Search

The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals—fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care—might have been affected. To address this question, we gathered data on fundamental social motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries, N = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female; Mage = 24.43, SD = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, N = 6917; 2249 male, 4218 female; Mage = 28.59, SD = 11.31). Samples include data collected online (e.g., Prolific, MTurk), at universities, and via community sampling. We found that Disease Avoidance motivation was substantially higher during the pandemic, and that most of the other fundamental social motives showed small, yet significant, differences across waves. Most sensibly, concern with caring for one's children was higher during the pandemic, and concerns with Mate Seeking and Status were lower. Earlier findings showing the prioritization of family motives over mating motives (and even over Disease Avoidance motives) were replicated during the pandemic. Finally, well-being remained positively associated with family-related motives and negatively associated with mating motives during the pandemic, as in the pre-pandemic samples. Our results provide further evidence for the robust primacy of family-related motivations even during this unique disruption of social life.

The world is witnessing the highest level of displacement of people on record. Public discourse often uses labels to describe people on the move such as ‘migrants’, ‘asylum seekers’, or ‘refugees’ interchangeably. A preregistered study in nine countries (Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; N = 2844) tested experimentally the effect of these three labels on attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policies. We found a significant difference between the label ‘migrant’ and both ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘refugee’ on the social distance scale. Participants were happier if migrants, rather than asylum seekers and refugees, were their neighbours, friends, or partners. The effect was mediated by perceived benefits, but not threats, whereby migrants were perceived to bring more benefits to receiving societies than asylum seekers and refugees. To increase the acceptance of immigrants, speakers may consider specifying the given group and emphasize benefits that immigrants bring to receiving societies.

After intergroup conflicts end, beliefs about past suffering of the ingroup compared to an outgroup influence relations between former adversaries. In Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, we simultaneously examined the effects of inclusive victimhood (i.e., a belief that both the ingroup and a former adversary suffered similarly) and competitive victimhood (i.e., a belief that the ingroup suffered more than a former adversary) on willingness to engage in contact with a former adversary, a precursor of positive changes in postconflict societies. In one correlational ( NAlbanians = 159; NCroat s = 227) and two experimental studies ( NAlbanians = 161; NCroats = 341, preregistered), inclusive victimhood was linked to higher willingness to engage in contact with former adversaries through higher empathy (Studies 1 to 3) and trust (Studies 1 and 2). In contrast, competitive victimhood was associated with lower willingness to engage in contact through lower empathy (Study 1) and trust (Studies 1 and 3). We discuss the practical implications of our findings for interventions in postconflict societies.

Intergenerational contact is beneficial for improving attitudes toward older people, including age stereotypes (AS). To date, however, research on the topic has focused on younger adults (intergenerational contact), overlooking the possible perks for older adults themselves (contact with same-age peers). The current study investigated the association between contact with older adults and views of the self in old age (VSOA) among younger and older adults in a domain-specific way. The sample comprised younger (39-55 years, n = 1,012) and older (65-90 years, n = 1,344) adults from the Ageing as Future international study. Findings indicated that contact with older adults was related to more positive VSOA and this was partly mediated by AS. These relations were stronger for older adults, indicating that interactions with other older adults may help favorably shape how older adults view their ingroup and aging. Beneficial effects emerged mostly in the friends and leisure domains.

People differ in their general tendency to endorse conspiracy theories (that is, conspiracy mentality). Previous research yielded inconsistent findings on the relationship between conspiracy mentality and political orientation, showing a greater conspiracy mentality either among the political right (a linear relation) or amongst both the left and right extremes (a curvilinear relation). We revisited this relationship across two studies spanning 26 countries (combined N = 104,253) and found overall evidence for both linear and quadratic relations, albeit small and heterogeneous across countries. We also observed stronger support for conspiracy mentality among voters of opposition parties (that is, those deprived of political control). Nonetheless, the quadratic effect of political orientation remained significant when adjusting for political control deprivation. We conclude that conspiracy mentality is associated with extreme left- and especially extreme right-wing beliefs, and that this non-linear relation may be strengthened by, but is not reducible to, deprivation of political control.

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings., National Science Centre, Poland 2017/26/M/HS6/00360, United States Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) RL5GM118963, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain RTI2018-093550-B-I00, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 20-01214S, Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences RVO: 68081740, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) ES/S00274X/1 MCIN/AEI PID2019-111549GB-I00, European Research Council (ERC) European Commission ERC-2016-COG 725128, Swedish Research Council Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life & Welfare (Forte) 2017-00414, University of Brasilia 04/2019

In this study, we investigated endorsement of two types of prescriptive views of aging, namely active aging (e.g., prescriptions for older adults to stay fit and healthy and to maintain an active and productive lifestyle) and altruistic disengagement (e.g., prescriptions for older adults to behave altruistically toward the younger generation by granting young people access to positions and resources). The study comprised a large international sample of middle-aged and older adults (

Significance Cooperation is key to well-functioning groups and societies. Rather than addressing high-cost cooperation involving giving money or time and effort, we examine social mindfulness—a form of interpersonal benevolence that requires basic perspective-taking and is aimed at leaving choice for others. Do societies differ in social mindfulness, and if so, does it matter? Here, we find not only considerable variation across 31 nations and regions but also an association between social mindfulness and countries’ performance on environmental protection. We conclude that something as small and concrete as interpersonal benevolence can be entwined with current and future issues of global importance., Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found, but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one’s location in the world? Expecting cross-national differences to exist, we examined if and how social mindfulness differs across countries. At little to no material cost, social mindfulness typically entails small acts of attention or kindness. Even though fairly common, such low-cost cooperation has received little empirical attention. Measuring social mindfulness across 31 samples from industrialized countries and regions (n = 8,354), we found considerable variation. Among selected country-level variables, greater social mindfulness was most strongly associated with countries’ better general performance on environmental protection. Together, our findings contribute to the literature on prosociality by targeting the kind of everyday cooperation that is more focused on communicating benevolence than on providing material benefits.

Research suggests that belief in conspiracy theories (CT) stems from basic psychological mechanisms and is linked to other belief systems (e.g. religious beliefs). While previous research has extensively examined individual and contextual variables associated with CT beliefs, it has not yet investigated the role of culture. In the current research, we tested, based on a situated cultural cognition perspective, the extent to which culture predicts CT beliefs. Using Hofstede’s model of cultural values, three nation-level analyses of data from 25, 19 and 18 countries using different measures of CT beliefs (Study 1, N = 5,323; Study 2a, N = 12,255; Study 2b, N = 30,994) revealed positive associations between Masculinity, Collectivism and CT beliefs. A cross-sectional study among US citizens (Study 3, N = 350), using individual-level measures of Hofstede’s values, replicated these findings. A meta-analysis of correlations across studies corroborated the presence of positive links between CT beliefs, Collectivism, r = .31, 95%CI = [.15; 47] and Masculinity, r = .39, 95%CI = [.18; 59]. Our results suggest that in addition to individual-differences and contextual variables, cultural factors also play an important role in shaping CT beliefs., info:eu-repo/semantics/inPress

Due to the significance of the “refugee crisis” for European residents, the present research examined the link between residents’ support for newly arriving migrants and different types of intergroup contact with migrants. We compared the associations between support for migrants, and both positive and negative direct and mass mediated contact. In the link between contact and support, we examined the mediating role of residents’ attitudes towards migrants and the moderating role of their political orientation. In a Swiss sample (N = 861), only direct but not mass mediated contact was associated with support for migrants. Both positive and negative direct contact was linked to (higher vs. lower) support for migrants through (more vs. less positive) attitudes towards migrants. Relevant for interventions aimed at improving relations of host society with migrants, both positive and negative contact influenced support for migrants through attitudes, especially in people with a right wing political orientation.

The study examined factors associated with discrimination against gay people in a public referendum aimed at the restriction of gay rights. We tested whether positive and negative intergroup contact with gay people and intergroup contact with another stigmatized minority, the Roma, were associated with how the heterosexual majority voted in the referendum (i.e., discrimination). We tested two mechanisms underlying the link between intergroup contact and discrimination—the mediation by intergroup threat and the mediation by outgroup attitudes. We found that negative contact with both gay people and the Roma was associated with a higher probability of gay discrimination while positive contact was associated with a lower probability of gay discrimination. Intergroup threat, not intergroup attitudes, mediated the link between intergroup contact and discrimination. In the case of contact with gay people, intergroup contact was linked to discrimination through threat from gay people. In the case of contact with Roma, intergroup contact was linked to discrimination through the generalization of threats from the Roma to gay people but not via the generalization of outgroup attitudes. Our research brings novel evidence that contact with one minority can affect discrimination against another minority in both positive and negative way and that perceived threat, but not attitudes, plays a key role in majority's decision to discriminate against gay people.

The current project measures personality across cultures, for the first time using a forced-choice (or idiographic) assessment instrument - the California Adult Q-set (CAQ). Correlations among the average personality profiles across 13 countries (total N = 2,370) ranged from r = .69 to r = .98. The most similar averaged personality profiles were between USA/Canada; the least similar were South Korea/Russia/Poland and China/Russia. The Czech Republic had the most homogeneous personality descriptions and South Korea had the least. In further analyses, country differences in CAQ-derived Big Five scores were compared to results obtained from previous research using nomothetic Likert scales (i.e., the NEO; the BFI). The Big Five templates produced generally similar findings to previous research comparing the Big Five across countries using Likert-type methods.

A considerable gap between one’s pension and living expenses in old age exists in almost all developed countries, making savings and financial preparation for old age inevitable. Nevertheless, financial preparation for old age substantially differs across countries. Using the data from the AAF project, we investigated what motivates people in different countries (USA, Germany, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) to financially prepare for old age. Financial preparation was the highest in the USA, followed by Germany and the Czech Republic. The lowest levels of financial preparation were found in Hong Kong and Taiwan. These differences were explained by age-related expectations on a “paternalistic” role of the state: Greater endorsement of the idea that the state should provide financial support to older citizens led to less preparation. These findings are in line with the idea that individuals’ beliefs and expectations regarding the role of institutions shape personal actions.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to identify factors increasing behaviors that limit the transmission of COVID-19 (i.e., anti-COVID-19 behavior) and factors protecting against the negative consequences of the pandemic on societies (i.e., prejudice). A simultaneous investigation of a change in anti-COVID behavior and prejudice during the pandemic is essential because some factors (e.g., fear of COVID-19) could increase both outcomes, whilst other factors (e.g., norms in anti-COVID behavior or intergroup contact in prejudice) could bring desirable changes in one outcome without negatively affecting the other. In a three-wave longitudinal study (NT1 = 4275) in five European countries from April to October 2020, we employed a latent change score model to distinguish between intra- and inter-individual changes in anti-COVID-19 behavior and prejudice. On the intra-individual level, anti-COVID-19 behavior was increased by anti-COVID-19 norms; and prejudice against migrants from the Middle East was influenced by positive and negative direct and mass-media intergroup contact.

Norm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violations vary across cultures and across domains. In a preregistered study of 57 countries (using convenience samples of 22,863 students and non-students), we measured perceptions of the appropriateness of various responses to a violation of a cooperative norm and to atypical social behaviors. Our findings highlight both cultural universals and cultural variation. We find a universal negative relation between appropriateness ratings of norm violations and appropriateness ratings of responses in the form of confrontation, social ostracism and gossip. Moreover, we find the country variation in the appropriateness of sanctions to be consistent across different norm violations but not across different sanctions. Specifically, in those countries where use of physical confrontation and social ostracism is rated as less appropriate, gossip is rated as more appropriate. Little is known about people's preferred responses to norm violations across countries. Here, in a study of 57 countries, the authors highlight cultural similarities and differences in people's perception of the appropriateness of norm violations., Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences; Riksbankens Jubileumsfond; Czech Science Foundation; Czech Academy of Sciences; Institute of Psychology; Stockholm University

In a longitudinal two-wave study we examined the effects of positive and negative intergroup contact on outgroup attitudes in participants who perceived positive, negative, or ambivalent group stereotypes. We focused on stereotype-consistent contact, occurring when the valence of participants’ contact matches the valence of the perceived group stereotype (e.g., negative–negative), and on stereotype-inconsistent contact, occurring when the valence of contact contradicts the valence of the group stereotype (e.g., positive–negative). In relations of the Czech majority ( N = 890) with two distinctly stereotyped minorities, the Roma and the Vietnamese, stereotype-inconsistent contact predicted changes in attitudes better than stereotype-consistent contact. In the case of negatively stereotyped groups, positive intergroup contact is a viable way to improve attitudes. For positively stereotyped groups, negative contact can worsen attitudes, while positive contact does not have any attitude-improving effect. Interventions aimed at improving outgroup attitudes need to be applied with caution, considering the valence of group stereotypes.

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by a Grant from the National Science Centre in Poland (Grant Number: 2017/26/M/HS6/00360) awarded to Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka. Data collection by the following researchers was supported by Grants as follows: Emma C. O'Connor (Grant RL5GM118963 from National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health; Angel Gomez (Grant RTI2018-093550-B-I00 from the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain); Sylvie Graf and Martina Hrebickova (Grant 20-01214S from the Czech Science Foundation, and Grant RVO: 68081740 from the Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences); Teri A. Kirby (Grant ES/S00274X/1 from the Economic and Social Research Council); Soledad de Lemus (Grant PSI2016-79971-P from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the excellence); Michelle K. Ryan and Renata Bongiorno (Grant ERC-2016-COG 725128 from the European Research Council awarded to Michelle K. Ryan); Marie Gustafsson Senden, Anna Lindqvist and Emma Renstrom (Grant 2017-00414 from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare); Claudio V. Torres (Grant DPI/DIRPE n. 04/2019 from the University of Brasilia)., This study was preregistered in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/u9xfg/., Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Whereas qualitative and ethnographic data suggest that many cultures conceptualize manhood as precarious, quantitative research has yet to demonstrate the cross-cultural consistency of precarious manhood beliefs. Here, we examined the psychometric isomorphism, or measurement invariance, of a brief precarious manhood beliefs scale (the PMB). Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N=33,417), we examined: (1) the isomorphism of the PMB across individual and country levels; (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies (e.g., ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; Glick & Fiske, 1996, 1999); and (3) associations of the PMB with country-level indices of gender equality (the GGGI; World Economic Forum, 2019) and human development (the HDI; United Nations Development Programme, 2019). Findings indicate that the PMB is a psychometrically valid and isomorphic index of beliefs about the male gender role that accounts for unique variance in country-level gender equality and human development., National Science Center, Poland 2017/26/M/HS6/00360, United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) RL5GM118963, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain RTI2018-093550-B-I00, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 20-01214S, Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences RVO: 68081740, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) ES/S00274X/1, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness PSI2016-79971-P, European Research Council (ERC) European Commission ERC-2016-COG 725128, Swedish Research Council Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life & Welfare (Forte) 2017-00414, University of Brasilia 04/2019

Combating prejudice against social minorities is a challenging task in current multicultural societies. Mass media can decisively shape prejudice, because it often represents the main source of information about social minorities. In 3 studies in the Czech Republic (N = 445) and Switzerland (N = 362; N = 220), we investigated how prejudice against negatively and positively perceived minorities (the Roma in Study 1, Kosovo Albanians in Study 2, Italians in Study 3) is influenced by a single exposure to a print news report, by manipulating the valence of reports about minority members (positive vs. negative vs. mixed) and linguistic forms for minorities’ ethnicity (nouns vs. adjectives). Positive and negative reports shaped prejudice in the respective directions; the effect of mixed reports mostly did not differ from positive reports. Labeling ethnicity with nouns (e.g., a male Roma) resulted in more prejudice than adjectives (e.g., a Roma man), independent of report valence. Report valence influenced the affective part of prejudice (i.e., feelings toward a minority), whereas language consistently shaped the behavioral part of prejudice (i.e., preferred social distance from a minority).

What motives do people prioritize in their social lives? Historically, social psychologists, especially those adopting an evolutionary perspective, have devoted a great deal of research attention to sexual attraction and romantic-partner choice (mate seeking). Research on long-term familial bonds (mate retention and kin care) has been less thoroughly connected to relevant comparative and evolutionary work on other species, and in the case of kin care, these bonds have been less well researched. Examining varied sources of data from 27 societies around the world, we found that people generally view familial motives as primary in importance and mate-seeking motives as relatively low in importance. Compared with other groups, college students, single people, and men place relatively higher emphasis on mate seeking, but even those samples rated kin-care motives as more important. Furthermore, motives linked to long-term familial bonds are positively associated with psychological well-being, but mate-seeking motives are associated with anxiety and depression. We address theoretical and empirical reasons why there has been extensive research on mate seeking and why people prioritize goals related to long-term familial bonds over mating goals. Reallocating relatively greater research effort toward long-term familial relationships would likely yield many interesting new findings relevant to everyday people’s highest social priorities.

Past research is limited by a focus on intimacy in positive intergroup contact. This study tested whether intergroup intimacy counteracts or amplifies the detrimental effects of negative intergroup contact on outgroup attitudes. Participants from five Central European countries ( N = 1,276) described their intergroup contact with, and attitudes towards, citizens from neighboring nations. We coded the contact descriptions for presence (vs. absence) of intimacy (intimate, casual, or formal relationships) and contact valence (negative, positive, or ambivalent). The results indicated that those who reported negative contact in the context of intimate relationships displayed more positive outgroup attitudes than those who reported negative contact in the context of nonintimate relationships. This protective function of intimacy extended to instances of ambivalent contact. Our findings speak of the additive value of intimacy and positivity for intergroup relations; they underscore the benefits of intimacy as part of not only positive but also negative intergroup contact.

Age discrimination is pervasive in society which bears far-reaching consequences for individuals in terms of decreased psychological and physical health. Age discrimination can be experienced in different life-domains and perceived as a social (others’ experiences) or as a personal phenomenon (own experiences). Our first goal was to examine country- and age-related differences in personal experiences of age discrimination in distinct life domains, reported by 2,817 participants aged 40 to 90 years from the US, China, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Taiwan. As another goal, we investigated the impact of age discrimination on life satisfaction. Personal age discrimination was domain-specific, with more experiences reported in the family, work, and personality domains. Personal age discrimination increased with age and was higher in China and Taiwan. Age discrimination negatively predicted life satisfaction. This negative effect was more pronounced if age discrimination was experienced in domains with high subjective importance.

Norm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violations vary across cultures and across domains. In a preregistered study of 57 countries (using convenience samples of 22,863 students and non-students), we measured perceptions of the appropriateness of various responses to a violation of a cooperative norm and to atypical social behaviors. Our findings highlight both cultural universals and cultural variation. We find a universal negative relation between appropriateness ratings of norm violations and appropriateness ratings of responses in the form of confrontation, social ostracism and gossip. Moreover, we find the country variation in the appropriateness of sanctions to be consistent across different norm violations but not across different sanctions. Specifically, in those countries where use of physical confrontation and social ostracism is rated as less appropriate, gossip is rated as more appropriate.

The content of stereotypes can be shaped by multiple mechanisms, one of them possibly being the “mirroring effect.” Mirroring describes a phenomenon whereby people rate their ingroup characteristics as opposite to characteristics typical of a relevant outgroup. The aim of our study was to explore mirroring in three intergroup contexts—in national, regional, and ethnic stereotypes. In Study 1, 2,241 participants rated national ingroup stereotype and outgroup stereotypes of five Central European countries. In Study 2, 741 Czech participants rated regional ingroup and outgroup stereotypes of people living in two distinct parts of the Czech Republic. In Study 3, 463 majority and Hungarian minority participants in Slovakia rated ethnic ingroup and outgroup stereotypes. The results showed a clear presence of mirroring in all three contexts.

In a society burdened with the most severe type of intergroup conflict, we examined the association between willingness to reconcile with former adversary, intergroup contact with, and perceived threat from former adversary. We focused on three reconciliatory acts—forgiveness to the outgroup, support for ingroup apology and support for financial compensation to the outgroup. We included different forms of positive and negative intergroup contact—direct and indirect (extended and mass‐mediated). In the link between contact and reconciliation, we tested the mediating role of two types of intergroup threat—realistic and symbolic. The sample comprised Bosniaks (N = 267) and Croats (N = 278) from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In both samples, reconciliation associated with indirect forms of intergroup contact even when controlling for its link with direct contact. This indicates the potential of indirect contact to promote reconciliation in the lack of direct contact, characteristic for segregated post‐conflict societies. Symbolic threat mediated the relationship between intergroup contact and symbolic forms of reconciliation—forgiveness and support for ingroup apology. Realistic threat mediated the link between intergroup contact and a more tangible form of reconciliation—support for financial compensation. This highlights the importance of considering different types intergroup threat when targeting distinct reconciliatory acts. Our results suggest that practitioners promoting reconciliation in post‐conflict societies need to implement different means when tailoring interventions that should enhance different sides of peace‐making process.

This chapter about national stereotypes contributes to the understanding of country image and country identity from the perspective of personality and social psychology. National stereotypes rated by people from the same country (in-group stereotypes) are part of country identity. National stereotypes rated by people from other countries (out-group stereotypes) relate to country image. We compare both in-group and out-group national stereotypes with personality traits of real people to determine if national stereotypes are accurate. We found that the representation of both country identity and country image did not correspond to reality, while country images were shared across different countries.

We compared different methodological approaches in research on the accuracy of national stereotypes that use aggregated mean scores of real people's personality traits as criteria for stereotype accuracy. Our sample comprised 16,713 participants from the Central Europe and 1,090 participants from the Baltic Sea region. Participants rated national stereotypes of their own country using the National Character Survey (NCS) and their personality traits using either the Revised NEO Personality Inventory or the NCS. We examined the effects of different (i) methods for rating of real people (Revised NEO Personality Inventory vs. NCS) and national stereotypes (NCS); (ii) norms for converting raw scores into T–scores (Russian vs. international norms); and (iii) correlation techniques (intraclass correlations vs. Pearson correlations vs. rank–order correlations) on the resulting agreement between the ratings of national stereotypes and real people. We showed that the accuracy of national stereotypes depended on the employed methodology. The accuracy was the highest when ratings of real people and national stereotypes were made using the same method and when rank order correlations were used to estimate the agreement between national stereotypes and personality profiles of real people. We propose a new statistical procedure for determining national stereotype accuracy that overcomes limitations of past studies. We provide methodological recommendations applicable to a wider range of cross national stereotype accuracy studies. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

The purpose of this research is to quantitatively compare everyday situational experience around the world. Local collaborators recruited 5,447 members of college communities in 20 countries, who provided data via a Web site in 14 languages. Using the 89 items of the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ), participants described the situation they experienced the previous evening at 7:00 p.m. Correlations among the average situational profiles of each country ranged from r = .73 to r = .95; the typical situation was described as largely pleasant. Most similar were the United States/Canada; least similar were South Korea/Denmark. Japan had the most homogenous situational experience; South Korea, the least. The 15 RSQ items varying the most across countries described relatively negative aspects of situational experience; the 15 least varying items were more positive. Further analyses correlated RSQ items with national scores on six value dimensions, the Big Five traits, economic output, and population. Individualism, Neuroticism, Openness, and Gross Domestic Product yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance. Psychological research traditionally has paid more attention to the assessment of persons than of situations, a discrepancy that extends to cross-cultural psychology. The present study demonstrates how cultures vary in situational experience in psychologically meaningful ways.

While a large body of research has investigated cultural differences in behavior, this typical study assesses a single behavioral outcome, in a single context, compared across two countries. The current study compared a broad array of behaviors across 21 countries (N = 5,522). Participants described their behavior at 7:00 p.m. the previous evening using the 68 items of the Riverside Behavioral Q-sort (RBQ). Correlations between average patterns of behavior in each country ranged from r =.69 to r =.97 and, in general, described a positive and relaxed activity. The most similar patterns were United States/Canada and least similar were Japan/United Arab Emirates (UAE). Similarities in behavior within countries were largest in Spain and smallest in the UAE. Further analyses correlated average RBQ item placements in each country with, among others, country-level value dimensions, personality traits, self-esteem levels, economic output, and population. Extroversion, openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, self-esteem, happiness, and tolerant attitudes yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance. © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

The present research tested the idea that the ecological impact of intergroup contact on outgroup attitudes can be fully understood only when relative frequency and relative influence of positive and negative contact are considered simultaneously. Participants from five European countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovakia; N = 1276) freely described their contact experiences with people of neighboring nationalities and then reported on their outgroup attitudes. Contact descriptions were coded for positive versus negative valence and for person versus situation framing. Consistently across the five participant groups, positive intergroup contact was reported to occur three times more frequently than negative intergroup contact; however, positive contact was found to be only weakly related to outgroup attitudes. On the contrary, the less frequent negative (vs. positive) contact was comparatively more influential in shaping outgroup attitudes, especially when negativity was reported around the contact person, rather than the contact situation. This research's findings reconcile contrasting lines of past research on intergroup contact and suggest that the greater prevalence of positive contact may compensate for the greater prominence of negative contact, thus leading to modest net improvements in outgroup attitudes after intergroup contact. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In a study on national stereotypes in central Europe—composed of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovakia—2241 participants rated their autostereotype (a typical representative of their own country) and heterostereotypes (typical representatives of the other countries) by using National Character Survey (NCS). Existing data from 17377 participants including self–reports or observer ratings on Revised NEO Personality Inventory and NCS were compared with the national autostereotypes and heterostereotypes. Although national autostereotypes converged with personality traits of real people in Poland and an adult subsample in the Czech Republic, national heterostereotypes did not correspond to personality traits of real people in any of the studied countries. National stereotypes were shared within as well as across countries. In heterostereotypes, raters from similar cultural backgrounds speaking similar languages agreed better as compared with raters from more distant cultures. Target country played a role in agreement of raters from different countries, showed in the highest convergence between autostereotypes and heterostereotypes of a typical German. Sharing of national stereotypes is influenced by political and economic significance of the target country. Although national autostereotypes clearly differentiated between typical representatives of central European countries, the comparison of personality profiles of their inhabitants showed remarkable resemblance. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology.

Three studies examined the effect of nouns and adjectives for designations of nationality on intergroup bias. In Study 1, participants ( N = 237) evaluated group artifacts whose authors’ nationality was labeled with nouns or adjectives. Use of nouns enhanced in-group favoritism, manifested as a preference of the in-group artifact. Study 2 ( N = 431) tested the effect of nouns and adjectives on attitudes toward the in-group and out-group focusing on the moderating role of in-group identification. Use of nouns led to a stronger relative preference of the in-group, pronounced especially in low identified group members. Study 3 ( N = 979) examined the effect of nouns and adjectives in a more applied survey setting. Intergroup bias concerning material restitution for confiscated property was stronger when the ethnicity of the former owners was labeled with nouns. The article emphasizes that subtle variation in language use has a consistent impact on intergroup evaluation.

Respondents from Austria (N = 146) and the Czech Republic (N = 165) noted down their experiences with people from their neighbouring country and their attitudes to their own country and the neighbouring nation on feeling thermometers. The quantitative content analysis and qualitative critical discourse-inspired analysis of the open statements focused on the role of language in the construction of Czech-Austrian relations. Using qualitative analysis we enquired as to which themes were intertwined with the topic of language, and as to the ways in which the participants perceived themselves, the Others, behind the border, and the relations between the two sides. We looked not only into what participants said but also how they said it. Using statistical analysis we tested the link between language-related topics in the descriptions of intergroup contact and the evaluation of the neighbouring nation as a whole. Throughout the article we compare the findings obtained by the two kinds of analysis and comment on (dis)agreement as well as on the (dis)advantages of both approaches.

Although large international studies have found consistent patterns of sex differences in personality traits among adults (i.e., women scoring higher on most facets), less is known about cross-cultural sex differences in adolescent personality and the role of culture and age in shaping them. The present study examines the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (McCrae, Costa, & Martin, 2005) informant ratings of adolescents from 23 cultures (N = 4,850), and investigates culture and age as sources of variability in sex differences of adolescents' personality. The effect for Neuroticism (with females scoring higher than males) begins to take on its adult form around age 14. Girls score higher on Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness at all ages between 12 and 17 years. A more complex pattern emerges for Extraversion and Agreeableness, although by age 17, sex differences for these traits are highly similar to those observed in adulthood. Cross-sectional data suggest that (a) with advancing age, sex differences found in adolescents increasingly converge toward adult patterns with respect to both direction and magnitude; (b) girls display sex-typed personality traits at an earlier age than boys; and (c) the emergence of sex differences was similar across cultures. Practical implications of the present findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Numerous studies have documented subtle but consistent sex differences in self-reports and observer-ratings of five-factor personality traits, and such effects were found to show welldefined developmental trajectories and remarkable similarity across nations. In contrast, very little is known about perceived gender differences in five-factor traits in spite of their potential implications for gender biases at the interpersonal and societal level. In particular, it is not clear how perceived gender differences in five-factor personality vary across age groups and national contexts and to what extent they accurately reflect assessed sex differences in personality. To address these questions, we analyzed responses from 3,323 individuals across 26 nations (mean age = 22.3 years, 31% male) who were asked to rate the five-factor personality traits of typical men or women in three age groups (adolescent, adult, and older adult) in their respective nations. Raters perceived women as slightly higher in openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness as well as some aspects of extraversion and neuroticism. Perceived gender differences were fairly consistent across nations and target age groups and mapped closely onto assessed sex differences in self- and observer-rated personality. Associations between the average size of perceived gender differences and national variations in sociodemographic characteristics, value systems, or gender equality did not reach statistical significance. Findings contribute to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of gender stereotypes of personality and suggest that perceptions of actual sex differences may play a more important role than culturally based gender roles and socialization processes. Fil: Löckenhoff, Corinna E.. Cornell University.; Estados Unidos Fil: Chan, Wayne. Rutgers University; Estados Unidos Fil: McCrae, Robert R.. No especifíca; Fil: De Fruyt, Filip. University of Ghent; Bélgica Fil: Jussim, Lee. Rutgers University; Estados Unidos Fil: De Bolle, Marleen. University of Ghent; Bélgica Fil: Costa Jr, Paul T.. University of Duke; Estados Unidos Fil: Sutin, Angelina R.. Florida State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Realo, Anu. University Of Tartu.; Estonia Fil: Allik, Jüri. University Of Tartu.; Estonia. Estonian Academy of Sciences; Estonia Fil: Nakazato, Katsuharu. Tokyo University of Social Welfare; Japón Fil: Shimonaka, Yoshiko. Bunkyo Gakuin University; Japón Fil: Hřebíčková, Martina. Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic; República Checa Fil: Graf, Sylvie. Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic; República Checa Fil: Yik, Michelle. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; China Fil: Ficková, Emília. Slovak Academy of Sciences; Eslovaquia Fil: Brunner Sciarra, Marina. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; Perú Fil: Leibovich, Nora Blanca. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología. Instituto de Investigaciones; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Schmidt, Vanina Ines. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología. Instituto de Investigaciones; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Ahn, Chang Kyu. Pusan National University; Corea del Sur Fil: Ahn, Hyun Nie. Ewha Womans University; Corea del Sur Fil: Aguilar Vafaie, María E.. Tarbiat Modares University; Irán Fil: Siuta, Jerzy. Jagiellonian University; Polonia Fil: Szmigielska, Barbara. Hampshire College; Estados Unidos Fil: Cain, Thomas R.. Hampshire College; Estados Unidos Fil: Crawford, Jarret T.. The College of New Jersey; Estados Unidos Fil: Anwar Mastor, Khairul. Universiti Kebangsaan; Malasia Fil: Rolland, Jean Pierre. Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre la Defense; Francia Fil: Nansubuga, Florence. Makerere University; Uganda Fil: Miramontez, Daniel R.. San Diego Community College District; Estados Unidos Fil: Benet Martínez, Veronica. Universitat Pompeu Fabra; España Fil: Rossier, Jérôme. Universite de Lausanne; Suiza Fil: Bratko, Denis. University of Zagreb; Croacia Fil: Marušić, Iris. Institute for Social Research in Zagreb; Croacia Fil: Halberstadt, Jamin. University of Otago; Nueva Zelanda Fil: Yamaguchi, Mami. University of Otago; Nueva Zelanda Fil: Knežević, Goran. Belgrade University; Serbia Fil: Martin, Thomas A.. Susquehanna University; Estados Unidos Fil: Gheorghiu, Mirona. The Queen's University Belfast; Irlanda Fil: Smith, Peter B.. University of Sussex; Reino Unido Fil: Barbaranelli, Claudio. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia Fil: Wang, Lei. Peking University; China Fil: Shakespeare Finch, Jane. Queensland University of Technology; Australia Fil: Lima, Margarida P.. Universidad de Coimbra; Portugal Fil: Klinkosz, Waldemar. The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; Polonia Fil: Sekowski, Andrzej. The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; Polonia Fil: Alcalay, Lidia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Chile Fil: Simonetti, Franco Lucio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Chile Fil: Avdeyeva, Tatyana V.. University of St. Thomas; Estados Unidos Fil: Pramila, V. S.. No especifíca; Fil: Terracciano, Antonio. Florida State University; Estados Unidos