Hard Barriers and Soft Power: Study Assesses Outsider Perceptions of Border Walls
University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School for CommunicationRegardless of a person's national origin, this study found that border walls carry universal meaning in people's minds: Border walls cause people to lower their regard for countries on both sides of the wall, and particularly so for the country that built the wall. This may diminish a country's "soft power" - the perceived attractiveness of the country's culture, foreign policy, and values - leading to diminished influence.