The motivation and inhibition of breaking the rules:Personal values structures predict unethicality

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. We theorized and tested the relationship of personal value systems with unethical attitudes and behavior. Results from three studies using 16 diverse multi-national samples (N= 107,087) demonstrated the complexity of motivations underlying unethicality. Across contexts and cultures, for attitudes (Study 1 meta-analysis) and behaviors in the lab (Study 2) and in real-life (Study 3), we consistently found that the values theory circumplex structure predicted the inhibition and motivation of unethicality. Unethicality was positively associated with self-enhancement values and negatively associated with self-transcendence and conservation values. However, self-transcendence and conservation values were associated with the inhibition of different types of unethicality. The relationship of openness-to-change values with unethicality was generally positive but the effect size varied depending on context.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The Moral Foundations of Vaccine Passports.

The debate around vaccine passports has been polarising and controversial. Although the measure allows businesses to resume in-person operations and enables transitioning out of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some have expressed concerns about liberty violations and discrimination. Understanding the splintered viewpoints can aid businesses in communicating such measures to employees and consumers. We conceptualise the business implementation of vaccine passports as a moral decision rooted in individual values that influence reasoning and emotional reaction. We surveyed support for vaccine passports on a nationally representative sample in the United Kingdom in 2021: April (n = 349), May (n = 328), and July (n = 311). Drawing on the Moral Foundations Theory-binding (loyalty, authority, and sanctity), individualising (fairness and harm), and liberty values-we find that individualising values are a positive predictor and liberty values a negative predictor of support for passports, suggesting adoption hinges on addressing liberty concerns. Longitudinal analysis examining the trajectory of change in support over time finds that individualising foundations positively predict changes in utilitarian and deontological reasoning over time. In contrast, a fall in anger over time predicts increased support towards vaccine passports. Our study can inform business and policy communication strategies of existing vaccine passports, general vaccine mandates, and similar measures in future pandemics

Saving Mr. Nature: Anthropomorphism enhances connectedness to and protectiveness toward nature

Nature is often anthropomorphized in the environmental discourse. However, whether anthropomorphism of nature has any impact on the way people relate to and behave toward nature has rarely been examined. With three experiments, the present research addresses this issue. It shows that in general anthropomorphism of nature fosters conservation behavior. Moreover, when nature is anthropomorphized, people feel more connected to it; this sense of connectedness mediates the association between anthropomorphism of nature and conservation behavior. These findings contribute to the understanding of anthropomorphism and that of human-nature relationship. They also bear practical implications for environmental promotion. Future research directions are identified. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Asians as the model minority: Implications for US Government's policies

Asian Americans are often perceived as a `model minority' - an ethnic minority that are high achieving, hardworking, self-reliant, law-abiding, as well as having few social and mental health problems. Although the impact of the model minority image on the US government's redistributive policies is a widely contested topic in public discourses, there has been little research on the association between the model minority image, people's worldviews, and attitudes towards the US government's redistributive policies. In an experiment that measured American participants' worldviews and manipulated the salience of the model minority image, we have demonstrated that those who believed in a malleable social reality were relatively unsupportive of government policies that help the Asian American (vs African American) communities. Theoretical and practical implications of this finding are discussed

Essentializing Race: Its Implications on Racial Categorization

Racial classification has drawn increasing attention in public discourse; it intertwines with issues related to racialized perceptions. However, few social psychological studies have systematically examined racial categorization processes and their implications for interracial relations. In 5 studies, we investigated the role of racial essentialism in influencing several important psychological aspects of racial categorization. Results linked the belief in racial essentialism to an increased tendency to engage in race-based categorization (Studies 1-3) and greater sensitivity in discerning racial group membership (Studies 4-5). These results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding and managing interracial relations in the United States

One World, Just a Dream? Effects of the Beijing Olympic icon on perceived differences between Eastern and Western culture

The Beijing Olympic Games, aspiring towards 'One World, One Dream', were intended to elicit feelings of international unity. As such, once reminded of the Beijing Games, people should perceive fewer differences between cultures. Alternatively, given its competitive nature, the Beijing Games may lead people to contrast cultures and see heightened intergroup differences. Findings supported the latter process. After being primed with the Beijing Olympic icon, Chinese and American participants high in nationalism and patriotism perceived greater differences between Chinese and American cultures, compared to those low in nationalism and patriotism. Among Chinese participants who believe society is malleable, exposure to the icon increased perceived cultural differences, compared with those unexposed to the icon. Chinese participants who believe society is fixed saw similarly high levels of differentiation between the cultures, whether or not they were exposed to the icon. Implications for Sino-American relations and globalization are discussed

Adherence to perceived norms across cultural boundaries: The role of need for cognitive closure and ingroup identification

Need for closure (NFC) refers to the need for firm answers to reduce uncertainty. We propose that because cultural norms are closure providers, when rendering social judgments, individuals with higher NFC would be more likely to conform to the dominant norms. Furthermore, because ingroup identification increases the perceived contrast between ingroup and outgroup cultures and enhances the perceived consensual validity of the dominant cultural norms within a country, high ingroup identifiers with high NFC would adhere to their native cultural norm when managing situations in their own country; however, they would rely more on the dominant cultural norms in a foreign country when deciding how to respond in that country. Two studies provided consistent support to our hypotheses

The motivation and inhibition of breaking the rules: Personal values structures predict unethicality

We theorized and tested the relationship of personal value systems with unethical attitudes and behavior. Results from three studies using 16 diverse multi-national samples (N= 107,087) demonstrated the complexity of motivations underlying unethicality. Across contexts and cultures, for attitudes (Study 1 meta-analysis) and behaviors in the lab (Study 2) and in real-life (Study 3), we consistently found that the values theory circumplex structure predicted the inhibition and motivation of unethicality. Unethicality was positively associated with self-enhancement values and negatively associated with self-transcendence and conservation values. However, self-transcendence and conservation values were associated with the inhibition of different types of unethicality. The relationship of openness-to-change values with unethicality was generally positive but the effect size varied depending on context