Intergroup contact buffers against the intergenerational transmission of authoritarianism and racial prejudice

The present study focused on the buffering role of positive intergroup contact in the intergenerational transmission of authoritarianism and racial prejudice in a sample of adolescents and one of their parents. In accordance with our expectations, adolescents’ intergroup contact experiences moderated the mediated relationships between parental authoritarianism and adolescents’ prejudice, both via adolescents’ authoritarianism and via parental prejudice. These relationships were stronger among adolescents with lower, rather than higher, levels of intergroup contact. We conclude that intergroup contact buffers the indirect relationship between parents’ authoritarianism and adolescents’ racial prejudice and therefore constitutes a promising means of reducing the intergenerational transmission of prejudice

Gradient and vorticity banding

"Banded structures" of macroscopic dimensions can be induced by simple shear flow in many different types of soft matter systems. Depending on whether these bands extend along the gradient or vorticity direction, the banding transition is referred to as "gradient banding" or "vorticity banding," respectively. The main features of gradient banding can be understood on the basis of a relatively simple constitutive equation. This minimal model for gradient banding will be discussed in some detail, and its predictions are shown to explain many of the experimentally observed features. The minimal model assumes a decrease of the shear stress of the homogeneously sheared system with increasing shear rate within a certain shear-rate interval. The possible microscopic origin of the severe shear-thinning behaviour that is necessary for the resulting nonmonotonic flow curves is discussed for a few particular systems. Deviations between experimental observations and predictions by the minimal model are due to obvious simplifications within the scope of the minimal model. The most serious simplifications are the neglect of concentration dependence of the shear stress (or on other degrees of freedom) and of the elastic contributions to the stress, normal stresses, and the possibility of shear-induced phase transitions. The consequences of coupling of stress and concentration will be analyzed in some detail. In contrast to predictions of the minimal model, when coupling to concentration is important, a flow instability can occur that does not require strong shear thinning. Gradient banding is sometimes also observed in glassy- and gel-like systems, as well as in shear-thickening systems. Possible mechanisms that could be at the origin of gradient-band formation in such systems are discussed. Gradient banding can also occur in strongly entangled polymeric systems. Banding in these systems is discussed on the basis of computer simulations. Vorticity banding is less well understood and less extensively investigated experimentally as compared to gradient banding. Possible scenarios that are at the origin of vorticity banding will be discussed. Among other systems, the observed vorticity-banding transition in rod-like colloids is discussed in some detail. It is argued, on the basis of experimental observations for these colloidal systems, that the vorticity-banding instability for such colloidal suspensions is probably related to an elastic instability, reminiscent of the Weissenberg effect in polymeric systems. This mechanism might explain vorticity banding in discontinuously shear-thickening systems and could be at work in other vorticity-banding systems as well. This overview does not include time-dependent phenomena like oscillations and chaotic behaviour

Topological Phase Transition in a Molecular Hamiltonian with Symmetry and Pseudo-Symmetry, Studied through Quantum, Semi-Quantum and Classical Models

The redistribution of energy levels between energy bands is studied for a family of simple effective Hamiltonians depending on one control parameter and possessing axial symmetry and energy-reflection symmetry. Further study is made on the topological phase transition in the corresponding semi-quantum and completely classical models, and finally the joint spectrum of the two commuting observables $(H=E,J_z)$ (also called the lattice of quantum states) is superposed on the image of the energy-momentum map for the classical model. Through these comparative analyses, mutual correspondence is demonstrated to exist among the redistribution of energy levels between energy bands for the quantum Hamiltonian, the modification of Chern numbers of eigenline bundles for the corresponding semi-quantum Hamiltonian, and the presence of Hamiltonian monodromy for the complete classical analog. In particular, as far as the band rearrangement is concerned, a fine agreement is found between the redistribution of the energy levels described in terms of joint spectrum of energy and momentum in the full quantum model and the evolution of singularities of the energy-momentum map of the complete classical model. The topological phase transition observed in the present semi-quantum and the complete classical models are analogous to topological phase transitions of matter

The intergenerational transmission of need for closure underlies the transmission of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice

Previous research has identified need for closure (NFC) as an important motivational cognitive basis of authoritarianism and prejudice. However, to date, the role of NFC in the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and prejudice has remained unclear. In a sample of 169 parent-child dyads, we investigated the similarity between parents and children in NFC and tested whether this intergenerational similarity may account for the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice. Our results revealed that parental levels of NFC were indeed concordant with the levels of NFC in their children. Even more importantly, parental NFC was indirectly related to child authoritarianism and prejudice in two ways. The first pathway proceeded through the direct relationships between parental and children’s levels of authoritarianism and prejudice. The second pathway, however, bypassed parental levels of authoritarianism and prejudice and proceeded through the intergenerational similarity in NFC. Our findings thus indicate that a significant portion of children’s levels of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice can be explained by parents–child similarity in motivated cognition. Implications for developmental theories of prejudice acquisition are discussed

A Fast Algorithm for the Construction of Integrity Bases Associated to Symmetry-Adapted Polynomial Representations. Application to Tetrahedral XY4 Molecules

Invariant theory provides more efficient tools, such as Molien generating functions and integrity bases, than basic group theory, that relies on projector techniques for the construction of symmetry--adapted polynomials in the symmetry coordinates of a molecular system, because it is based on a finer description of the mathematical structure of the latter. The present article extends its use to the construction of polynomial bases which span possibly, non--totally symmetric irreducible representations of a molecular symmetry group. Electric or magnetic observables can carry such irreducible representations, a common example is given by the electric dipole moment surface. The elementary generating functions and their corresponding integrity bases, where both the initial and the final representations are irreducible, are the building blocks of the algorithm presented in this article, which is faster than algorithms based on projection operators only. The generating functions for the full initial representation of interest are built recursively from the elementary generating functions. Integrity bases which can be used to generate in the most economical way symmetry--adapted polynomial bases are constructed alongside in the same fashion. The method is illustrated in detail on XY4 type of molecules. Explicit integrity bases for all five possible final irreducible representations of the tetrahedral group have been calculated and are given in the supplemental material associated with this paper

The relationship between right-wing ideological attitudes and psychological well-being

The relationship between right-wing ideological attitudes and psychological well-being has been intensively studied. While some studies supported the hypothesis that right-wing attitudes are negatively related with well-being, other research yielded positive or non-significant relationships. We conducted a meta-analysis (total samples = 97, total N = 69,221) of measures of well-being, including positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, self-esteem and intrinsic goal pursuit. The obtained effect sizes were generally weak and non-significant, except for a moderate relationship between intrinsic goal pursuit and social dominance orientation. Our results thus do not support previous theories that claim that right-wing attitudes yield substantial relationships with psychological well-being

R&D cooperation versus R&D subcontracting: empirical evidence from French survey data.

This paper uses a survey of French firms active in R&D to identify the determinants of R&D outsourcing and of the ensuing trade-off between R&D subcontracting and R&D cooperation. Internal R&D expenditures increase both the probability of outsourcing and the number of R&D partners. Investment in fundamental R&D, group belonging, and the sector’s high R&D intensity positively influences the probability of R&D outsourcing but have less impact on the number of partners. R&D subcontracting is more likely than R&D cooperation when the relationship deals with generic, standardized R&D processes, as reflected in the influence of several qualitative proxies.R&D cooperation, R&D subcontracting, organizational choices.

Direct contact and authoritarianism as moderators between extended contact and reduced prejudice: Lower threat and greater trust as mediators

Using a representative sample of Dutch adults (N = 1238), we investigated the moderating influence of direct contact and authoritarianism on the potential of extended contact to reduce prejudice. As expected, direct contact and authoritarianism moderated the effect of extended contact on prejudice. Moreover, the third-order moderation effect was also significant, revealing that extended contact has the strongest effect among high authoritarians with low levels of direct contact. We identified trust and perceived threat as the mediating processes underlying these moderation effects. The present study thus attests to the theoretical and practical relevance of reducing prejudice via extended contact. The discussion focuses on the role of extended contact in relation to direct contact and authoritarianism as well as on the importance of trust in intergroup contexts

Social Dominance Orientation Connects Prejudicial Human-Human and Human-Animal Relations

Recent theorizing suggests that biases toward human outgroups may be related to biases toward (non-human) animals, and that individual differences in desire for group dominance and inequality may underlie associations between these biases. The present investigation directly tests these assumptions. As expected, the results of the current study (N = 191) demonstrate that endorsing speciesist attitudes is significantly and positively associated with negative attitudes toward ethnic outgroups. Importantly, individual differences in social dominance orientation accounted for the association between speciesist and ethnic outgroup attitudes; that is, these variables are associated due to their common association with social dominance orientation that underpins these biases. We conclude that social dominance orientation represents a critical individual difference variable underlying ideological belief systems and attitudes pertaining to both human-human intergroup and human-animal relations