Predicting Opposition towards Immigration: Economic Resources, Social Resources and Moral Principles

This study analyses the predictors of opposition towards immigrants of “different ethnic groups” and “poor countries” in 5 European countries (Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, France and United Kingdom), using data from the European Social Survey 1 (Jowell & the Central Coordinating Team, 2003). Besides Portugal, a country that has moved from being one of net emigration to being a new host country for immigrants, the other countries were selected according to their main policies of immigrants’ integration. Opposition towards immigration (OTI) is analysed using three theoretical models: a) the economic self-interest model that proposes that opposition towards immigration may be due to economic factors; b) the social capital model according to which social trust and self-reliance on political and social system may shape peoples’ opinions on the benefits of immigration; c) Schwartz’s human values model, based on which it is possible to predict that some values facilitate OTI, whereas others facilitate openness to immigration. The hypotheses tested are: a) there is a negative correlation between economic well-being and OTI; b) a negative correlation between social capital and OTI; c) a positive correlation between both conservation and self-enhancement values and OTI, and a negative correlation between both self-transcendence and openness to change values and OTI; d) the social values model will further predict opposition towards immigration over and above the other models. Results globally support the formulated hypotheses

Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: The mediating role of motherhood myths

The issue of gender equality in employment has given rise to numerous policies in advanced industrial countries, all aimed at tackling gender discrimination regarding recruitment, salary and promotion. Yet gender inequalities in the workplace persist. The purpose of this research is to document the psychosocial process involved in the persistence of gender discrimination against working women. Drawing on the literature on the justification of discrimination, we hypothesized that the myths according to which women’s work threatens children and family life mediates the relationship between sexism and opposition to a mother’s career. We tested this hypothesis using the Family and Changing Gender Roles module of the International Social Survey Programme. The dataset contained data collected in 1994 and 2012 from 51632 respondents from 18 countries. Structural equation modellings confirmed the hypothesised mediation. Overall, the findings shed light on how motherhood myths justify the gender structure in countries promoting gender equality.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Black Immigrants in Portugal: LusoTropicalism and Prejudice

This article analyzes the relationship between the luso–tropicalist representation of the history of Portuguese colonization and overt as well as covert expressions of anti-immigrant prejudice. The luso–tropicalist representation emphasizes the uniqueness of the Portuguese colonial relations based on Portuguese empathy and capacity to deal with people from different cultures. This representation was created during Salazar’s dictatorial regime and is still assumed to be a dimension of Portuguese national identity. The empirical findings presented in this article show that this luso–tropicalist representation may explain the salience of the norm against prejudice in Portugal and may contribute to weaken the traditional association between national identity and overt prejudice. A second dimension of the association between luso–tropicalism and integration of Black immigrants in Portuguese society was examined, that is, the impact of luso–tropicalism on the attribution and covert evaluation of cultural differences between White Portuguese and Black immigrants. Results show that despite the luso–tropicalist representation, White Portuguese individuals express a covert negative evaluation of cultural differences attributed to Black immigrants. This means that the luso–tropicalist representation can protect against the expression of overt prejudice but not against its covert dimensions

A criança como símbolo social

O autor analisa a representqáo da criança nos manuais do ensino primário português, enquanto produções culturais, numa perspectiva dimensional e recorrendo ao mérodo de análise de conteúdo. O autor propõe uma leitura dos eixos constituitivos da representação da criança enquanto sistema de valores. A análise efectuada põe em evidência a criaça como símbolo social, expressão de valores e modelos pessoais e colectivos

Organizações de comunicação de massa e representações sociais: Ensaio de metodologia

Tout en questionnant les effets des représentations sur le contexte interne des organisations, l'auteur analyse la representation sociale des organisations de radiodiffusion. Les résultats obtenus confirment la portée du différenciateur semantique en tant qu'instrument d'analyse des représentations sociales, instrument sensible à la determination des attitudes et du champ de représentation. L'auteur termine en proposant une nouvelle approche de la problématique sousjacente à ce travaille, approche centrée sur la disruption des isolements entre les systèmes, ici en présence. à travers l'exploration active du politique

Priming meritocracy increases implict prejudice

Meritocracy is a prevalent norm characterizing most modern societies according to which social status and rewards should depend on individual effort and hard work. Despite its ubiquity, the effects of meritocracy have never been analyzed outside the field of explicit attitudes. Thus, expanding on the small body of studies that focus on the positive factors that promote the emergence of socially negative responses, we investigated the effect of priming meritocracy on the expression of implicit racial prejudice. Results from two experimental studies consistently showed that priming meritocracy results in higher levels of implicit prejudice (Studies 1 and 2) and elicits both inter- (Study 1) and intra-individual (Study 2) variations of the levels of prejudice.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Can men promote feminist movements? Outgroup influence sources reduce attitude change toward feminist movements

This research investigates the possibility for men to promote feminist movements. In two experiments, we used the social influence technique of reassociation, known to reduce the rejection of feminists by blaming the target for forgetting that feminists have promoted women’s rights. An influence source, either same-gender (lower threat) or different-gender (higher threat), confronted participants with the reassociation technique and blamed them in a more versus less threatening manner. This procedure is known to induce positive attitude change when threat is lower. Results of two experiments showed that a less threatening ingroup source induced a more positive attitude change toward feminists when reassociation was less threatening than when it was more threatening, while a more threatening outgroup source achieved equally lower levels of attitude change in all conditions. In sum, the reassociation procedure can be used to ameliorate attitudes toward feminist movements, but within the framework of intragroup, not intergroup, social influence communications