Walk This Way: Ingroup Norms Determine Voting Intentions for Those Who Lack Sociopolitical Control

This research was supported by a grant number 2014/15/G/HS6/04529 awarded by the Polish National Science Centre to the second author, as well as by two grants for young researchers financed by the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University awarded to the first author. It was also supported by Grant no.PID2019-111549GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 awarded to the third author.Even though taking part in elections is one of the most direct tools to influence the socio-political system, many people choose not to vote. Research shows that this problem is especially prevalent among those citizens who do not believe they have control over social and political issues, but the question remains as to what could encourage their voting behavior. We predicted that individuals who experience low levels of control can be more susceptible to ingroup norms regarding participation in political elections than those with a high sense of sociopolitical control. Across six studies we found consistent support for this hypothesis. Specifically, people who experience decreased sociopolitical control were more likely to vote when descriptive norms (measured or manipulated) were conducive to voting. The results have important theoretical and applied implications, illuminating the boundary conditions under which people deprived of control can still be motivated to participate in a political sphere.Polish National Science Centre 2014/15/G/HS6/04529PID2019-111549GB-I00 MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103

Nuevos retos para la PsicologÌa Social: edadismoy perspectiva de gÈnero

Population aging is a current demographic phenomena produced by a constant decrease in birthrate and an increase of life expectancy . This process is expected to keep on expanding and consolidating globally , both in developed and developing countries. Age is a social construct, a period of life which is dif ferently defined in several cultures, although it always shares some features. Quality of life related to age is strongly af fected by socially accepted attitudes mi beliefs toward this background variable. Demographic research also shows a clear feminization of aging caused by womení s greater longevity Thus, it is an important challenge for Social Psychology in the XXI century to recognize investigate and prove how the combination of these two social categories -age md gender - and the social processes related to them inhibit or facilitate the integration of these people in the society where they live.El envejecimiento de la poblaciÛn es un fenÛmeno demogr·fico actual, producto de un descenso sostenido en las tasas de natalidad y un incremento en la esperanza de vida. Se espera que este proceso contin ̇e consolid·ndose y expandiÈndose a nivel mundial tanto en los paÌses desarrollados como en los en vÌa de desarrollo. La edad es una construcciÛn social, un periodo de la vida que es definido de manera diferente en varias culturas, aunque con caracterÌsticas comunes. La calidad de vida en esta etapa se ve fuertemente afectada por las actitudes y creencias que la sociedad en general mantiene al respecto. Adem·s, los estudios demogr·ficos muestran una clara tendencia a la feminizaciÛn de la vejez, dada la mayor longevidad de las mujeres. La combinaciÛn de la vejez y el gÈnero como categorÌas sociales se presenta como un importante reto para la PsicologÌa Social en el siglo XXI, cuya labor debe ser reconocer , documentar y demostrar cÛmo la existencia de tales categorÌas sociales y los procesos que desencadenan, limitan o favorecen la integraciÛn de estas personas en la socieda

Feminist or Paternalistic: Understanding Men’s Motivations to Confront Sexism

The role of men in fighting gender inequality is a controversial issue. Literature has shown that advantaged group members can promote social change but also perpetuate status quo. We conducted three studies to examine two motivational processes that may lead men to confront sexism: an egalitarian path and a paternalistic one. Studies 1– 3 revealed that men high in benevolent sexism were more willing to confront sexism for paternalistic reasons, whereas Studies 2–3 found that men high in feminist identification were more likely to confront sexism for egalitarian reasons. Pooled analyses (Studies 1–3) supported the egalitarian and paternalistic paths underlying sexism confrontation. Moreover, Studies 2 and 3 extended these findings to collective action and engagement in the men’s activist movement that aims to reflect on male privilege (i.e., the Men for Equity movement). These results highlight the existence of various underlying motivations to confront sexism by men, as well as the limits of paternalism and the potential of feminism to motivate men to take part in other kinds of actions beyond confrontation to foster social change.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the predoctoral contract granted to LE-R (FPU14/0511) and through the excellence project granted to SL (PSI2016-79971-P)

Counteracting subliminal cues that threaten national identity

The authors would like to thank Ma.ka Telga and Alvaro Rodriguez-Lopez for help with data collection. The work reported here was supported by Grant no. PSI2016-79971-P from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (AEI/FEDER, UE; awarded to Soledad de Lemus), as well as by the Endowed Chair of Russell Spears at the University of Groningen.In spite of their subtle nature, subliminal cues of group devaluation can have profound effects on members of targeted groups. Across three studies, we examine factors that allow people to counteract subliminal cues of group devaluation. We do this in the context of Spanish-German intergroup relations following the 2008 financial crisis. Throughout the crisis, narratives in politics and the media have drawn on national stereotypes to legitimize the economic situation in Spain. We argue that this represents a threat to our Spanish participants and that exposure to subliminal cues that reflect this threat will trigger responses that counteract this threat. Indeed, results showed that when subliminal associations legitimize the disadvantage faced by the group, our Spanish participants reversed the subliminal associations to which they were exposed. These findings show that Spanish participants are able to counteract the devaluation of their national in-group, even when that devaluation occurs outside of conscious awareness.Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (AEI/FEDER, UE) PSI2016-79971-PEndowed Chair of Russell Spears at the University of Groninge

Political change as group-based control : threat to personal control reduces the support for traditional political parties

People desire agentic representations of their personal and collective selves, such as their own nation. When national agency is put into question, this should increase their inclination to restore it, particularly when they simultaneously lack perceptions of personal control. In this article, we test this hypothesis of group-based control in the context of political elections occurring during socio-economic crises. We propose that people who are reminded of low (vs. high) personal control will have an increased tendency to reject traditional political par- ties that stand for the maintenance of a non-agentic political system. We experimentally manipulated the salience of low vs. high personal control in five studies and measured par- ticipants’ intentions to support traditional and new political parties. Across four of five stud- ies, in line with the predictions, low personal control reduced support for the main traditional conservative party (e.g., Partido Popular (PP) in Spain, the Republicans in France). These results appeared in contexts of national economic and/or political crisis, and were most pro- nounced when low (vs. high) national agency was made salient in Studies 4 and 5. The find- ings support the notion that rejecting the stability of the national political system can serve as a means to maintain a sense of control through the collective self

Different faces of (un)controllability : control restoration modulates the efficiency of task switching

Uncontrollability has been often associated with impaired or rigid cognitive processing. However, perceived stability of uncontrollable events modulated some of these detrimental effects on cognition. We investigated whether the experience of sequential control loss and restoration can enhance cognitive flexibility. We manipulated uncontrollability using a concept formation procedure that entailed either only unsolvable tasks (control deprivation condition), unsolvable tasks followed by solvable ones (control restoration condition) or only solvable tasks (control condition). To assess cognitive flexibility, we used a task-switching procedure that incorporated social categories. In Experiment 1 participants categorized people based on gender or age, and in Experiment 2 and 3 based on gender or social roles. Participants showed more flexibility in control restoration than in control deprivation condition. Additionally, in Experiments 2 and 3 this effect was mainly pronounced in the condition where the task evoked more cognitive conflict. We discuss the motivational underpinnings of unstable experiences of control loss and restoration

Category-based learning about deviant outgroup members hinders performance in trust decision making

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, with pre-doctoral FPU fellowship FPU14/07106 to MT, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, with research projects PSI2014-52764-P and PSI2017-84926-P to JL, PSI2016-78839 to RR-B and PSI2016-79971-P to SdL.The present research examines whether individuation and categorization processes influence trust decisions about strangers at first and across repeated interactions. In a partial replication of the study reported by Cañadas et al. (2015), participants played an adaptation of the multi-round trust game paradigm and had to decide whether or not to cooperate with unknown partners. Gender (Study 1a) and ethnicity (Studies 1b, 2, and 3) served to create distinct social categories among the game partners, whose reciprocation rates were manipulated at group and individual levels. At the group level, two social groups (i.e., ingroup vs. outgroup) were associated with opposite reciprocation rates (i.e., high vs. low reciprocation rate). At the individual level, consistency was manipulated by altering the reciprocation rate of one out of four members of each social group. That is, there was one inconsistent individual in each group showing a pattern of reciprocation opposite to the group reciprocation rate. Our data, contrary to Cañadas et al.'s (2015) findings, suggested that ingroup partners were individuated given that participants made their decisions to cooperate with the trustees according to their individual reciprocation rate and independently of the group reciprocation rate. In contrast, decisions about outgroup partners (i.e., men in Study 1a and Blacks in Studies 1b, 2, and 3) were affected by category-based thinking. At the same time, in comparison with ingroup, greater cooperation was observed with ethnic outgroups but not with gender outgroups. The consistency of our results with the previous literature on social categorization and across the three experiments seems to indicate they are reliable, supporting the hypothesis that categorization and individuation processes guide trust decision-making, promoting individuation mainly for ingroup and categorization among outgroup members.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Counter-Stereotypes and Feminism Promote Leadership Aspirations in Highly Identified Women

Although women who highly identify with other women are more susceptible to stereotype threat effects, women's identification might associate with greater leadership aspirations contingent on (1) counter-stereotype salience and (2) feminist identification. When gender counter-stereotypes are salient, women's identification should associate with greater leadership aspiration regardless of feminism, while when gender stereotypes are salient, women's identification would predict greater leadership aspirations contingent on a high level of feminist identification. In our study US-based women (N = 208) attended to gender stereotypic (vs. counter-stereotypic) content. We measured identification with women and identification with feminism, and, following the manipulation, leadership aspirations in an imagined work scenario. The interaction between identification with women, identification with feminism, and attention to stereotypes (vs. counter-stereotypes) significantly predicted leadership aspirations. In the counter-stereotypic condition women's identification associated with greater leadership aspirations regardless of feminist identification. In the stereotypic condition women's identification predicted leadership aspirations only at high levels of feminist identification. We conclude that salient counter-stereotypes and a strong identification with feminism may help high women identifiers increase their leadership aspirations.</p

Influence of early romantic relationships on adolescents' sexism

The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of romantic relationships on adolescents sexism. We primed some of the participants with their past and/or present relationship experiences before assessing their sexism. A sample of 130 adolescents (67 boys and 63 girls) from Spanish high schools participated in the study. Half of them were asked to report on their relationship experience first before responding to an ambivalent sexism inventory. The other half of the sample responded first to the sexism inventory and then reported on their relationship experience. The results of this study showed that when participants relationship experiences were primed, they reported higher endorsement of sexist beliefs: boys reported higher BS and HS, whereas girls reported higher BS.El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la influencia que las primeras relaciones de pareja tienen en el sexismo de los y las adolescentes. Para ello, utilizamos un procedimiento que hizo salientes a algunos de los participantes sus experiencias pasadas y actuales de pareja, antes de evaluar su sexismo. Participaron en el estudio 130 adolescentes (67 chicos y 63 chicas) de centros educativos españoles. A la mitad de la muestra, se le solicitó que informaran sobre sus relaciones de pareja antes de responder a un cuestionario que medía el sexismo ambivalente. La otra mitad cumplimentó inicialmente el cuestionario de sexismo y después informó de sus relaciones de pareja. Los resultados de este estudio mostraron que al hacer salientes las relaciones de pareja, el sexismo informado por las personas participantes es mayor: en el caso de los chicos, tanto el SB como el SH, y en el caso de las chicas, el S

Coping with power asymmetries : the dynamics of emotional reactions in (il)legitimate powerless groups

Two studies investigated the process of emotion regulation in powerless groups. We predicted that members of powerless groups would reduce negative emotions when they perceived status differences as illegitimate and ascribed stereotypes to the outgroup. In Study 1 the opportunity to attribute outgroup stereotypes after reading about an illegitimate power distribution reduced negative emotions. By contrast, in socially legitimized powerless conditions participants maintained negative emotions over time, and supported more negative action tendencies towards the outgroup after expressing outgroup stereotypes. In Study 2 we increased the threat imposed by a powerful outgroup and found fear reduction in the illegitimate and maintenance of fear in the legitimate conditions. Additionally, the effect of legitimacy on group efficacy was mediated by threat appraisals. The impact of perceived legitimacy of asymmetric power relations and the salience of outgroup stereotypes on emotional and behavioral reactions to powerlessness is discusse