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Social scientists have been aiming to calculate a “subjective income Gini coefficient”of survey respondents that would describe their beliefs about income inequality in their country. Niehues (Subjective perceptions of inequality and redistributive preferences: an international comparison, Cologne Institute for Economic Research, IWTRENDS Discussion Paper, 2014) derives this estimate from respondents’ beliefs about the relative sizes of different social classes (answers to “shape of society” questions), while Kuhn (The individual perception of wage inequality: a measurement framework and some empirical evidence, Technical report, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), 2015) estimates it using beliefs about the pay structure. We combine their efforts to calculate what we call a twofold subjective Gini coefficient, which incorporates both pieces of information independently from one another. We present the country-level distribution of perceived and desired twofold subjective Gini coefficients using the ISSP Social Inequality V survey (ISSP Research Group in International social survey programme: social inequality v—issp 2019, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4225/13/511C71F8612C3). Accounting for both subjective class structure and pay structure yields much lower perceived and desired levels of inequality. At the country level the averages of the twofold subjective Gini coefficients are closer to actual income Gini coefficients than the previous measures. At the individual level the twofold subjective Gini coefficients are better predictors of the individual’s verbal assessment of inequality and their preferences towards redistribution.

The objective of the present study was to examine gender stereotypes and sexualization in Italian television advertisements aimed at children. For this purpose, content analysis method was used to analyze 185 commercials broadcast from 6 pm to 8:30 pm over the three Italian television channels dedicated to children which attract the largest audience share. In order to allow comparison with previous research on gender stereotyping, two raters coded a series of variables common to similar investigations (i.e., verbs used in the ads, voice-over, voice-over message, setting, pace of the ads, activities performed by the main characters). Results indicate that gender stereotypes are still prevalent in Italian children’s television commercials. Furthermore, although the level of sexualization of children is low, we found that girls tend to be more sexualized than boys, especially in terms of “adultification.” Our findings provide an updated picture of children’s advertising in Italy by also expanding the literature on gender role stereotyping and sexualization in television commercials.

The main goal of the present research is to describe the development and validation of the Perceived Economic Inequality Scale (PEIS), an instrument measuring individuals' perception of economic inequality at the national level. The study was conducted on a representative sample of the Italian population (N = 1446, 51% women). The factorial structure of the scale was assessed through cross-validated exploratory-confirmatory factor analyses. To inspect the PEIS psychometric properties, item and correlation analyses were performed. The results showed that the PEIS is a valid and reliable unidimensional measure of perceived economic inequality at the national level. Further support of the PEIS construct validity was provided by the correlation of the scale score with the perceived wage gap and ideological beliefs like the economic system justification, social dominance orientation, meritocratic beliefs, and participants' political orientation. The PEIS allows researchers to assess the subjective component of economic inequality by also serving as a useful tool for unpacking the psychological correlates of perceived inequality.

This study explores the psychological effects of the COVID‐19 emergency on workers employed in the supermarket sector by analysing their levels of burnout and the relationship between the burnout syndrome and employees' workplace experiences. A sample of 422 Italian workers answered a survey addressing the burnout dimensions (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism, and professional inefficacy) along with perceived organizational factors and dehumanizing representations. Results showed that 32% of the respondents had symptoms of severe burnout, and 41% had symptoms of exhaustion and cynicism. More specifically, through cluster analysis, four burnout profiles were identified: “burnout” (high on all three dimensions), “engagement” (low on all three dimensions), “overextended” (high on exhaustion), and “disengaged” (moderate on exhaustion and cynicism). Each cluster showed a different pattern of correlates with the organizational and dehumanizing perceptions. Our findings contribute to the knowledge gaps of burnout and workplace experiences by providing insights into the ongoing health emergency among supermarket clerks. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Men’s partner-sexual objectification has been linked to increased self-objectification and diminished well-being in women. Some recent findings have also demonstrated that men’s partner-sexual objectification is related to increased violence in the relationship. However, mechanisms driving this association remain unexplored. In the present research, we collected data on women and men involved in heterosexual romantic relationships and investigated the associations between men’s partner-sexual objectification, women’s self-objectification, and both partners’ attitudes toward dating violence. Study 1 ( N = 171 heterosexual couples) provided first evidence for the link between men’s partner-sexual objectification and their attitudes toward dating violence. Furthermore, men’s attitudes toward dating violence mediated the relationship between sexual objectification of their partners and women’s attitudes toward dating violence. These results were replicated in Study 2 ( N = 235 heterosexual couples). Findings of this study also revealed that, along with men’s attitudes toward dating violence, women’s self-objectification acted as a mediating mechanism linking experiences of being sexually objectified by the romantic partner and attitudes toward dating violence in women. Implications of our findings for the issue of dating violence are discussed.

Through two studies (N = 602) conducted in Italy between February and March 2020, we examined the impact of the COVID‐19 emergency on biologization—a form of dehumanization that involves the perception of others as contagious entities—and outgroup prejudice. Overall, results showed that higher emergency perception was associated with greater biologization toward the groups most affected by the virus, namely the Chinese outgroup and the Italian ingroup. In turn, biologization toward the outgroup increased prejudice against that group. We also found that when the pandemic hit Italy, the greater emergency perception was associated with increased emotional closeness with Chinese people, resulting in reduced biologization and prejudice toward them. However, these results held true only for Italian respondents who reported higher levels of ingroup biologization. Taken together, our findings contribute to the knowledge gaps of biologization and prejudice by also providing relevant insights into the ongoing health emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Applied Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The goal of this research was to document the frequency of street harassment and examine the associations among street harassment experiences, negative psychological outcomes, and changes in behavioural habits. A sample of students and workers at an Italian university was surveyed (N = 2, 764). Findings indicated that exposure to street harassment had negative psychological effects regardless of whether people labelled their experiences as harassment or not. Furthermore, analyses demonstrated that negative outcomes deriving from street harassment mediated the relationship between harassing behaviours experienced by respondents and the probability that they changed their daily routine. Crucially, all the tested models remained significant by controlling for participants' gender, age, and role. Research and practical implications were discussed.

The present study aims at expanding research on dehumanization in the work domain by exploring laypeople's dehumanizing perceptions towards stigmatized workers. Starting from Hughes’ (1951, Social psychology at the crossroads, Harper & Brothers, New York; Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999, Academy of Management Review, 24, 413) concept of ‘dirty work’, the present research aims to demonstrate that the different types of occupational taint elicit distinct dehumanizing images of certain occupational groups. Employing a cluster analysis, the results showed that workers in the physical taint cluster were most strongly associated with biological metaphors, workers in the social taint cluster were perceived as most similar to objects, and workers in the moral taint cluster were perceived as most similar to animals. The theoretical and practical implications are considered.

Through three studies ('N' = 306), we analysed the association between physical disgust and implicit biologization – the perception of others as disease organisms. In doing so, we employed an adapted version of the Semantic Misattribution Procedure (SMP). Study 1 found that the higher was the level of physical (vs. moral) disgust that White participants felt towards Black people, the higher was their implicit tendency to biologize this ethnic group. Study 2 and Study 3 experimentally replicated the association between physical disgust and biologization by manipulating physical disgust through vignettes that portrayed a target behaving in a physically (vs. morally vs. non-disgusting) way. Results showed that participants assigned to the physical disgust condition biologized more the target – both implicitly and explicitly – than participants in the moral disgust and non-disgusting condition. Overall, these findings shed light on the biological dehumanization of others and its emotional roots, by thus paving the way for its prevention.

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has forced governments to impose a lockdown, and many people have suddenly found themselves having to reduce their social relations drastically. Given the exceptional nature of similar situations, only a few studies have investigated the negative psychological effects of forced social isolation and how they can be mitigated in a real context. In the present study, we investigated whether the amount of digital communication technology use for virtual meetings (i.e., voice and video calls, online board games and multiplayer video games, or watching movies in party mode) during the lockdown promoted the perception of social support, which in itself mitigated the psychological effects of the lockdown in Italy. Data were collected in March 2020 (N = 465), during the lockdown imposed to reduce the COVID-19 spread. The results indicated that the amount of digital technology use reduced feelings of loneliness, anger/irritability, and boredom and increased belongingness via the perception of social support. The present study supported the positive role of digital technologies in maintaining meaningful social relationships even during an extreme situation such as a lockdown. Implications such as the need to reduce the digital divide and possible consequences of the ongoing pandemic are discussed.

The present studies aim to expand research on dehumanization in the work domain by exploring the biologization – an unexplored form of dehumanization that involves the perception of others as infected and contagious – of physically tainted workers. By integrating the literature on biologization with that of disgust and physically dirty work, we expected that the biologization of workers would be explained by their dirty work environment and by increased feelings of disgust towards them. In Study 1, we showed that focusing on a dirty work environment (vs. on the person performing the work) increased feelings of disgust towards workers and, in turn, their biologization. Coherently, in Study 2, we found that a physically tainted occupation (vs. baseline condition) increased participants’ feelings of disgust and biological dehumanization towards the worker. In contrast, a non-physically tainted occupation (vs. baseline condition) had no effects on disgust and biologization. The theoretical and practical implications are considered.

The present study aims to investigate the indirect link between sexual objectification and belief in personal free will. We hypothesized that being subjected to objectifying commentary would lead women to self-objectify and, in turn, to perceive themselves as having less personal free will. In this study, 105 women were asked to sign up a website created for this study by providing a personal description and a photo. After signing up, they received feedback from a fictitious male user. Depending on the condition, the comment was neutral (baseline), focused on their description (non-objectifying) or focused on their physical appearance (objectifying). The results showed that participants in the objectifying condition (vs. non-objectifying vs. baseline) self-objectified (i.e., perceived themselves as lacking human mental states and more as an instrument vs. a human) and, in turn, believed that they had less personal free will. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for educators and therapists are discussed.

The present work explores whether self-objectification triggered by doing peculiar work activities would increase people’s conforming behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which participants (N = 140) were asked to perform a high objectifying activity (vs. low objectifying activity vs. baseline condition) simulating a real computer job. Afterwards, their levels of self-objectification and conforming behavior were assessed. Results revealed that participants who performed the high objectifying activity self-objectified (i.e., perceived themselves as lacking human mental states) more than the other conditions and, in turn, conformed more to the judgments of unknown similar others. Crucially, increased self-objectification mediated the effects of the high objectifying activity on enhancing conforming behavior. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed

A double declination of the notion of violence emerges from Gentile’s political writings: the one is violence of the Regime, about which the philosopher of the “pure act” is often reticent, and the other is violence that the fascist is called upon to continually exercise on himself, in order to respond to the higher value of the political stability of Fascism. The fascist is the one who ‘takes life seriously’, who ‘does not laugh’ and who sacrifices all his own desires and expectations for the good of the Fatherland. It is precisely on this continuous self-imposed violence that Gentile bases his justification of a model of “cadaveric obedience”, indispensable to guarantee social peace in the dictatorship.

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