3,273 research outputs found

    Intercultural Contact, Communication Apprehension, and Social Perspective Taking

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    This research examined the relationship between intergroup contact, intercultural communication apprehension, and social perspective taking. Participants were examined in one of three conditions: a course which facilitates interactions between culturally diverse students around the globe via internet technologies, an introductory psychology course, and upper-level psychology courses. Participants in the intercultural contact condition were expected to show gains in social perspective taking and a decrease in intercultural communication apprehension when compared to the two comparison groups. No significant differences between the three groups were found for either change in intercultural communication apprehension or social perspective taking. Potential explanations for this lack of change are explored, along with a path model to explain the influence of personality factors on intercultural communication apprehension, and social perspective taking

    The Captivity of Opportunity: The Conversation Surrounding Church-Going Hispanic Immigrants

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    Immigration is a long-standing topic of discussion in the United States. Hispanic immigrants, or families of Hispanic immigrants, living in America face unique challenges. Through focus group interviews, participants from a predominantly Hispanic Protestant church narrated their experience of living in the United States. Guided grounded theory data analysis revealed three categories and 14 subcategories, or themes of conversation, surrounding this hot topic. Participants shed light on the distinctive challenges they faced, how these challenges affected them, and how they attempted to overcome these difficulties. By exploring these results through the lens of social stigma theory (Goffman, 2009) and intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew, 1998; Berg, 2009), the current research illuminated the marginalization of this population. Ultimately, participants narrated that the challenges that they face are far outweighed by the opportunities they are given, showing potential for how communication can help to overcome the marginalization of the Latino population

    The Modern Family: Confronting Attitudes and Same-Sex Marriage Legislation Through Gay Male Relationships and Gender Roles on TV

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    Media portrayals within the ABC television show Modern Family provide insight into how viewers perceive the monogamous gay relationship between the male characters Cameron and Mitchell, and how contact with these characters is related to attitudes and behaviors. A sample of 90 viewers and 157 non-viewers from the University of Missouri and social networks participated in an online survey. Exposure to the program predicted positive attitudes toward gay men and intentions to vote for same-sex marriage legislation. Perceptions of more heteronormative gender roles within the gay relationship did not predict positive attitudes or intentions to vote for same-sex marriage rights. A relationship between less heteronormative gender roles and intent to vote for same-sex marriage rights approached significance. These results indicate perceiving two males in a monogamous relationship as having similar gender attributes may predict intentions to vote for same-sex marriage legislation and needs further research. Viewer gender differences did not predict differences in perceptions of the charactersā€™ gender attributes. Parasocial interaction was also not a proven moderating variable between exposure and attitudes toward gay men. Distinct differences emerged between viewers and non-viewers, including differences in the outcome variables. This study adds to prior gay male media stereotypes, social cognitive, parasocial interaction, and gender inversion theory research

    Inclusive social norms and nationals' positive intergroup orientations toward refugees: The moderating role of initial prejudice and intergroup contact

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    Research on the interplay between inclusive norms and intergroup contact on improving intergroup orientations has yielded conflicting results, suggesting either that an experience of personal contact is necessary to have a positive effect of inclusive norms or that such personal experience is not always necessary. To clarify this issue, across four studies ( N = 835), we investigated the influence of inclusive norms on positive intergroup orientations as a function of personal experiences of intergroup contact. Study 1 demonstrated that inclusive norms are more strongly correlated with experiences of personal contact with outgroups with whom opportunities of contact are more (i.e., immigrants) than less (i.e., refugees) frequent. Study 2 provided experimental evidence for this finding showing that inclusive norms increase prejudiced nationalsā€™ willingness to engage in future contact with immigrants but not with refugees, suggesting that conformity to inclusive norms depends on varying contact opportunities with the outgroups. Studies 3 and 4 confirmed that prejudiced nationals conformed to inclusive norms specifically when experienced positive contact with a refugee (experimentally induced with the imagined contact paradigm), compared with no contact (Study 3) or negative contact (Study 4). We discuss the implications of these findings for research on intergroup contact, social influence, and intergroup relations.</p

    Political Essentialism and Affective Polarization

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    Affective polarization, the phenomenon of liberals and conservatives treating each other as disliked outgroups, is increasingly intense (Iyengar & Westwood, 2015; Pew, 2016). In the present research, I used the construct of psychological essentialism (Medin & Ortony, 1989) to help understand this intergroup phenomenon. Specifically, I measured political essentialism, or the belief that political ideologies are strongly determined, informative, discrete and/or immutable, and tested the relationship between these beliefs and affective polarization. I approached this question with both correlational and experimental methods. In a correlational study, political essentialism overall is found to covary positively with affective polarization and social avoidance of political outgroups. Essentialism is found to be most predictive when treated as a collection of distinct lay beliefs, rather than a unitary construct. Informativeness and discreteness beliefs correspond strongly and positively with affective polarization, while biological basis beliefs and social deterministic beliefs have weak effects in the opposite direction. In the experimental study, manipulating essentialism beliefs had no effect on affective polarization or desire for social distance. Potential reasons for the discrepant results are explored. In sum, this research supports the hypothesis that political essentialism is associated with affective polarization, but does not provide evidence that essentialism plays a causal role in this relationship

    Freely chosen positive intergroup imagery causes improved outgroup emotions and encourages increased contact seeking immediately and at follow up

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    In two ethnic contexts, we focus on volitional imagined contact as a potential method to increase individualsā€™ readiness to voluntarily initiate intergroup contact and engage in responses with implications for reconciliation. In Study 1, we used a quasi-experimental design to determine the causal role of volitional (vs. non-volitional) valenced imagined contact with a refugee on downstream processes. Irrespective of volition, positive visualizations led to more positive outgroup emotions, action tendencies and contact seeking, however manipulated volition amplified the differential impact of valenced contact on outgroup emotions: Negative contact was more detrimental when freely chosen, than forced, whereas positive contact was equally beneficial irrespective of volition. Study 2 investigated factors driving individualsā€™ choices for positive (vs. negative) imagined contact in conflict-laden Cyprus and assessed immediate and longer-term consequences of such choices for interethnic contact seeking. In both studies, participants chose to engage in imagined contact of a valence that aligned with their prior contact histories consistent with an evaluative fit mechanism. Volitional valenced imagery predicted participantsā€™ active and self-initiated contact seeking immediately and after a 2-week period. Hence, volitional intergroup imagery as a ā€˜mental contact scriptā€™ prepares individuals for actual intergroup contact and behaviors with implications for intergroup reconciliation and cohesion

    The Balance Between Privacy and Safety in Police UAV Use: The Power of Threat and Its Effect on Peopleā€™s Receptivity

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    Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are an innovative technology that has received significant interest from the law enforcement community. The size and ability, technological capability, and cost effectiveness of UAVs make them an attractive tool for law enforcement agencies to utilize in the course of operations, including domestic surveillance. Despite the potential benefits to the society, public perception of police UAV use is mixed, and ā€œNot Over My Backyard (NOMBY)ā€ attitudes relevant to Fourth Amendment privacy concerns are consistently demonstrated across studies related to public perceptions on this emerging technology. The present study focuses on the relative impact of privacy threats and other situational factors on individualsā€™ perceptions of police and their use of UAV technology. Using Stephan and Renfroā€™s revised reintegrated threat theory (2002), the present research used a scenario- based experimental design to examine: (1) the impact perceived threat from police UAV use on peopleā€™s attitudes toward police and their use of UAVs? (2) the attitudinal differences of the degree of participantsā€™ connection to the target of surveillance, and (3) the effect of the peopleā€™s pre-existing perceptions of police on participantsā€™ attitudinal differences, and (4) the structural relationships, followed by the theory, between perceived threats, antecedents (i.e., relations between groups, individual difference variables, cultural dimensions, situational factors) to intergroup threat, and the peopleā€™s perceptions, as well as demographic or other socio-economic factors. The findings provide some significant socio-psychological implications concerning police-community intergroup relations. First, the quality of the interpersonal treatment or relations (i.e., individual differences) they had previously received from police officers was the strongest indicator in predicting their attitudes toward police UAV use. Second, the outcome of UAV activity also influenced their evaluations of police. Lastly, peopleā€™s attitudes were more extreme when the level of connection to the target of surveillance was farther away from them and it was interacted with policing strategies (i.e., reactive v proactive policing)
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