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Does public remembrance of past atrocities lead to decreased support for far-right parties today? Initiatives commemorating past atrocities aim to make visible the victims and crimes committed against them. This runs counter to revisionist actors who attempt to downplay or deny atrocities and victims. Memorials for victims might complicate such attempts and reduce support for revisionist actors. Yet, little empirical evidence exists on whether that happens. In this study, we examine whether exposure to local memorials that commemorate victims of atrocities reduces support for a revisionist farright party. Our empirical case is the Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) memorial in Berlin, Germany. It commemorates victims and survivors of Nazi persecution in front of their last freely chosen place of residence. We employ time-series cross-sectional analyses and a discontinuity design using a panel dataset that matches the location and date of placement of new Stolpersteine with the election results from seven elections (2013 to 2021) at the level of polling station areas. We find that, on average, the presence of Stolpersteine is associated with a 0.96%-point decrease in the far-right vote share in the following election. Our study suggests that local memorials that make past atrocities visible have implications for political behavior in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local politicians can play an important role in promoting citizenship, but their helpfulness varies considerably across local councils. Do politicians discriminate against immigrants seeking to naturalize in ways that public opinion and national citizenship debates would suggest? In two correspondence studies fielded in Germany, we find no evidence that features that are salient in national debates and public opinion predict responsiveness. Specifically, signals of national identification and attachment play no role. Instead, we document a reversed national penalty: politicians are 50% more likely to assist a large low-status group (Turks) than a small high status-group (Canadians). When probing mechanisms via elite interviews, we find that the desire to promote integration and electoral participation can counteract biases that typically generate discrimination. Among politicians, factors associated with group size can therefore help reverse penalties against low-status groups. Research on citizenship and discrimination must consider these disconnects between public perceptions, national debates, and local politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the features associated with schooling and formal education is their decontextualized nature, a characteristic that has been related to the advancement of logical abstract thinking. The aim of this study was to compare and contrast self-portraits through the graphical representations and verbal explanations made by young indigenous people from the Altos de Chiapas with different educational levels ranging from primary school to university. Participants were of the same age. The results show the abstract nature (as opposed to the concrete character) of some of the self-portraits made by the group of university students and the prevalence of individual aspects (rather than social contextual factors) especially within this same group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How might interventions that engage ordinary citizens in settings of violent conflict affect broader conflict dynamics? Given the volume of resources committed every year to citizen-oriented programs that attempt to promote peace, this is an important question. We develop a framework to analyze processes through which individual-level interventions could mitigate violent conflict escalation more broadly. Individual-level interventions may increase positive feelings toward the outgroup, as well as psychological, social, and material resources among participants. These have the potential to influence behaviors such as policing of the ingroup, public advocacy, and political action that can contribute to peace. Yet, the effectiveness of interventions to influence the conflict is moderated by contextual factors like groups' access to material resources, their positions in society, and political institutions. We use this analytical framework to assess evidence from recent intervention studies. We find that the current evidence base is quite small, does not cover the diversity of relevant contexts, and gives too little attention to resources and capacities that enable people to engage in conflict mitigation behaviors. Researchers and policy makers should go beyond thinking only about improving attitudes to thinking about behavior, resources, and capacities for such behaviors, and contextual conditions that constrain behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current field experiment investigated if and how Latinos versus Anglos experience biased treatment in a setting where documentation is relevant. In an audit experiment, Latino customers were treated differently than a matched team of Anglo customers when making $10 check payments at retail stores. Specifically, Latinos were asked to present an identification card ( ID) more frequently than Anglo customers, were quoted a higher minimum-dollar amount for purchasing a gift certificate, and received more negative affect from salespersons. Among those who were asked for identification, a municipal-issued ID card was declined at equal rates from Latinos and Anglos, while an unofficial ID card was declined more from Anglos than Latinos. The association of Latino identity with foreignness and undocumented immigration, and the potential of municipal- ID card programs to serve undocumented immigrants are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The City of New Haven, CT, sought to promote the assimilation of its immigrants by becoming the first American city to provide a government-backed ID, the Elm City Resident Card, to all residents. This article tests the policy's effectiveness in commerce. We find that Hispanics/Latinos are asked to present an ID more than Whites/Anglos, showing that the former are in greater need of documentation, regardless of their citizenship status. When a Hispanic/Latino presented the Elm City Resident Card to a cashier, it fared only as well as an unofficial ID. Thus, we conclude that the card has negligible utility as a form of documentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents author's views on the diversity science in social psychology. He feels diversity science considers how people create, interpret and maintain group differences among individuals, as well as the psychological and social consequences of these distinctions. He discusses whether multiculturalism is truly the ideal for ethnic minorities within an American context.

White–Black relations have historically been the defining form of intergroup relations in the study of prejudice and discrimination. The present article suggests that there are limitations to applying this model to understanding bias toward other groups and proposes that a comprehensive view of the dynamics of the Anglos’ bias toward Latinos requires consideration of the distinctive elements of this form of intergroup relations. In four empirical studies, we experimentally document discrimination against Latinos (Study 1), explore the potential dimensions that underlie bias against Latinos (Study 2), and examine the effect of a particular social identity cue, accentedness, on perceptions of acceptance and belongingness of Latinos and members of other groups (Studies 3 and 4). These studies consider general processes of prejudice and identify how particular facets of bias against Latinos can shape their experiences and, taken together, illustrate how understanding bias against Latinos can reciprocally inform contemporary theories of prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]