Dominant and non-dominant groups' responses to social change: the economic transformation process in South Africa

In the field study we examined the assumptions proposed by Social Identity Theory (SIT) that dominant and non-dominant groups differ systematically regarding the functional interaction between beliefs about the intergroup situation and identity management strategies. Participants were university students from three racial groups : blacks (N = 100), coloured (N = 100), as non-dominant groups, and whites (N = 100) as dominant group in post-apartheid South Africa. A multiple group path analysis to test SIT revealed systematic differences between dominant and non-dominant groups regarding the impact of perceived legitimacy on ingroup identification, perceived legitimacy on social competition and on individual mobility. Furthermore, the results showed that ingroup identification differentiates between individual and collective strategies irrespective of the groups' status positions. The results also highlight the different effects (or lack of effects) of the socio-structural variables in the SIT model, which is argued to be determined by the concrete socio-historical context of the respective intergroup relations

The motivational implications of adolescents’ school-oriented possible identities in a social change context

In line with the identity-based motivation theory (Oyserman, 2015), which postulates that themotivational implications of possible identities depend on social context, the present researchargues that the interplay between accessible possible identities and motivation is also influencedby adolescents’ perceptions of social change. According to social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner,1986), perceptions of social change were conceptualized as intergroup comparison outcomes,which are assumed to influence the motivational implications of possible identities under the con-dition that the social change process is perceived as insecure. The results of the present study,which surveyed 631 South African adolescents, supported our assumption. For instance, Blacktownship participants’ motivational implications of their possible identities were informed by theiridentification with Black South Africans. However, the results with regard to white suburb andBlack suburb participants were rather ambiguous. The theoretical and practical implications ofthese findings are discussed in detail.School of Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Studies (SIRGS

Reply to Nielsen et al. social mindfulness is associated with countries’ environmental performance and individual environmental concern

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Economic inequality is linked to biased self-perception

People’s self-perception biases often lead them to see themselves as better than the average person (a phenomenon known as self-enhancement). This bias varies across cultures, and variations are typically explained using cultural variables, such as individualism versus collectivism. We propose that socioeconomic differences among societies—specifically, relative levels of economic inequality—play an important but unrecognized role in how people evaluate themselves. Evidence for self-enhancement was found in 15 diverse nations, but the magnitude of the bias varied. Greater self-enhancement was found in societies with more income inequality, and income inequality predicted cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement better than did individualism/collectivism. These results indicate that macrosocial differences in the distribution of economic goods are linked to microsocial processes of perceiving the self

Social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe

Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found, but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one’s location in the world? Expecting cross-national differences to exist, we examined if and how social mindfulness differs across countries. At little to no material cost, social mindfulness typically entails small acts of attention or kindness. Even though fairly common, such low-cost cooperation has received little empirical attention. Measuring social mindfulness across 31 samples from industrialized countries and regions (n = 8,354), we found considerable variation. Among selected country-level variables, greater social mindfulness was most strongly associated with countries’ better general performance on environmental protection. Together, our findings contribute to the literature on prosociality by targeting the kind of everyday cooperation that is more focused on communicating benevolence than on providing material benefits

Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively on participants from North America and Europe, resulting in limited generalizability. This project examined the tears-social support intentions effect and possible mediating and moderating variables in a fully pre-registered study across 7007 participants (24,886 ratings) and 41 countries spanning all populated continents. Participants were presented with four pictures out of 100 possible targets with or without digitally-added tears. We confirmed the main prediction that seeing a tearful individual elicits the intention to support, d = 0.49 [0.43, 0.55]. Our data suggest that this effect could be mediated by perceiving the crying target as warmer and more helpless, feeling more connected, as well as feeling more empathic concern for the crier, but not by an increase in personal distress of the observer. The effect was moderated by the situational valence, identifying the target as part of one's group, and trait empathic concern. A neutral situation, high trait empathic concern, and low identification increased the effect. We observed high heterogeneity across countries that was, via split-half validation, best explained by country-level GDP per capita and subjective well-being with stronger effects for higher-scoring countries. These findings suggest that tears can function as social glue, providing one possible explanation why emotional crying persists into adulthood.</p

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

Group-based guilt and reparation in the context of social change

Due to copyright restrictions, the full-text of this item is not attached to this record. Please follow the link, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12224/full, to the online version on the publisher's website.This article examines how the consequences of group-based guilt depend on the perceptions of social change of the former perpetrator group. Informed by the Social Identity Theory and research on intergroup threat and help, the hypothesis was proposed that reparation intentions toward members of a victim group as the consequence of group-based guilt is moderated by the perceptions of changes of the status position of the in-group. Two correlational studies tested the assumption among whites in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. As predicted, the results of both studies show that the strength of the positive relationship between group-based guilt and reparation intentions decreases the more people perceive the loss of status for their in-group.Psycholog

Ideals as social identity management strategies

Due to copyright restrictions, the full-text of this item is not attached to this record. Please follow the link, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.11.003, to the online version on the publisher's website.This research addresses the relationship between ideal selves and social context from asocial identity perspective. Based on Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) and related research, it is argued that ideal selves stand in a functional relationship with identity management strategies and that, consequently, shared beliefs about relevant intergroup relations influence the preferences for ideal selves. Three studies conducted with black and white adolescent and adult South Africans tested the assumption. The overall results of the studies confirmed that whether ideal selves corresponding to social change, social mobility or social creativity were preferred depended on whether the intergroup relations between black and white South Africans were perceived as secure or insecure.Psycholog

Reparation Demands and Collective Guilt Assigment of Black South Africans

© The Author(s) 2015The present research studied reparation demands of born-free Black South African adolescents as members of a former victimized group from a social psychological perspective. Two cross-sectional studies tested whether identification indirectly predicts reparation demands via assignment of collective guilt to White South Africans; and whether this indirect relation is moderated by cross-group friendship. The results support both hypotheses and show a stronger link between identification with the victimized group and collective guilt assignment in a segregated rather than a desegregated context (Study 1: N = 222) and for participants reporting lower levels of cross group friendship (Study 2: N = 145). Reparation demands are important for strongly identified members of a victimized group in a post conflict situation. Their mediation by collective guilt assignment, mitigated by cross-group friendship, indicates that one major function is to insure recognition of the victims’ past suffering and to repair the relationship rather than ostracizing the transgressor group or gaining access to resources.Psycholog