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This research investigated the role of group-based anger and efficacy in explaining the effects of subgroup (ethnic) and common (European) identity on collective action among Kurds in Europe responding to different types of disadvantage. Whereas stronger Kurdish identity positively predicted intentions for collective action (mediated by anger and efficacy), stronger common ingroup identity was negatively related to collective action intentions. This effect occurred primarily when structural disadvantage was salient, not when attention was drawn to a specific incident of disadvantage, and was mediated by anger but not efficacy. The findings complement recent work demonstrating that intergroup harmony can undermine social change, suggesting that stronger common-group identification reduces collective action by reducing minority-group members' sensitivity to potential bias against them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquaintance is a fundamental determinant of how people behave when interacting with one another. This article focuses on how this type of personal knowledge is an important consideration for people as social actors. Studying naturally occurring social encounters, I describe how speakers use particular references to convey whether a recipient should be able to recognize a non-present third party. On some occasions, however, the presumption of recognizability or non-recognizability that underpins the use of a particular reference proves questionable. By exploring how recipients can challenge reference forms, and thereby reject claims of either recognizability or non-recognizability, I explain how people establish and maintain a shared understanding of who knows whom. I conclude by discussing motivations for this behaviour, and thereby contribute to understanding the commonsense reasoning that underpins orderly conduct in this aspect of social encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imagined contact is a fruitful strategy of improving intergroup attitudes. There are several mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of such contact. This article presents a test of an affective mechanism of imagined contact by applying a facial feedback procedure. We used a physical blockade of the zygomaticus major muscle, known to constrain people's experience of emotional states. Participants imagining intergroup contact expressed more positive attitudes towards an outgroup when they could physically mimic a positive affective state by smiling, but there was no such effect when embodiment was constrained. The interactive effects on attitudes appeared due to greater perception of outgroup warmth. This study presents the first attempt to explain the role of embodiment in the improvement of intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiences of shame are often difficult to manage, not least because of their interpersonal implications. However, limited research attention has been paid to the management and repair of shame, and in particular to the role that social factors may play in this. We aimed to explore these issues by obtaining 50 written first-person accounts of experiences of managing difficult episodes of shame from a cross section of students and employees at a British university. These participant-generated narrative accounts were supplemented by written answers to open-ended questions. Via a contextual constructionist thematic analysis, three overarching themes were identified: The centrality of others' evaluations of the self; Repositioning the self vis-à-vis others, and Being disabled by shame. Discussion focuses on the first two of these themes which together suggest that because the participants saw their shame as produced in interaction with others, effective management and repair of shame depended not just on a changed view of the self but on a repositioning of the self in relation to others. This analysis therefore suggests that repair of shame may often need to be mutually negotiated and as such provides support for theoretical approaches to shame which emphasize the centrality of others' actual or perceived judgements of the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their shared focus on groups, research bridging intragroup processes and intergroup relations is surprisingly rare. The goal of the present article is to highlight how understanding the reciprocal relationship between intragroup processes and intergroup relations offers valuable new insights into both topics and suggests new, productive avenues for research and theory development - particularly for understanding and improving intergroup relations. The article next briefly reviews key findings from three dominant frameworks in the field of intergroup relations: social cognition, social identity, and functional relations. It then discusses the complementary role of intergroup and intragroup dynamics, reviewing how intergroup relations can affect intragroup processes and then discussing how intragroup dynamics can shape intergroup relations. The final section considers the implications, theoretical and practical, of the proposed reciprocal relationships between intragroup and intergroup processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research shows that attachment security is linked to low prejudice (Hofstra, Van Oudenhoven & Bunnk, 2005; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2001). We extend this research by examining the role of attachment security in discriminatory choices and discriminatory behaviour. The current study examines the influence of primed attachment security (vs. neutral prime) on self-reported discrimination and actual discriminatory behaviour towards Muslims. Results illustrate that primed attachment security (vs. a neutral prime) significantly predicts both the choice to discriminate against Muslims and subsequent behavioural discrimination towards a Muslim. Implications for increasing attachment security as a means of reducing prejudice and discrimination are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that warmth and competence are core dimensions on which perceivers judge others and that warmth has a primary role at various phases of impression formation. Three studies explored whether the two components of warmth (i.e., sociability and morality) have distinct roles in predicting the global impression of social groups. In Study 1 ( N= 105) and Study 2 ( N= 112), participants read an immigration scenario depicting an unfamiliar social group in terms of high ( vs. low) morality, sociability, and competence. In both studies, participants were asked to report their global impression of the group. Results showed that global evaluations were better predicted by morality than by sociability or competence-trait ascriptions. Study 3 ( N= 86) further showed that the effect of moral traits on group global evaluations was mediated by the perception of threat. The importance of these findings for the impression-formation process is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies investigated the role of intergroup contact in predicting collective action tendencies along with three key predictors proposed by the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA; ). Study 1 ( N= 488 Black South African students) tested whether social identity would positively, whereas intergroup contact would negatively predict collective action and support for policies benefiting the ingroup. Study 2 ( N= 244 White South African students) predicted whether social identity would positively predict collective action benefiting the ingroup, and intergroup contact would positively predict support for policies to benefit the Black outgroup. Both studies yielded evidence in support of the predictive power of social identity and contact on collective action and policy support. Additionally, Study 1 confirmed that intergroup contact moderated the effects of social identity on relative deprivation, and relative deprivation on collective action. Overall findings support an integration of SIMCA and intergroup contact theory, and provide a fuller understanding of the social psychological processes leading to collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to calls to contextualize social psychological variables in history, the present research examines the relationship between collective relative deprivation and collective esteem using a historical perspective. We hypothesized that collective relative deprivation perceived to be experienced during an important low-point in a group's history serves to define the group's current collective identity, which is in turn associated with collective esteem. In Study 1, cultural narrative interviews were conducted with Francophone and Anglophone Quebecers in order to identify key historical chapters for these groups and to examine the extent to which historical low-points were identity-defining features of their narratives. In Study 2, using the information obtained from these narratives, collective relative deprivation was explored across group members' perceived histories and related to current in-group entitativity and collective esteem. The relationship between collective relative deprivation thought to be experienced by one's group during a historical low-point and collective esteem was positive for both Anglophone and Francophone Quebecers and was mediated by in-group entitativity. Collective relative deprivation perceived to be experienced during a historical low-point serves to define one's collective identity, which is in turn associated with greater collective esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment examined the effects of imagining contact with an illegal immigrant on attitudes towards illegal immigrants and subsequent effects of that attitude change on feelings about other groups ( secondary transfer). Compared to a condition in which participants imagined negative contact with an illegal immigrant, participants who imagined positive contact reported more positive attitudes concerning illegal immigrants. Using bootstrapped mediation models, effects of positive imagined contact on attitudes towards illegal immigrants were shown to generalize to other groups that were independently ranked as similar to illegal immigrants, but not to dissimilar groups. This generalization gradient effect was relatively large. Implications for theory and practical applications to prejudice reduction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of social norms in the context of intergroup relations has long been recognized by social psychologists, yet research on intergroup contact and social norms have usually remained disconnected. We explored the influence of direct and indirect friendship on attitudes towards ethnic minorities in Norway, and in particular the role of in-group norms about the social approval of intergroup contact as a mechanism that distinguishes direct from indirect contact. Using a sample of school students from 89 classrooms (N=823), we tested this hypothesis with both one level and multi-level structural equation modelling (ML-SEM), where the amount of contact of other classroom members was considered as a form of indirect contact. The results suggest that the intergroup contact of other in-group members (in-group friends or classmates) affects attitudes towards the out-group by changing the perception of in-group norms and by reducing intergroup anxiety. In contrast, direct contact (or contact at the individual level in the case of ML-SEM), improved attitudes only by reducing intergroup anxiety, and did not affect the perception of in-group norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies predicted and found that the individual's conformism values are one determinant of whether behaviour is guided by other personal values or by social norms. In Study I (N = 50), pro-gay law reform participants were told they were either in a minority or a majority in terms of their attitude towards the law reform. Only participants who were high in conformism values conformed to the group norm on public behaviour intentions. In studies 2 (N = 42) and 3 (N = 734), participants played multiple choice prisoner's dilemma games with monetary incentives. Only participants who considered conformism values to be relatively unimportant showed the expected connections between universalism values and altruistic behaviour. Study 3 also established that the moderating effect of conformism values on the relation between universalism values and altruistic behaviour was mediated through experienced sense of moral obligation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding intergroup prejudice is a dominant research focus for social psychology. Prejudice is usually conceptualized as a continuum of positive/negative affect, but this has limitations. It neither reflects people's ability to maintain simultaneous positive and negative stereotypes of others nor explains extreme prejudice (bigotry). Some researchers have proposed multidimensional models of prejudice in which different negative emotions are evoked depending on the situation. Extending this to bigotry raises the question of which emotions are most relevant. Therefore, this study looked at ‘anti-group’ texts — writings which promote extreme intergroup hostility — and analysed the frequency of emotive language. Findings suggest that bigotry may be distinguished by high levels of disgust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested a model which considered individual-level (intergroup anxiety) and group-level (perceived realistic and symbolic threats to the in-group) threats as simultaneous mediators in the relationship between the quantity and quality of cross-community contact and intergroup attitudes (Study 1, N = 166) and trust (Study 2, N = 163) in Northern Ireland. The studies tested the hypothesis that the strength of group-identification moderates the importance of individual- vs. group-level threats as predictors of attitudes and trust and as mediators of contact effects. Both anxiety and symbolic threat, but not realistic threat, emerged as predictors of the criterion variables and mediated contact effects. Our results provide support for the moderating role of identification and suggest that while symbolic threat predicts attitudes and trust for high, but not low identifiers, anxiety is a somewhat more important predictor for low than for high identifiers. We discuss these results against the background of current intergroup relations in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that a person's personality can help explain prejudice has a long history in social psychology. The classic counter-argument has been that prejudice is much more a function of people's group memberships and the nature of intergroup relations rather than individual differences. Bringing these two lines of research together, it has been suggested that personality factors may not only affect intergroup discrimination directly, but also indirectly by predisposing some individuals to identify more strongly with some relevant in-group membership. Two experiments were conducted to investigate this possibility. The participants completed various personality measures (e.g. authoritarianism, personal need for structure and ethnocentrism as well as social dominance orientation (SDO) in Experiment 2). They were then assigned to minimal groups either randomly, by choice, or (supposedly) on the basis of attitudinal similarity. In Experiment 2, the minimal group paradigm was also adapted to examine the role of SDO. Overall, there was no evidence of significant relationships between traditional personality measures and either in-group identification or discrimination. In-group identification alone emerged as the strongest predictor of discrimination. There was evidence that those participants who scored higher in SDO were more likely to act in ways that supported the creation of a power hierarchy. The implications for broader understanding of prejudice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research tested predictors and consequences of majority members' negative attitudes towards immigrants in Belgium and Turkey. It tested a mediation model in which economic competition and a perceived preference of the immigrants for culture maintenance have negative effects on majority members' own acculturation preference for integration, and where a perceived preference of the immigrants for contact has a positive effect. The effects of all three predictors were hypothesized to be mediated by negative attitudes toward immigrants. Two survey studies were conducted, one in Belgium (N = 106) and one in Turkey (N = 93). Results showed that, as hypothesized, ‘economic competition’ and a ‘perceived preference for contact‘ had indirect effects on 'own acculturation preference' for integration, and ‘negative attitude’ was the mediator. ‘Perceived preference for cultural maintenance’ had a direct effect on ‘own acculturation preference’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a growing literature on social support processes across the life-span, few studies have examined support perceptions in societies undergoing rapid social transition. This study reports data on age, support and mental health from 2,672 participants in four former Soviet nations. Results suggest a small but significant decline in overall support across age (r = -.12), with this slope significantly influenced by nationality and gender. Mental health also declines with age (r = -.15), with tangible support having the greatest mediational effect on the age-mental health relationship. These findings are discussed in the light of the continuing economic and social strains influencing the inhabitants of this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments tested hypotheses, derived from social identity and self-categorization theories, regarding the attribution of charisma to leaders. In Experiment 1 (N = 203), in-group prototypical leaders were attributed greater levels of charisma and were perceived to be more persuasive than in-group non-prototypical leaders. In Experiment 2 (N = 220), leaders described with in-group stereotypical characteristics were attributed relatively high levels of charisma regardless of their group-oriented versus exchange rhetoric. Leaders described with out-group stereotypical characteristics, however, had to employ group-oriented rhetoric to be attributed relatively high levels of charisma. We conclude that leadership emerges from being representative of ‘us’; charisma may, indeed, be a special gift, but it is one bestowed on group members by group members for being representative of, rather than distinct from, the group itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-disclosure has long been a site of research in clinical and social psychology, where it suffers the fate of many interactional phenomena. It is operationalized (typically, into a set of bald statements of varying intimacy), and measured as a dependent variable (subject to the operation of factors like the age or gender of the discloser, the degree of acquaintance with the disclosed-to recipient, the expectation of reciprocity and so on), or manipulated as a causative independent variable (which affects such things as the perception of the discloser, the effectiveness of therapy, and so on). This treatment of self-disclosure, embedded in a research culture of a-contextual, experimenter-defined phenomena, risks missing the point that in ordinary life, self-disclosure is a social performance which must be brought off in interaction, and has its interactional context and its interactional consequences. When we examine examples of such brought-off disclosures, we start to see patterns in their design as voluntary revelations of personal data, and patterns in their social function, which are invisible to the standard factors and measures paradigm of experimental social psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent treatments of habitual social behaviour, habits are conceptualized as a form of goal-directed automatic behaviour that are mentally represented as goal-action links. Three experiments tested this conceptualization in the context of students' drinking (alcohol consumption) habits. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions where either a goal related to drinking behaviour (socializing) was activated, or an unrelated goal was activated. In addition, participants' drinking habits were measured. The dependent variable in Experiments 1 and 2 was readiness to drink, operationalized by speed of responding to the action concept 'drinking' in a verb verification task. Experiment 3 used the uptake of a voucher to measure drinking behaviour. Findings supported the view that when habits are established, simply activating a goal related to the focal behaviour automatically elicits that behaviour. These findings are consistent with a goal-dependent conception of habit. Possibilities for interventions designed to attenuate undesirable habitual behaviours are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent interest in people's ambivalence about social behaviours and social categories has provoked a number of challenges for the ways in which attitudes are conceptualized. Research into the implications of ambivalence for attitude--behaviour relationships and for information processing has developed alongside a concern with how best to measure ambivalence and with its implications for the application of social psychological theory. In a study (N = 197) of attendance at a local health club, two novel issues were addressed: firstly, an assessment of the effect of ambivalence on intention--behaviour relationships (using an objective behaviour measure) revealed the hypothesized moderation effect; secondly, in a move towards identifying some of the factors that may lead to ambivalence, an assessment of potential motivational conflicts based on a consideration of behavioural beliefs and outcome evaluations was introduced. We suggest that this method of assessing ambivalence represents a useful framework on which to build a fuller understanding of the relationship between people's attitudes and the variety of motives that may influence their social behaviour. Pointers for future research are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that contrasted three general perspectives on personal attribute interaction in their ability to predict dating relationship outcomes. Association of relationship satisfaction with the interaction of socially valuable attributes; Link between personal attributes and relationship outcomes; Analysis of sexual strategies noting complementary couples according to interpersonal theory.

An introduction to the special section of the journal is presented, which demonstrates the importance and necessity of longitudinal studies for better understanding of the dynamics of intergroup contact.