Positive attitudes towards the outgroup: adaptation and validation of the allophilia scale

The paper presents an Italian validation of the Pittinsky, Rosenthal and Montoya (2011) Allophilia scale. This term indicates a positive feeling and attitude of openness toward an outgroup, here specifically an ethnic group. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on a sample of 400 individuals. The sample was randomly split into two parts: on the first an exploratory factor analysis and on the second a confirmatory factor analysis were carried out. Our findings support the dimensionality of the scale already ascertained in the American context with five factors. The number of items was reduced from 17 to 15 on the basis of our results. A third sample consisting of 180 subjects was recruited to carry out analyses of convergent and discriminant validity, both of which turn out to be satisfactory. The analyses gave satisfactory results to the target group used (the Romanian population residing in Italy).