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This study ( N = 161 Italian adolescents attending 11th and 12th grade of secondary school) investigated how adolescents linguistically portray migrants. Over a year and a half, the study considered whether positive factors known to reduce social discrimination – i.e., multiple categorization of migrants and/or respondent's identification with the human group – are associated with relatively unbiased linguistic descriptions of migrants . The coding system included three categories of terms referring to the outgroup: generalized/categorical definitions, individuating piecemeal information or membership in the human group. We found that adolescents who used multiple categorizations to describe migrants and self-identified with the human group (at T1) linguistically described migrants in human and individuating terms (at T2) to a higher extent. The findings are discussed underlying the implications of defining the self and outgroups in multiple complex ways through language, as an ecological means used by adolescents to communicate their views of others.

This study investigated the associations between cultural diversity approaches endorsed by teachers and adolescents' positive and negative intergroup contact in schools. Participants were 984 adolescents (Mage=14.66; 62.7% female; 24.8% ethnic minority) involved in a three-wave longitudinal study between 2019 and 2020. Results highlighted that perceived equal treatment by teachers was related to higher positive and lower negative contact over time. However, perceived support for contact and cooperation and interest of teachers in children's cultural background were not related to either positive or negative contact over time. Importantly, the results were replicated across ethnic minority and majority adolescents. This study provides novel insights into the key role that teachers can play in promoting cultural diversity approaches to facilitate harmonious intergroup interactions in schools.

In three surveys of adults in five nations, we investigated how shared beliefs about the political system motivate individuals' political engagement. Specifically, we tested whether individuals' beliefs that the political context is fair, noncorrupt, and their belief that they could influence politics motivates political engagement to a higher extent for higher- compared to lower-status group members. In a novel use of social dominance theory, we theoretically conceived of these political beliefs as legitimizing ideologies, so that we predicted that people with higher social dominance orientation endorse these beliefs, which in turn enhance the motivation to engage in politics to support current social hierarchical systems. Moreover, we expected that these relationships would be stronger for higher- compared to lower-status groups. These hypotheses were tested considering different levels of group status: wealth status within a country (Study 1), political-regional differences within a country (Study 2), and international status (i.e., between countries; Study 3), and they were largely supported.

In this contribution, we review research that uses a cross-fertilisation approach to integrate developmental and social-psychological perspectives on how identities are formed and changed over time and how identity processes are genuinely social, being embedded in social contexts and fed by social contents. First, we outline the three-factor identity model as a parsimonious approach to understanding the dynamics of identity development. Second, we review empirical studies with longitudinal approaches to shed light on how identity processes are embedded in key contexts such as family, friendships and society at large through behaviours such as civic engagement. Third, we discuss the interplay between personal and social identities. We conclude by highlighting how adopting a cross-fertilisation approach that combines social-psychological and developmental perspective can significantly advance the theoretical understanding of identity dynamics. Finally, we address similarities and differences between personal identity and social identity approaches, and we provide an agenda for future research.

Given that adolescents from migrant families live within at least two cultural contexts (i.e., the heritage and the destination cultures), they generally must negotiate and construct ethnic and national identities. Accordingly, the present three-wave longitudinal study was designed to identify distinct developmental trajectories of ethnic and national identities among adolescents from migrant families ( n = 244, 56.6% female; Mage = 14.90, SDage = 0.84 at Time 1). Multivariate latent class growth analyses indicated that participants could be classified into one of four groups based on their identity profiles: ethnic-oriented identity, national-oriented identity, dual identity, and marginalized identity. Further, social identification with family and classmates was examined as a predictor of memberships in these distinct identity profiles. Results of multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that greater social identification with family increased the probability of being classified into the ethnic-oriented and dual identity profiles rather than into the marginalized identity profile, whereas greater social identification with classmates increased the likelihood of being classified into either national-oriented or dual identity profiles rather than into the marginalized identity profile. These findings provide novel insights into the roles of families and peers as influential socializing agents during the negotiation of ethnic and national identities among immigrant youth.

Developmental literature highlights that cognitive, moral, and affective development proceeds from concrete operations to more abstract ones. However, it is not known whether this fundamental developmental trajectory also characterizes the development of social identification (i.e., the feelings of belonging, affiliation, and correctness to a group, coupled with the sense of commonality with fellow ingroup members). This longitudinal study aimed (a) to unfold the association between identifications with two proximal groups (i.e., classmates and friends) and identification with humanity, and (b) to examine how these identifications with close and abstract groups affect adolescents’ social well-being (i.e., an indicator of youth adaptation in their societies and communities). Participants were 304 adolescents (61.84% female, Mage = 17.49) involved in a three-wave longitudinal study. Identification with proximal social groups (especially classmates) was positively associated with identification with humanity, and identifications with both proximal and abstract groups were related to social well-being over time. Moreover, identification with humanity and identification with friends mediated the positive longitudinal effects of identification with classmates on social well-being. The implications of these findings for adolescents’ social inclusivity and adjustment are discussed.

This research investigates the relationship between different valence contact of migrants with native people and their motivation to avoid further interactions with the majority group, as a preventing factor of adaptation by either side. Specifically, the joint and differential effects of positive and negative contact of migrants with natives on outgroup avoidance were addressed by examining also the mediating role of affective variables such as stereotype threat, symbolic threat and anxiety. Hypotheses were tested on two samples of African immigrants in Italy and Syrian immigrants in Turkey. Positive contact was not associated with outgroup avoidance and anxiety among African respondents who reported higher negative contact with natives. This evidence was not found among Syrian immigrants. In both samples, however, the moderating role of negative contact was found on stereotype threat. Across the two samples, anxiety was the strongest mediator of the relationship between negative contact of migrants on their avoidance of the majority group. Overall, the evidence we gathered furthers knowledge of the impact of negative intergroup contact on preventing migrant social integration.

The present research aims to test whether varying the sequential position in which majority members recallpositive and negative contacts with migrants affects the linguistic descriptions of these episodes - in terms ofabstraction and valence - provided by majority group members. We also tested whether participants' priorcontact with migrants and distance in time of the recalled contact experiences moderated the effect of the recallon linguistic discrimination. Across two experimental studies, evidence consistently showed that participantswho recalledfirst positive and then negative interactions expressed less linguistic discrimination against mi-grants in the second event recalled, compared to those who recalled two negative interactions. Moreover,participants who reported having fewer positive intergroup experiences expressed less linguistic discriminationagainst migrants in recalling negative and then positive interactions, compared to recalling two positive inter-actions. Findings of Study 2 also revealed an effect of the temporal distance of the recalled events, with morebeneficial effects of positive-negative sequences of contact when participants retrieved temporally recentcompared to distant intergroup encounters. Overall, this research highlights the key role of positive contact incounteracting the effects of negative contact, leading to a reduction in linguistic discrimination.

Recent findings highlight two facets of the two fundamental stereotype content dimensions of agency (i.e., ‘dominance’ and ‘competence’) and communality (i.e., ‘morality’ and ‘sociability’; e.g., Abele et al., 2016) with implications for understanding gender inequality in the workplace (e.g., Prati et al., 2019). Extending this research and contributing to the facial first impressions literature, we examined how these facets of agency and communality when inferred from White men’s and women’s faces, along with attractiveness, influence their leadership suitability. In three studies in the United Kingdom (total N = 424), using student and working samples and two managerial descriptions, we found an unexpected pattern of results, supported by an internal meta-analysis: attractiveness and competence were the most important predictors of hirability for all candidates. For women, dominance was the next most important predictor; for men, morality and sociability were more important than dominance. Moreover, morality and sociability were more important in evaluating men than women, while dominance was more important in evaluating women than men. Findings are discussed in terms of a ‘deficit bias’, whereby the qualities women and men are considered to lack – dominance for women, morality, and sociability for men – may be given more weight when evaluating their leadership suitability.

Spontaneous emotionally congruent facial responses (ECFR) to others’ emotional expressions can occur by simply observing others’ faces (i.e., smiling) or by reading emotion related words (i.e., to smile). The goal of the present study was to examine whether language describing political leaders’ emotions affects voters by inducing emotionally congruent facial reactions as a function of readers’ and politicians’ shared political orientation. Participants read sentences describing politicians’ emotional expressions, while their facial muscle activation was measured by means of electromyography (EMG). Results showed that reading sentences describing left and right-wing politicians “smiling” or “frowning” elicits ECFR for ingroup but not outgroup members. Remarkably, ECFR were sensitive to attitudes toward individual leaders beyond the ingroup vs. outgroup political divide. Through integrating behavioral and physiological methods we were able to consistently tap on a ‘favored political leader effect’ thus capturing political attitudes towards an individual politician at a given moment of time, at multiple levels (explicit responses and automatic ECFR) and across political party membership lines. Our findings highlight the role of verbal behavior of politicians in affecting voters’ facial expressions with important implications for social judgment and behavioral outcomes.

The present research investigated the spontaneous reference to the criteria of competence, morality, and sociability in descriptions made by professional committees evaluating female and male employees’ work performance. We examined whether professional committees used different criteria in their performance appraisal of male and female employees and how gender of committee members influences this outcome. The evidence showed that men were primarily evaluated on the basis of their competence, while women were evaluated on the basis of their performance in all the three (evaluative) criteria. Interestingly, using mixed compared with same gender committee members resulted in higher use of competence-related terms rather than sociability and morality ones, regardless of gender of employees. Overall, the evidence reveals that mixed-gender committees provide similar appraisals of male and female employees based on competence, suggesting that they might be an effective way to reduce gender bias in the performance appraisals.

Studying how attitudes develop in the transition from late adolescence to emerging adulthood offers unique insights into future generations’ perceptions of society and of others. However, findings on ethnic prejudice during this life period are mixed. The current research aims to examine the development of affective and cognitive ethnic prejudice, adopting a person-centered approach. Furthermore, it examines the associations between educational identity processes and prejudice. A sample of 297 Italian adolescents ( Mage = 17.48, SDage = 0.79, 37.8% males) participated in a five-wave longitudinal study. At the mean level, cognitive prejudice decreased slightly over time, while affective prejudice remained stable. Additionally, rank-order stability coefficients were high ( r ≥ .526). Moreover, for each dimension of prejudice (i.e., cognitive and affective) taken separately, three groups of participants were identified based on their high, moderate, or low scores, respectively. Finally, higher levels of educational identity in-depth exploration at baseline significantly increased the chances of adolescents falling into the low rather than the moderate group for both cognitive and affective prejudice. Conversely, it significantly reduced the chances of being in the high compared to the moderate group for affective prejudice. This study highlights the importance of considering multiple components of prejudice and their reciprocal associations with identity processes to identify at-risk segments of the adolescent and emerging adult populations.

Background and aim: COVID-19 pandemic determined a profound impact in everyday life and in routine follow-up of patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In this context, telemedicine represented an important tool to guarantee a regular care for these patients. Aim of our work was to assess metabolic control before and after lockdown in the cohort of T1D patients followed-up by our Service, to evaluate the impact of restrictive measures and of disease management through telemedicine. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study. Subjects were enrolled among children, adolescents and young adults affected by T1D and followed at the Paediatric Diabetology Centre of the University-Hospital of Parma, Italy. We collected data about age, gender, ethnicity, anthropometric measurements, duration of disease, type of blood glucose monitoring used, type of insulin administration, daily insulin requirement (DIR) and metabolic control, assessed using capillary HbA1c. Results: We enrolled 139 patients, mean age 13.9 years. During lockdown, we reported significantly more contacts through telemedicine between patients and medical team. Global glyco-metabolic control significantly improved, without differences in DIR. Patients with a previous poor-controlled diabetes showed a greater improvement. Finally, mean weekly hours of physical activity decreased significantly, without worsening in Body Mass Index (BMI) z-score. Conclusions: Our results show a significant decrease in mean HbA1c, with a stronger result for patients with a previous non satisfactory control. In our setting, despite regulatory rules and physical and logistic limitations related to pandemic, a global improvement in metabolic control has been shown for patients with type 1 diabetes. (www.actabiomedica.it)

The present study examined the role of morality, competence, and attractiveness as perceived from faces in predicting hiring decisions for men and women. Results showed that for both female and male applicants, facial competence significantly predicted the hiring decision directly and indirectly, through the mediation of the overall impression. Decisions concerning female applicants were, however, significantly predicted by multiple dimensions—that is, facial morality, facial competence, and attractiveness—with the mediation of the overall impression. Facial competence was the only significant predictor of impression and, in turn, hiring decision about men. These findings resonate the mottoVirtutem forma decorat, “Beauty adorns virtue,” painted by Leonardo da Vinci on the reverse side of the portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci, and suggest that women’s chances of getting a job are less than those of men whenever they do not show a moralandcompetentandattractive face.

We review a 40-year corpus of research that we collectively name “Multiple Categorisation Theory” (MCT). From early illustrations using the minimal group paradigm, through a focus on how people cognitively represent social diversity, to recent models of outgroup “re-humanisation”, this work has revealed much about how we think about inclusivity, exclusion, and intergroup differences. We review research that assessed ways to reduce intergroup bias by attenuating the reliance on simple categorisation via “crossed categorisation”. We describe how this research evolved from a focus on intergroup differences to incorporate self-categorisation, through processes of decategorisation and increased social identity complexity. Finally, we consider contemporary models that reveal the generalised benefits of multiple categorisation in promoting outgroup “re-humanisation” through “cognitive liberalisation”. We conclude by highlighting the theoretical and practical implications of this research programme.

Friendships have important implications for adolescents' psychological and social adjustment. However, there is still limited evidence on how different same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships are formed and regarding their role in refugee adjustment. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine the interplay of parents' and adolescents' same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships with adolescents' own psychological and social adjustment among refugee adolescents. Participants were 208 Syrian refugees (71.2% female; Mage = 15.35, SDage = 0.95) in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Findings indicated that refugee parents' same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships were positively related to their children's same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships. Moreover, parents' same-ethnic friendships were negatively linked with adolescents' social well-being, whereas parents' cross-ethnic friendships were positively related to adolescents' social well-being. Furthermore, adolescents' same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships were both positively related to adolescents' social well-being, and cross-ethnic friendships were also positively associated with psychological well-being. These findings suggest that adolescents' cross-ethnic friendships mediated the positive associations of parents' cross-ethnic friendships with adolescents' social and psychological well-being. Overall, our study provides novel insights into the protective roles of diverse friendships for refugee adolescents.

Background: Methemoglobinemia (MET) should be suspected in cases where cyanosis is not associated with signs and symptoms of lung and/or heart disease, or in a cyanotic child exhibiting discrepancies in the partial pressure of oxygen in the arterial blood, the blood oxygen saturation, and the clinical assessment. Case presentation: A 10-month-old girl was taken to the Pediatric Emergency Department for the acute, sudden development of significant peroral cyanosis associated with gray pigmentation of the skin. The problem was evidenced approximately one hour after she ingested a homemade puree of mixed vegetables, mainly composed of potatoes and chards that had been prepared three days before and had been kept in the refrigerator since then. Physical examination revealed that the child was very pale, conscious, and without respiratory distress. Oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in the arterial blood (SpO2) was 94%. Respiratory, cardiovascular, and abdominal evaluations did not reveal any signs of disease. A venous blood sample showed chocolate-colored blood with a pH of 7.404, a partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) of 40.6 mmHg, a partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) of 21.3 mmHg, a bicarbonate level of 24 mmol/L, and an oxygen saturation (SO2%) of 47.7%. CO-oximetry carried out simultaneously identified a methemoglobin level of 22%. MET was suspected, and oxygen via nasal cannula at a rate of 4 L/min was given with only a slight increase in oxygen saturation (96%). Slow intravenous injection of methylene blue 1 mg/kg over a period of 5 min was initiated. The peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) gradually improved to 100% over the next 20 min. Forty minutes later, venous blood gas analysis showed a methemoglobin level of 0.9% with a complete resolution of cyanosis; supplemental oxygen via nasal cannula was therefore discontinued. During the next 36 h, the patient remained hemodynamically stable with good oxygenation on room air. Conclusions: This case report shows that recognition of acquired MET in a child with sudden cyanosis onset requires a high index of suspicion. In daily activities, there is a need to pay particular attention when homemade vegetable soups for child alimentation are prepared. The consumption of vegetable soups must occur immediately after preparation. Storage in a refrigerator must last no more than 24 h and if longer storage is needed, vegetable soups should be frozen.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Abstract. There is ample evidence for the central role of morality in social judgments. However, research has not examined whether perceived morality of others also drives perceived humanness, nor has it extensively considered its behavioral consequences. These issues were addressed across two studies. Study 1 revealed that information about a target person’s morality increased his/her perceived humanness, which in turn explained positive behavioral intentions toward him/her. Study 2 pointed out that information about a target person’s morality increased unselfish behaviors toward him/her. This effect was explained by perceived humanness of the target. Implications of the relationship between morality, perceived humanness, and unselfish behaviors are discussed.

Social integration is one of the current major challenges in increasing multi-cultural a societies. Many European countries are currently facing a flow of migration at a level not previously witnessed. Against this background, surprisingly little research has examined the long-term effects of positive and negative intergroup contact experiences from the perspective of immigrants, that are often a target of discrimination. The present longitudinal study investigated how positive contact and negative contact with native people predict perceived discrimination and collective action intentions among immigrants in the Italian context. Evidence showed that negative contact with Italians predicted greater collective action in the long-term and this effect was mediated by perceived discrimination. This effect was moderated by self-efficacy that in turn was influenced by intergroup positive contact. Having positive contact with Italians increased immigrants’ perceived self-efficacy that in turn influenced the effect of negative contact on collective actions for social change.

Multiple and counterstereotypic categorization of outgroup members reduces prejudice towards them. The present research addresses, for the first time, the role of political orientation in moderating the impact of these strategies on prejudice reduction. Given that right-wingers have very likely a higher need for cognitive closure compared to left-wingers and thus may be less tolerant to social diversity, for them, increasing the complexity of outgroup members through counterstereotypic versus stereotypic or multiple versus simple categorizations should be a less effective strategy of prejudice reduction than it is for left-wingers and moderate individuals. Results using Romanians and immigrants as outgroup targets for Italian participants supported our prediction. Further, we found that the effect of prejudice reduction was explained by the sequential mediation of increased individuation of immigrants and reduced sense of threat from them. Implications of the interplay between multiple categorization and political orientation are discussed.

In two studies, we examined how primary school teachers use the subtle structural properties of language to communicate different evaluations of students who achieve higher versus lower marks, boys versus girls, and students with immigrant versus nonimmigrant origins. Written judgments of final evaluation records were coded for language abstraction. Results showed that students with higher marks are described with more abstract positive and more concrete negative terms than those receiving lower marks. By varying language abstraction teachers also communicate more favorable evaluations of girls than boys and of students with nonimmigrant than immigrant origins. These findings uncovered a linguistic evaluation bias that implicitly enhances girls’ qualities and performance, but hinder improvements of boys and students of immigrant families by focusing on their stable negative characteristics.

The present research aims to test whether varying the sequential position in which majority members recall positive and negative contacts with migrants affects the linguistic descriptions of these episodes - in terms of abstraction and valence - provided by majority group members. We also tested whether participants' prior contact with migrants and distance in time of the recalled contact experiences moderated the effect of the recall on linguistic discrimination. Across two experimental studies, evidence consistently showed that participants who recalled first positive and then negative interactions expressed less linguistic discrimination against migrants in the second event recalled, compared to those who recalled two negative interactions. Moreover, participants who reported having fewer positive intergroup experiences expressed less linguistic discrimination against migrants in recalling negative and then positive interactions, compared to recalling two positive interactions. Findings of Study 2 also revealed an effect of the temporal distance of the recalled events, with more beneficial effects of positive-negative sequences of contact when participants retrieved temporally recent compared to distant intergroup encounters. Overall, this research highlights the key role of positive contact in counteracting the effects of negative contact, leading to a reduction in linguistic discrimination.

Recent developments in the acculturation literature have emphasized the importance of adopting intergroup perspectives that provide a valuable background for investigating how acculturation orientations (i.e., maintenance of the culture of origin and the adoption of the destination culture) of adolescents from migrant families are embedded in their proximal socialization contexts. Accordingly, we sought to understand the combined effects of the perceived parents' acculturation orientations and classmates' acculturation preferences on adolescents' own acculturation orientations in two independent cultural contexts, namely North-East of Italy (Study I) and South-East of Turkey (Study II). Participants were 269 (53.2% female; Mage = 14.77) and 211 (71.1% female; Mage = 15.37) adolescents from migrant families in Italy and in Turkey, respectively. Findings indicated that adolescents' acculturation orientations were influenced by their perceptions of both parents' acculturation orientations and classmates' acculturation preferences. In addition, the effects of parents' adoption of the destination culture were stronger than the effects of classmates' preferences for adoption of the destination culture in both countries. However, the effects of parents' maintenance of the culture of origin were stronger than the effects of classmates' preferences for maintaining the culture of origin in Turkey, but not in Italy.

This study examined the relations of multiple categorization and social dominance orientation with adolescents' prejudice against migrants and identification with the human group over time. Participants were 304 Northern-Italian late adolescents (61.84% female, Mage = 17.49) involved in a three-wave longitudinal study (with 3 months interval between waves). Results showed that multiple categorization was negatively linked to prejudice at a later time, whereas social dominance orientation was positively associated with it; prejudice also negatively affected multiple categorization and positively affected social dominance orientation at a later time. Moreover, prejudice mediated the effects of multiple categorization and social dominance orientation on human identification. These findings have important implications suggesting the construens effect of multiple categorization for enhancing social inclusiveness.

Previous research highlighted that prejudice is already formed in early childhood, reaches a peak in middle childhood, and slightly decreases in late childhood, whereas the development of prejudice in adolescence was mostly unknown. This systematic review with meta-analysis aimed to comprehensively summarize and integrate prior longitudinal research on adolescents’ prejudice to address two main research questions: (a) how does prejudice develop in adolescence? (b) which factors are related to holding prejudicial attitudes in adolescence? Using multiple search strategies and applying a two-step selection process, a final set of 26 journal articles including a total of 30 samples (N = 23,513 participants) was found to match eligibility criteria and, thus, was included in the review. The meta-analytic findings highlighted that (a) prejudice does not change in adolescence; (b) interindividual differences in prejudice are well-established, they become increasingly strong with age, and they are inversely related to the time-lag between assessments; and (c) several individual, identity, and contextual factors are related to prejudice in different ways. More specifically, social dominance orientation, intergroup anxiety, identification with the national ingroup, and parental prejudice contributed to increasing later levels of adolescents’ prejudice, whereas intergroup friendship contributed to lessening it. Importantly, prejudice had comparable reverse effects on these factors, pointing to consistent bidirectional associations. These main findings are discussed considering their implications for future research and practice.

The transition from late adolescence to emerging adulthood is a period of the life span that offers young people the possibility to consolidate their self–certainty and prosociality. Both aspects are of core importance for increasing personal and societal well–being. The purpose of this longitudinal study was twofold: (i) to examine patterns of change and stability in self–concept clarity and prosociality; and (ii) to unravel over time associations between these constructs in the transition from late adolescence to emerging adulthood. In addressing both aims, we explored the moderating effects of gender. Participants were 244 Dutch emerging adults (46% male; mean age at T1 = 16.73 years) who completed six waves of data collection (mean age at T6 = 22.7 years). Findings highlighted that (i) self–concept clarity developed nonlinearly, with an initial decline from T1 to T2 followed by an increase thereafter, while prosociality increased linearly over time and both self–concept clarity and prosociality were characterized by high rank–order consistency; (ii) self–concept clarity and prosociality were positively related over time, with the effect of prosociality on self–concept clarity being stronger than the reciprocal effect of self–concept clarity on prosociality. Gender differences were detected in mean levels of self–concept clarity and prosociality (male participants reported higher self–concept clarity and lower prosociality than female participants) but not in their developmental pathways nor in their reciprocal associations. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

Two studies examined whether individuals vary the level of abstraction of messages composed to achieve the relational goals of initiating, maintaining, and ending a romantic relationships when the goal of communication was self-disclosure or persuading one’s partner. Study 1 showed that abstract language was preferred to disclose thoughts and feelings about initiating a romantic relationship or to persuade the partner to consolidate a long-term one. Study 2 revealed that participants used abstract terms to persuade the partner to continue a problematic relationship and to disclose their thoughts on ending it. These results show that language abstraction is a flexible means to handle individuals’ goals and influence the course of romantic relationships.

The present study examined whether emotionally congruent facial muscular activation − a somatic index of emotional language embodiment can be elicited by reading subject-verb sentences composed of action verbs, that refer directly to facial expressions (e.g., Mario smiles), but also by reading more abstract state verbs, which provide more direct access to the emotions felt by the agent (e.g., Mario enjoys). To address this issue, we measured facial electromyography (EMG) while participants evaluated state and action verb sentences. We found emotional sentences including both verb categories to have valence-congruent effects on emotional ratings and corresponding facial muscle activations. As expected, state verb-sentences were judged with higher valence ratings than action verb-sentences. Moreover, despite emotional congruent facial activations were similar for the two linguistic categories, in a late temporal window we found a tendency for greater EMG modulation when reading action relative to state verb sentences. These results support embodied theories of language comprehension and suggest that understanding emotional action and state verb sentences relies on partially dissociable motor and emotional processes.

The healthcare services network is a recent organizational structure of healthcare services that are interdependent and organized as a network on the basis of the Hub-and-Spoke model. This questionnaire-based study analyzed socio-psychological well-being of health workers both in terms of team-related experience and individual satisfaction and engagement with one's work in a Hub-and-Spoke healthcare service in comparison to non-network healthcare service. Workers from two different public healthcare services involved in the treatment of the same skeletal rare diseases participated in the Study. We expected that working under a Hub-and-Spoke healthcare service-involving teamwork and cooperation among different healthcare services within the units, as well as among workers belonging to different units-would lead to greater psychological team-related and individual benefits. In line with predictions, the findings showed that under a Hub-and-Spoke healthcare service, health workers felt highly interdependent by their team fellows and developed shared cognitions (i.e., team mental models) about their integration and their tasks to a higher extent than non-network ones. They were also individually more satisfied of their job and displayed higher work engagement than non-network workers. Beneficial team-related dynamics, such as perceived interdependence, were responsible for the differences between the Hub-and-Spoke workers and non-network ones. The implications of the present findings were discussed in terms of promotion of health workers' satisfaction and well-being.

Two studies investigated outgroup-to-outgroup generalization, addressing whether members of negatively perceived minority outgroups are perceived as prototypical of larger partially-inclusive outgroups and whether this tendency is enhanced under intergroup threat. Both experimental studies were conducted with Italian undergraduate participants. Experiment 1 (N = 186) tested whether Roma are generalized onto (i.e., perceived as prototypical of) Romanians to a higher extent under intergroup realistic and symbolic threat than under no-threat. It also explored the direction of the phenomenon and its underlying mechanism. Experiment 2 (N = 90) provided additional evidence on the effect of threat on such generalization phenomenon considering a different pair of groups (Islamic terrorists, Arabs) and employing a less blatant measure of generalization. Overall, these studies provided consistent evidence of outgroup-to-outgroup generalization, clarifying the conditions of its occurrence. These results contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of outgroup-to-outgroup generalization and of its impact on outgroup perception and prejudice.

This research examined whether linguistic abstraction in group-directed criticisms moderates the intergroup sensitivity effect. Study 1 ( N = 76) showed that criticisms coming from an out-group member and formulated in concrete terms—which imply lower generalizability and stability of the information transmitted—provoked less negative reactions compared with out-group criticisms formulated in abstract terms. Linguistic abstraction did not affect reactions to in-group criticism. In Study 2 ( N = 77), receivers of concrete criticism from an out-group representative attributed less hostile intentions and prejudice to the critic, and this mediated the impact of critic group membership and linguistic abstraction on negativity toward criticism. Participants also reported more favorable attitudes toward the out-group as a whole when out-group criticism was formulated in concrete terms. This research underlines that linguistic abstraction can facilitate or obstruct effective group communication, and has important implications for the development of communicative strategies aiming to promote social change.

SJS is a rare mucocutaneous syndrome characterized by skin and mucous detachment. The main etiological factors are drugs and infections; sometimes the cause remains unknown. In the prodromal phase we observed non-specific symptoms, followed by mucocutaneous manifestation. Due to risk of complications and mortality a multidisciplinary approach is needed. We present a case of a girl with an atypical presentation of SJS related to Enterovirus. (www.actabiomedica.it)

The combination of multiple categorization (i.e., the use of multiple criteria to define others) and human identity--the superordinate group of human beings--has recently been highlighted as a method to reduce implicit (i.e., attribution of secondary emotions) and explicit (i.e., attribution of human rights) dehumanization towards Blacks. In two studies aimed to replicate such evidence the mediating role of secondary emotions in explaining the impact of multiple and human categorization in reducing dehumanization was assessed. The role of implicit cognition such as attribution of secondary emotions in leading people to attribute human rights to minorities is discussed.