Existing research has explored how media messages influence the salience of national identification in attitudes towards immigrants and asylum seekers as well as immigration policy preference. These studies depart from SIT and SCT to show media messages increase the salience of national identification, resulting in higher outgroup prejudice and preference for restrictive policies. However, as recent studies bring to light, national identity representations (NIRs) mediate the relationship between national identity strength and attitude outcomes. More specifically, strong national identification leads to outgroup prejudice and preference for more restrictive immigration policies when associated with more essentialist NIRs (ethnic or cultural) as opposed to a more inclusive one (civic). Yet, the role the media plays in increasing the weight people assign to different NIRs in outgroup prejudice remains unexplored.

To address this gap, this study examines how identity-related frames – by highlighting immigrants’ ingroup or outgroup categorisation – affect the weight of NIRs and, thus, influence attitudes towards outgroups and immigration policy preferences. This study will conduct an online between-subject experiment embedded in a survey among a sample of German (Christian) natives. I expect to find that assimilation frames increase the weight of cultural NIRs, resulting in higher prejudice towards immigrants and a preference for more restrictive immigration policies. Conversely, I hypothesise that multicultural frames improve outgroup attitudes and immigration policy preferences by increasing the weight of civic NIR.