ABSTRACT
Research shows that, for various reasons, public perceptions of the immigrant population size are often inflated considerably, exceeding the true size as indicated by official statistics. This phenomenon is often called innumeracy. These misperceptions are relevant to study since abundant research has found that it is not the actual but the perceived size of the immigrant population that is associated with attitudes toward immigration. This chapter therefore focuses on the role of the media on innumeracy. It is based on a linkage analysis where the results from a content analysis are linked to respondents’ media use over time. The analyses confirm previous research showing that there is an overestimation of the immigrant population, although the degree of innumeracy differs between countries. Although innumeracy was rather stable over time, the chapter furthermore provides evidence of media effects that can both boost and impede innumeracy. More specifically, the results show that the more respondents were exposed to migration-related topics in their news diets, the lower their estimates of the immigration population size became. Yet, looking at the effects of using different types of media, the results show that frequent use of television and social media increased innumeracy. While these results pertain to the overall level of analysis, findings also show that the effects differ between countries.
