Sociocultural Conservatives: a Profile from the United Kingdom and Germany

This article examines whether anti-immigration individuals in Western Europe have conservative or progressive preferences on traditional morality issues and whether platforms that bundle anti-immigration positions with progressive stances on gender and sexuality are more appealing. It distinguishes between old issues (e.g., divorce, some "LG" issues) where a progressive legislative status quo exists, and new issues (e.g., gender self-identification, inclusive language, affirmative action, and "BT+" issues) where it does not. Using original survey data from the United Kingdom and Germany and an original preregistered survey experiment in Germany, it shows that anti-immigration individuals prefer political platforms with moderate-to-progressive positions on old issues but conservative on new ones. Furthermore, bundling anti-immigration and progressive positions on traditional morality issues does not increase platform support due to the higher issue salience of immigration. These findings offer a new perspective on the rise of sexually modern nativism and the dimensionality of political conflict on sociocultural issues.