Legitimization and delegitimization of social hierarchy

Although status and wealth are related facets of social stratification, their association is only moderate. In this article, we demonstrate that justification of wealth versus status can be independent processes. To this end, we introduce a novel, nondeclarative measure of system justification. The measure is based on within-individual correlations between the judgments of how a group ‘‘is doing’’ and how it ‘‘should be doing.’’ Two studies demonstrated that the between-group differentiation in terms of material wealth was delegitimized—the more a group was perceived as wealthy, the less it was desired to be wealthy. However, the between-group differentiation in terms of status was generally legitimized—the more a group was perceived as influential, the more it was desired to be influential. We conclude by discussing the role of sociopolitical context in active legitimization and delegitimization of different aspects of the system

Is liberal bias universal? An international perspective on social psychologists

Based on our comparison of political orientation and research interests of social psychologists in capitalist Western countries versus post-Communist Eastern European countries, we suggest that Duarte and colleagues' claim of liberal bias in the field seems American-centric. We propose an alternative account of political biases which focuses on the academic tendency to explain attitudes of lower status groups

Brexit and Polexit: Collective narcissism is associated with the support for leaving the European Union

In three studies we examine the link between types of national identity and support for leaving the European Union (EU). We found that national collective narcissism (but not national identification without the narcissistic component) was positively associated with a willingness to vote Leave, over and above the effect of political orientation. This pattern was observed in a representative Polish sample (Study 1, n = 635), as well as in samples of Polish youth (Study 2, n = 219), and both Polish (n = 73) and British (n = 60) professionals employed in the field of international relations (Study 3). In Studies 2 and 3 this effect was mediated by biased EU membership perceptions. The role of defensive versus secure forms of in-group identification in shaping support for EU membership is discussed

Mediterranean diet in coronary heart disease primary prevention

W Badaniu Siedmiu Krajów (Seven Countries Study) (1958-1964), obejmującym Japonię, Grecję, byłą Jugosławię, Włochy, Holandię, Stany Zjednoczone i Finlandię, wykazano dużą zależność umieralności z powodu choroby niedokrwiennej serca od sposobu żywienia. Stwierdzono dodatnią korelację między spożyciem masła, ciast, mięsa, mleka, margaryn (twardych) łącznie ze smalcem i cukru a umieralnością. Ujemna korelacja dotyczyła natomiast spożycia nasion roślin strączkowych, ryb i warzyw. Tradycyjna dieta śródziemnomorska z początku lat 60. charakteryzuje się dużą zawartością warzyw, owoców, produktów zbożowych, nasion roślin strączkowych, spożywaniem oliwy z oliwek jako głównego źródła tłuszczu, średnim spożyciem produktów mlecznych i ryb, przy małym spożyciu mięsa i średnim spożyciem wina do posiłków. Po małych zmianach dostosowujących ją do lokalnych zwyczajów żywieniowych dieta śródziemnomorska może być łatwo stosowana także w krajach Europy północnej.In the Seven Countries Study (1958-1964), in populations from Japan, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Italy, the Netherlands, the United States, and Finland, an association was shown between mortality from coronary heart disease and the diet. Analysis showed that butter, pastries, meat, milk, margarine (hard) + lard and sugar consumption directly correlated with coronary heart disease mortality. Legumes, fish and vegetables consumption inversely correlated with coronary heart disease mortality. Traditional Mediterranean diet of the early 1960s was characterized by an abundance of vegetable, fruit, cereals and legumes, olive oil as the principal source of fat, dairy products consumed in moderate amounts, fish consumed in moderate amounts, red meat consumed in low amounts and wine consumed in moderate amount, normally with meals. The Mediterranean diet can easily be followed in northern Europe, with small modifications for local food patterns

Marlene Verhoef and Theodorus du Plessis, eds Multilingualism and Educational Interpreting

A review of Marlene Verhoef and Theodorus du Plessis, eds Multilingualism and Educational Interpreting Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers 2010. 199 pp. ISBN 9.780.627.02777.

Nationalism as collective narcissism

Traditional conceptualisations of nationalism focus on the need for intergroup domination. We argue that current politics are rather driven by the need for recognition of the greatness of one’s nation. In psychological literature, the need for the nation’s appreciation is captured by the concept of collective narcissism—a belief in in-group greatness contingent on external recognition. We demonstrate that collective narcissism is associated with support for national populist parties and policies. We also review the empirical evidence for the intergroup and intragroup concomitants of collective narcissism. We demonstrate that collective narcissism benefits neither out-group nor in-group members. Instead, it helps manage psychological needs of the individual. We conclude that collective narcissism might undermine social cohesion both within and between groups

Narcissistic self-esteem or optimal self-esteem? A Latent Profile Analysis of self-esteem and psychological entitlement

Research into the relationship between self-esteem and narcissism has produced conflicting results, potentially caused by hidden subpopulations that exhibit distinct positive or negative associations. This research uses Latent Profile Analysis to identify profiles within a national panel study (N = 6,471) with differing relationships between psychological entitlement and self-esteem. We identified a narcissistic self-esteem profile (9%) characterised by high entitlement and high self-esteem, an optimal self-esteem (38.4%) profile characterised by high self-esteem but low entitlement, and three profiles that reported low entitlement but different levels of self-esteem. We additionally predicted profile membership using Big-Five personality. Results indicate that self-esteem is a necessary but not sufficient condition for high entitlement, and entitlement is not highly prevalent in New Zealand

Ideological distinction. The political ideologies of social psychologists in the East and West.

The problem of “liberal bias” among personality and social psychologists has been widely discussed in recent years (Haidt, 2011; Duarte et al., in press; Inbar, Lammers, 2012). Most of these discussions extrapolated findings observed in American and Western European social psychology to the whole discipline. This article presents a first insight into regional differences in the political opinions of Western, and Eastern social psychologists. Based on the characteristics of intellectuals in Eastern European countries as reproducers of existing structures of dependence, we hypothesised that Eastern European psychologists would not express a “liberal bias” but instead, at least in the domain of economic opinions, that they would support rather conservative political solutions. An empirical study of social psychologists from Hungary, Poland, the USA and the UK supported this hypothesis. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that, despite forming the majority in the field of social psychology, Polish supporters of a free market economy were reluctant to express their views in public. Finally, based on the European Values Survey, we compared the economic attitudes of European social psychologists with the attitudes prevalent in their countries (i.e. Hungary, Poland and the UK). This comparison suggested that Hungarian and Polish social psychologists hold more procapitalist stances on economic issues than the poorest segments of the societies they live in, whereas British social psychologists supported state interventionism to a greater extent than the poorest sections of their society

An autobiographical gateway: Narcissists avoid first-person visual perspective while retrieving self-threatening memories

This research examines the role of narcissistic versus genuine self-evaluation in the retrieval of self-threatening memories. Autobiographical memories can be retrieved either from a first-person or a third-person visual perspective. Because narcissism is linked to sensitivity to psychological threats, it should predict retrieval of self-threatening memories using the third-person perspective. Genuine self-esteem, on the other hand, is resilient to threats. Therefore, it should be associated with retrieving self-relevant, even if threatening, memories from the first-person perspective. In two experiments we measured narcissism and self-esteem. Experiment 1 manipulated valence of self-relevant memories by asking participants to recall self-threatening (shameful) or self-boosting (proud) situations. Experiment 2 manipulated self-relevance of negative memories by asking participants to recall self-threatening (shameful) or negative, yet not self-threatening (sad) situations. Visual perspective of memory retrieval served as the dependent variable. In Experiment 1, narcissism predicted avoiding the first-person perspective and employing the third-person perspective in self-threatening memories, while self-esteem predicted the first-person perspective regardless of the memories being self-threatening or self-boosting. In Experiment 2, narcissism predicted the third-person perspective, while genuine self-esteem predicted the first-person perspective when self-threatening memories were recalled. Neither narcissism, nor genuine self-esteem were associated with visual perspective when participants recalled negative memories irrelevant to the self. Results shed light on the role of self-evaluation in processing autobiographical memories