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From a number of perspectives, including individual/population health, environmental, and animal rights, it seems clear that a reduction in consumption of animal-derived products (ADP) or its complete cessation would bring benefits. We know little about the different effects of these types of arguments (health, environmental, and animal-rights) on the attitudes of meat-eaters toward reducing or ceasing ADP consumption. In this study, we will investigate such effects. We will present these types of arguments to the participants in the form of vignettes and include control conditions. We will evaluate how each one of these conditions impacts the levels of cognitive dissonance and the attitudes toward the propositions of reducing and ceasing ADP consumption. We will also analyse how gender, social dominance orientation and system justification influence these attitudes. Prior to preregistration, we conducted a pilot study using the vignettes and control conditions (N = 230). The exploratory analysis of the data from the pilot study indicated significant differences in the responses of women and men to the conditions. Therefore, we will adopt the Factorial ANOVA as the main analytical procedure. We will aim to investigate the interactions of gender and conditions (vignettes + control) on the targeted attitudes. We will also consider the pilot study to determine the hypotheses and smallest effect size of interest. Hypotheses HYPOTHESIS 1: Greater levels of cognitive dissonance will lead to greater levels of positive attitudes toward the propositions of reducing and ceasing ADP consumption. HYPOTHESIS 2: Among women and men, the conditions with vignettes will induce greater positive attitudes toward the propositions of reducing and ceasing ADP consumption in comparison to the control conditions.

The recognition and representation of BAME community as 'high risk' of Covid-19 in the UK presents both a health and an identity threat to this ethnic group. This study employed thematic analysis to explore response to these threats as related by a sample of 13 middle class members of the South Asian community. This work advances both health and identity psychological theory by recognising the affinity between expressions of health efficacy and identity. Our findings identify South Asian intragroup stigmatisation and commonalities that have implications for the promotion of health behaviour and health communications for minority groups.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of billions of people worldwide. Individuals and groups were compelled to construct theories of common sense about the disease to communicate and guide practices. The theory of social representations provides powerful concepts to analyse the psychosocial construction of COVID-19. This study aimed to understand the social representations of COVID-19 constructed by middle-class Brazilian adults and their ideological implications, providing a social-psychological analysis of these phenomena while the pandemic is still ongoing. We adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted online in April-May 2020. Participants were 13 middle-class Brazilians living in urban areas. We analysed the interviews with thematic analysis and a phenomenological approach. The social representations were organised around three themes: 1) a virus originated in human actions and with anthropocentric meanings (e.g., a punishment for the human-led destruction of the environment); 2) a dramatic disease that attacks the lungs and kills people perceived to have “low immunity”; and 3) a disturbing pandemic that was also conceived as a correction event with positive consequences. The social representations included beliefs about the individualistic determination of immunity, the attribution of divine causes to the pandemic, and the need for the moral reformation of humankind. The discussion highlights the ideological implications of these theories of common sense. Socially underprivileged groups are at greater COVID-19-related risk, which the investigated social representations may contribute to conceal and naturalise.

sj-docx-10-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

sj-docx-6-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

sj-docx-4-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

sj-docx-9-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

sj-docx-8-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

sj-docx-2-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

sj-docx-7-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

sj-docx-5-hpq-10.1177_13591053211027626 for Mitigating the identity and health threat of COVID-19: Perspectives of middle-class South Asians living in the UK by Kristin Hanson, Emma O’Dwyer, Sharmistha Chaudhuri, Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza and Tushna Vandrevala in Journal of Health Psychology

Emma O’Dwyer discusses some preliminary findings on COVID-19 mutual aid groups and explains why the demographic and political characteristics of their members query their capacity to drive intergroup solidarity.

The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 appeared to have put an end to the political violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. However, although violence has been reduced after the Good Friday Agreement, the conflict between the two groups, which has deep historical roots, is more likely to be considered a continuous problem on the island. In the Brexit climate where the contested rhetoric of ‘sovereignty’ is salient, the integrationist process of the GFA may reverse into re-segregation and ancient enmities between denominational groups. Therefore, using both psychological and historical analyses, this article discusses how Brexit affects national identity dynamics in post-conflict Northern Ireland from a political psychological perspective.

This chapter begins by describing a social psychological approach to the issues in foreign policy, which is well-placed to recognize the central role played by citizens in the construction, practice, and maintenance or resistance of foreign policy. The crux of social psychology's potential contribution stems from its recognition of the nation state as a constellation of identities, representations, and narratives associated with a particular group that is the national ingroup. Illustrating such a perspective, the chapter then draws upon empirical work that has explored the case of Irish neutrality using the theoretical framework of social representations theory. The research reveals the dynamic relationship between national identity and the Irish state's foreign policy, and considers possibilities for social change in light of this relationship. The chapter closes by outlining possibilities for further social psychological research in this vein.

This chapter reviews (primarily social psychological) research on representations of war and military intervention. This research has approached the object of investigation in various ways, focusing to a lesser or greater extent on contextual and historical processes, and assigning differential weight to the social meanings attached to war and military intervention. Furthermore, there are differences in terms of the research’s conceptualization of individual positions toward war and military intervention and the role of group memberships and intergroup relations. The chapter tries to bring together research findings from these different traditions by drawing implications for strategies to change representations of war and military interventions. We end by offering questions for future research.