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Effectively fighting global warming requires large groups to engage in concerted action. In the present review article we aim to understand how human appraisals and responses to the challenge of climate change are shaped by social identities (i.e. people’s membership in specific social groups). We first describe the recent Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action (SIMPEA), linking social identity theorizing to the study of climate action. Then, we review research on how collective climate action is driven by social identification, ingroup norms, group-based emotions, and collective efficacy beliefs. Finally, we focus on how very inclusive social identities (spatially or temporally), such as global identification, may provide a unique opportunity to advance interventions fostering people’s climate action.

Leseprobe ----- Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag erortert den Zusammenhang von Rechtspopulismus und gesellschaftlichem Zusammenhalt. Es wird das Verhaltnis von Rechtspopulismus und Rechtsradikalismus dargelegt und Befunde der soziologischen und sozialpsychologischen Forschung uber Personlichkeit, Identitat, Wahlverhalten und religiose Bedrohungsgefuhle prasentiert. Schlagworter: Autoritarer Charakter, Islamophobie, Rechtspopulismus, soziale Identitat, Wahlverhalten ----- Bibliographie: Lengfeld, Holger/Pickel, Gert/Fritsche, Immo/Decker, Oliver/Hoppe, Annedore/Yendell, Alexander: Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt und Rechtspopulismus: Theorien und empirische Befunde, GWP – Gesellschaft. Wirtschaft. Politik, 2-2021, S. 307. https://doi.org/10.3224/gwp.v70i2.09

Effectively protecting the climate requires the action of groups. In the present review article, we aim to understand when individuals turn into collective climate actors. We first discuss pertinent models of group-based action and their relevance for explaining climate action. Then, we review recent research on how collective climate action is driven by ingroup identification, social norms, group-based emotions, and collective efficacy. Finally, we focus on when and why people feel a sense of collective agency aiming at inspiring a novel research agenda on collective climate action.

Identity can improve our understanding of personal climate action, particularly when climate action becomes an expression of a person’s self. However, it is unclear which kind of self or identity is most relevant. Building on a comprehensive series of eight meta-analyses (using data from 188 published articles, N = 414,282 participants) this research systematically compares how strongly climate-friendly intentions and behaviors are associated with place identity, personal connectedness to nature, environmental self-identity (i.e., personal self-definition as a pro-environmentally acting person), and social identity (i.e., identification with social groups). Results suggest robust, medium-sized to strong links of both pro-environmental intentions and behaviors to people’s nature connectedness (r = 0.44/0.52), environmental self-identity (r = 0.62/0.56), and identification with groups considered to support climate-friendly behavior (r = 0.48/0.51), but markedly weaker effects for identification with groups which are unrelated to environmental topics (r = 0.30/0.15) and for place identity (r = 0.18/0.32). Implications for policy interventions and psychological theory are discussed.

Testing a model of group-based control, we hypothesized that, as a response to threatened control, people strive for collective agency, leading to increased in-group norm conformity. To distinguish this mechanism from possible conservative shift we investigated liberal norms (i.e., change and anti–right-wing norms). In a field experiment (N = 82), salient personal control increased managers’ commitment to organizational change under conditions of a pro-change in-group norm. Two laboratory experiments showed control threat to heighten students’ support for educational innovations when salient in-group norms were supportive but not when they were ambivalent (N = 152), or when only out-group norms were supportive (N = 170). Applying this logic, perceived terrorist threat after a major attack predicted German students’ intention to support anti–right-wing protests for those who perceived a strong anti–right-wing norm among students (N = 74). We discuss implications for both theory and societal polarization (i...

Çalışmada 60 yazar bulunmaktadır. Bu yazarlardan sadece Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi mensuplarının girişleri yapılmıştır. Self-continuity - the sense that one's past, present, and future are meaningfully connected - is considered a defining feature of personal identity. However, bases of self-continuity may depend on cultural beliefs about personhood. In multilevel analyses of data from 7287 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations, we tested a new tripartite theoretical model of bases of self-continuity. As expected, perceptions of stability, sense of narrative, and associative links to one's past each contributed to predicting the extent to which people derived a sense of self-continuity from different aspects of their identities. Ways of constructing self-continuity were moderated by cultural and individual differences in mutable (vs. immutable) personhood beliefs - the belief that human attributes are malleable. Individuals with lower mutability beliefs based self-continuity more on stability; members of cultures where mutability beliefs were higher based self-continuity more on narrative. Bases of self-continuity were also moderated by cultural variation in contextualized (vs. decontextualized) personhood beliefs, indicating a link to cultural individualism-collectivism. Our results illustrate the cultural flexibility of the motive for self-continuity. UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) (RES-062-23-1300) Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (CIIR) (FONDAP/15110006) Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (FONDAP/15130009) UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) (ES/F04223X/1) Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) CONICYT FONDECYT (FONDECYT/1161371)

The world faces one of its greatest challenges in climate change. As a global challenge, climate change demands a global response. A psychological approach with the goal to motivate large groups to engage in concerted action will need both, a perspective focused on individual factors and a perspective focused on the collective factors. The social identity approach is a promising and underutilized theoretical basis for the latter. In this special issue, we have brought together new and thought-provoking work on the effects of collective-level variables on pro-environmental action that builds on the social identity approach. This editorial will introduce the core idea of the approach and it will argue for its advantages. We will summarize important previous work on some of the essential variables of the approach and we will briefly introduce the contributions to this special issue which will hopefully stimulate more work in the years ahead.

Drawing upon a social identity approach, three studies focus on the elicitors of intergroup admiration by investigating the relationship between admiration for an outgroup and this outgroup’s prototypicality for a superordinate category. In Study 1 ( N = 314), we find empirical support for a positive association between prototypicality and admiration in cross-national survey data. In Study 2 ( N = 52), we provide experimental evidence for the relationship between admiration and prototypicality by manipulating different facets of prototypicality: admiration for an outgroup occurs only when the group is perceived as prototypical in relation to the ideal of the superordinate category, but not in relation to the category average. Study 3 further explores the importance of prototypicality for a superordinate category. We present an analysis of online comments to news articles ( N = 477) referring to positive regard of outgroups and highlight the role of prototypicality in these discussions. Overall, we contribute to research on admiration by showing that the elicitation of admiration is dependent on the social identities involved, providing an identity-situated analysis of this positive group-based emotion.

Reminders of existential threat increase people's desire for offspring. In line with terror management theory, we explain these effects by the motivation to transcend the self via offspring that complements biological accounts of reproduction motivation under threat. Accordingly, Study 1 shows that mortality salience increases self-transcendence motivation but not other parenthood motivations. Furthermore, mortality salience increased willingness to adopt children (Study 2) or a 14-year-old child (Study 3) only for those participants who were told that the personality of children is the product of nurture (and thus determined by their parent's self). In addition, mortality salience increased general willingness to adopt, irrespective of whether nurture or genetic influence was made salient in Study 3, where participants imagined being unable to have biological offspring. We discuss how these findings contribute to explaining increased reproduction intentions under existential threat and processes of terror management.

Variations in acquiescence and extremity pose substantial threats to the validity of cross-cultural research that relies on survey methods. Individual and cultural correlates of response styles when using 2 contrasting types of response mode were investigated, drawing on data from 55 cultural groups across 33 nations. Using 7 dimensions of self-other relatedness that have often been confounded within the broader distinction between independence and interdependence, our analysis yields more specific understandings of both individual- and culture-level variations in response style. When using a Likert-scale response format, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as similar to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour harmony, similarity with others and receptiveness to influence. However, when using Schwartz's (2007) portrait-comparison response procedure, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant but also connected to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour self-reliance and self-consistency. Extreme responding varies less between the two types of response modes, and is most prevalent among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant, and in cultures favouring self-reliance. As both types of response mode elicit distinctive styles of response, it remains important to estimate and control for style effects to ensure valid comparisons.

Contemplating the inevitability of one’s own death can deeply affect a person’s subjective sense of control, eliciting symbolic responses to restore control through cultural worldview defense. Re-search supporting this perspective has shown that reminders of one’s own death (i.e., uncontrol-lable death) can increase worldview defense, whereas self-determined dying (i.e., controllable death) does not (Fritsche, Jonas, & Fankh&#228nel, 2008). To date, all supportive evidence comes from the German culture and it remains unclear whether this effect can be replicated in non-German cultures. We conducted two studies to investigate the cross-cultural validity of this effect and rep-licated the effect in both a highly individualistic culture (i.e., the United States) and a highly collec-tivistic culture (i.e., China). The increased ingroup identification observed after reminders of un-controllable death supports the model of group-based control.

Large-scale environmental crises are genuinely collective phenomena: they usually result from collective, rather than personal, behavior and how they are cognitively represented and appraised is determined by collectively shared interpretations (e.g., differing across ideological groups) and based on concern for collectives (e.g., humankind, future generations) rather than for individuals. Nevertheless, pro-environmental action has been primarily investigated as a personal decision-making process. We complement this research with a social identity perspective on pro-environmental action. Social identity is the human capacity to define the self in terms of "We" instead of "I," enabling people to think and act as collectives, which should be crucial given personal insufficiency to appraise and effectively respond to environmental crises. We propose a Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action (SIMPEA) of how social identity processes affect both appraisal of and behavioral responses to large-scale environmental crises. We review related and pertinent research providing initial evidence for the role of 4 social identity processes hypothesized in SIMPEA. Specifically, we propose that ingroup identification, ingroup norms and goals, and collective efficacy determine environmental appraisals as well as both private and public sphere environmental action. These processes are driven by personal and collective emotions and motivations that arise from environmental appraisal and operate on both a deliberate and automatic processing level. Finally, we discuss SIMPEA's implications for the research agenda in environmental and social psychology and for interventions fostering pro-environmental action. (PsycINFO Database Record

We tested the hypothesis that climate change threat increases group-based cognition and action tendencies. As ingroups can provide extended primary control, we expected climate change threat to increase conformity with ingroup norms and group protective behavior. In three studies ( N = 404), we experimentally manipulated climate change threat (Studies 1–3) and group norm content (Studies 2 and 3). We found that participants under climate change threat more strongly derogated group members who acted against the group’s interests (Study 1). When a specific group norm was made salient, both manipulated (Study 3) and perceived climate change threat (Studies 2 and 3) increased ingroup norm conformity. Importantly, this effect occurred for norms of radical left-wing behavior. This suggests that climate change threat does not necessarily induce a conservative shift. Instead, it elicits group-based defenses whose expression depends on which ingroup and which of its norms are salient.

Economic threat (e.g., low or precarious socio-economic status) motivates social psychological responses to restore or maintain a sense of control and self-esteem, thwarted under conditions of personal or collective economic crisis. We review recent research showing that these processes elicit personal or collective attitudes and action tendencies that may either contribute to alleviate the source of the threat (e.g., collective action toward equality) or to be merely palliative (e.g., displaced intergroup conflict, ethnic prejudice). Further research should focus more on testing the motivational processes underlying the effects of economic threat.

Social identification provides individuals with a sense of identity by fostering their underlying motives for self-esteem, belonging, epistemic equilibrium, and control. In the current chapter, we review findings showing that threat to these motives on both the personal and the collective level of the self leads to an unpleasant stadium of anxious uncertainty which may be soothed by strengthened belief in one’s ingroup. Affirming one’s group identity in the face of threat allows individuals to perceive themselves as positive, stable, agentic, and socially connected, and helps them to re-establish approach motivation on a neural level. Research has shown that such reactive ingroup affirmation is often accompanied by antisocial responses such as prejudice and hostility against outgroup members. Thus, we examine dispositional and situational moderators that may help to prevent hostile responses, and instead foster socially constructive coping strategies. Finally, we discuss the results with regard to the ongoing European refugee crisis.

We discuss prior findings that enhancing perceptions of collective efficacy encourages pro-environmental behavior. We suggest that collective efficacy manipulations affect pro-environmental intentions through increasing both collective and self-efficacy. Four experiments conducted in Germany and Australia demonstrated that collective efficacy manipulations can increase pro-environmental intentions by increasing the perception that one's group—and, through this, the self—is capable of effecting change. We also provide evidence that collective efficacy manipulations only work when they simultaneously raise self-efficacy. Our findings contribute to the environmental literature by showing the mechanisms through which group efficacy appeals work. Our findings also support theorizing on group-based control by showing that personal control can be derived from group sources.

Markus and Kitayama's (1991) theory of independent and interdependent self-construals had a major influence on social, personality, and developmental psychology by highlighting the role of culture in psychological processes. However, research has relied excessively on contrasts between North American and East Asian samples, and commonly used self-report measures of independence and interdependence frequently fail to show predicted cultural differences. We revisited the conceptualization and measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals in 2 large-scale multinational surveys, using improved methods for cross-cultural research. We developed (Study 1: N = 2924 students in 16 nations) and validated across cultures (Study 2: N = 7279 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations) a new 7-dimensional model of self-reported ways of being independent or interdependent. Patterns of global variation support some of Markus and Kitayama's predictions, but a simple contrast between independence and interdependence does not adequately capture the diverse models of selfhood that prevail in different world regions. Cultural groups emphasize different ways of being both independent and interdependent, depending on individualism-collectivism, national socioeconomic development, and religious heritage. Our 7-dimensional model will allow future researchers to test more accurately the implications of cultural models of selfhood for psychological processes in diverse ecocultural contexts. UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) / Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) - RES-062-23-1300 - ES/G015074/1 Interdisciplinary Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies: COES - FONDAP/15130009 UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)/Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) - ES/F04223X/1 - ES/F04223X/1

Previous research has shown that ingroup norms influence intentions to engage in pro-environmental behavior, most notably for individuals highly identified with a group. However, intriguingly, identification may itself lead people to exaggerate descriptive pro-environmental ingroup norms to enhance positive distinctiveness of their ingroup. We investigated this possibility in two studies together with the assumption that perceived norms would mediate the effects of identification on intentions to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The results support our assumptions and show that high identifiers perceived their ingroup be more eco-friendly, which in turn increased respondents’ intentions to behave in a pro-environmental manner. We discuss the implications of this collective self-fulfilling prophecy for social identity theorizing and the prediction of pro-environmental behavior.

Beliefs about personhood are understood to be a defining feature of individualism-collectivism (I-C), but they have been insufficiently explored, given the emphasis of research on values and self-construals. We propose the construct of contextualism, referring to beliefs about the importance of context in understanding people, as a facet of cultural collectivism. A brief measure was developed and refined across 19 nations (Study 1: N = 5,241), showing good psychometric properties for cross-cultural use and correlating well at the nation level with other supposed facets and indicators of I-C. In Study 2 (N = 8,652), nation-level contextualism predicted ingroup favoritism, corruption, and differential trust of ingroup and outgroup members, while controlling for other facets of I-C, across 35 nations. We conclude that contextualism is an important part of cultural collectivism. This highlights the importance of beliefs alongside values and self-representations and contributes to a wider understanding of cultural processes. © The Author(s) 2013.

This study examined the reliability of a German version of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) using a retest design. A total of 114 respondents were asked to complete the SES twice within a period of 3 to 4 weeks. Overall percentages of consistent responses at the two data points were high, with a mean score of 95% across all items. Separate analyses for positive and negative responses revealed the high overall consistency to be due in large part to the high consistency of negative responses that dominated the response distribution. Positive responses, indicating experiences of sexual victimization or aggression, showed less stability over the two data points. Moreover, a distinct asymmetry in inconsistent responses was found, with retractions at Time 2 being far more frequent than revelations of previously undisclosed experiences. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the ability of the SES to detect sexual aggression and victimization.