cleanly separating the two factors. This does not invalidate the framework, but it means users should test the factor structure in their own data, report fit, and consider respecification rather than assuming the two dimensions hold automatically.
Can the scale be used outside western Europe?
Yes, but with care. The original items are worded for western European immigration contexts and specific out-groups, and the scale has been translated and adapted for Spain, Chile, Argentina, and other settings. Each adaptation should be revalidated, checking item wording, factor structure, and measurement equivalence in the new context, because both the meaning of the items and the relevant out-group differ across countries and target groups.
Sources
- 1.Pettigrew, T. F., & Meertens, R. W. (1995). Subtle and Blatant Prejudice in Western Europe. European Journal of Social Psychology, 25(1), 57-75.
- 2.Arancibia-Martini, H., Ruiz, M. A., Blanco, A., & Cardenas, M. (2016). New Evidence of Construct Validity Problems for Pettigrew and Meertens' (1995) Blatant and Subtle Prejudice Scale. Psychological Reports, 118(2), 544-564.
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Cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 23). Anti-Immigrant Prejudice Scale. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/political-psychology/anti-immigrant-prejudice-scale