Who Is in the Middle: Social Class, Core Values, and Identities in India

This article examines how middle‐class identity is experienced and employed by traditional and neo‐middle‐class identifiers in India. The economically and socially heterogeneous middle‐class identifiers vote similarly, but we know very little about what they want out of politics. We focus on the subjective experiences of middle‐class identifiers, we theorize the expressive function of middle‐class identities, and we examine the socially and personally focused core values of traditional middle‐class identifiers and neo‐middle aspirers. We introduce the "Class as Social Identity" scale and analyze qualitative interviews with strong middle‐class identifiers (Study 1) and the 2006, 2012, and 2014 World Values Survey India segments (Study 2). The interviews show that upper middle class and lower middle class identifiers express similar socially focused values but different personally focused values. The WVS analyses show convergence of upper‐middle‐class and lower‐middle‐class identifiers on conservation and self‐transcendence in line with dominant political narratives and divergence on materialism, hedonism, and stimulation in line with their rising differences in income and every‐day life pressures. We discuss the significance of these findings for the understanding of the political function of middle‐class identities in India in the context of heightened Hindu nationalism and recent socioeconomic challenges aggravated by the COVID‐19 pandemic

Comparison of consumer attitudes between Cyprus and Latvia: An evaluation of effect of setting on consumer preferences in the water industry

This is the post-print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from th link below - Copyright @ SpringerModels approaching consumer expectations of their water supplier from a risk perspective suggest that consumers primarily and overwhelmingly want safe drinking water supply. In this study consumer preferences in the water sector are investigated in two contrasting case studies: Cyprus, where there have been significant quantity and continuity of supply issues, and Riga, where there have been water quality issues. While water quality is undoubtedly the main priority of water consumers in Riga, in Cyprus consumers indicate that they prioritise a more reliable service even though many are sufficiently dissatisfied with water quality that they do not drink the tap water. The analysis of consumer attitudes in the two case studies suggests that when water supply is unreliable, reliability takes precedence; once it is reliable quality issues come to the fore.This research was carried out as part of Work Area 6 of the TECHNEAU project, an integrated project funded under FP6 of the European Commission, grant number: 018320

Arguments for European disintegration : a mobilization analysis of anti-immigration speeches by U.K. political leaders

In this paper we develop a mobilisation analysis of contemporary antagonism to immigrants. We argue that such antagonism does not arise spontaneously from the cognitions of ordinary people but is mobilised by political actors. This leads us to ask why politicians mobilise such antagonisms and how they do so. Our analysis, illustrated by set piece speeches on immigration by the four main UK party political leaders in the period prior to the 2015 elections, suggests (a) that while these speeches are ostensibly about an intergroup issue they equally serve intra-group dynamics, notably demonstrating how the speaker serves national interests and hence qualifies to serve as a national representative; (b) the way that speakers mobilise antagonism to immigrants is through construing a variety of forms of threat: spatial threat, economic threat, security threat and diversity threat. We focus particularly on the last of these because of the ways in which it invokes social psychological arguments and hence speaks in our name. We conclude by raising issues of accountability – both of politicians and social psychologists – regarding the way we talk about immigration.PostprintPeer reviewe

COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey dataset on psychological and behavioural consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak

This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey – an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures like cancellation of public functions and stay at home orders implemented in many countries. The dataset contains demographic background variables as well as measures of Asian Disease Problem, perceived stress (PSS-10), availability of social provisions (SPS-10), trust in various authorities, trust in governmental measures to contain the virus (OECD trust), personality traits (BFF-15), information behaviours, agreement with the level of government intervention, and compliance with preventive measures, along with a rich pool of exploratory variables and written experiences. A global consortium from 39 countries and regions worked together to build and translate a survey with variables of shared interests, and recruited participants in 47 languages and dialects. Raw plus cleaned data and dynamic visualizations are available

Scandal Plagued or Scandal Proof: the role of candidate personality traits as scandal immunity factors Σκάνδαλα, ΜΜΕ και δείκτες προσωπικότητας: Ο γρίφος του πολιτικού απυρόβλητου.

Στο παρόν άρθρο θα διερευνηθεί ένα ιδιαίτερα ενδιαφέρον ερώτημα στο χώρο της πολιτικής επικοινωνίας: για ποιους λόγους ορισμένα πολιτικά πρόσωπα επιβιώνουν, ενώ άλλα υποκύπτουν στις επιβλαβείς συνέπειες που έπονται ενός πολιτικού σκανδάλου; Στα δύο πειράματα που παρουσιάζονται εδώ θα αναλύσουμε τον τρόπο λειτουργίας των χαρακτηριστικών της προσωπικότητας (personality traits) πολιτικών υποψηφίων οι οποίοι κατηγορούνται για κάποιο πολιτικό σκάνδαλο, εστιάζοντας στο κατά πόσο τα χαρακτηριστικά αυτά είναι φορείς πολιτικού απυρόβλητου. Τα εξαγόμενα των δυο ερευνών συντείνουν πως οι δείκτες των χαρακτηριστικών της προσωπικότητας ενός πολιτικού και ιδιαίτερα η ικανότητα και η εντιμότητα είναι δυνατόν να λειτουργήσουν κατά τέτοιο τρόπο ώστε να αντισταθμίσουν τις ενδεχόμενα αρνητικές συνέπειες ενός πολιτικού σκανδάλου. Συγκεκριμένα, υψηλές αξιολογήσεις της ικανότητας ενός πολιτικού από μέρους του κοινού είναι δυνατόν να λειτουργήσουν ως προστατευτική ασπίδα, εξουδετερώνοντας τις αρνητικές συνέπειες ενός σκανδάλου. Ένας πολιτικός που αρχικά θεωρείται πολιτικά ικανός, είναι ανθεκτικότερος σε πολιτικά σκάνδαλα, εν συγκρίσει με τον πολιτικό που είναι λιγότερο ικανός, ανεξάρτητα από την σοβαρότητα του σκανδάλου. Τέλος, , παρ ότι η εντιμότητα δεν λειτουργεί ως προστατευτική ασπίδα στην περίπτωση ενός σοβαρού σκανδάλου, είναι δυνατόν να έχει προστατευτική δράση στην περίπτωση ενός ηπιότερου σκανδάλου