Symbiotics of history and social psychology understanding social representations of history in Europe

COST Action IS1205 aims at advancing knowledge and promoting networking among historians and social psychologists to analyse the role played by social representations of history in Europe. Social representations of history are central to the identity of groups that may or may not form the majority in any given country. In Europe, these representations are at best diverse, at worst fragmented, among various national and ethnic groups, either in the same country or across the continent. If left unexplored and unexplained, these social (mis)representations can incite adverse emotions, in turn influencing group behaviours and possibly leading to intergroup rivalry. Bridging the two disciplines through representatives from 28 countries, Action IS1205 addresses this issue by coordinating research on the role of: social cognitive processes in shaping lay representations of history; lay representation of history through the concepts of nationhood and identities; social-psychological studies of the narrative transmission of history through textbooks and the media; lay representation of history and group-based emotions in shaping attitudes, intergroup confict and reconciliation processes.peer-reviewe

An Unfinished Chapter: The Impact of Belgians’ Social Representations of Colonialism on their Present-Day Attitudes Towards Congolese People Living in Belgium

Various national and international political associations have claimed that present-day racism towards people of African descent living in formerly colonizing European countries is caused by these countries’ colonial past and their governments’ failure to adequately address this historical legacy. However, no empirical study has yet examined the relation between social representations of colonialism (SRC) and attitudes towards Afro-descendants among majority group members. To investigate this phenomenon, we carried out two cross-sectional studies, which both confirmed that SRC are associated with attitudes towards the Congolese and with support for compensations. Study 1 (N = 407) investigated, among Belgian participants, the association of the two dimensions of SRC – Exploitation and Development – with present-day intergroup attitudes and support for compensations (material and symbolic) for colonialism. Representing the colonial past in terms of Exploitation was associated with more positive attitudes and more intentions to compensate for colonialism, whereas representing it in terms of Development had the opposite effect. Some of these effects were moderated by national identification. Study 2 (N = 203) used the same design but also included a modern racism scale. Results of Study 1 were generally replicated, and effects of SRC on modern racism were obtained: SRC in terms of Exploitation was associated with less modern racism, and SRC in terms of Development was associated with more modern racism. Results are discussed in terms of post-colonial intergroup relations

International support for the Arab uprisings: Understanding sympathetic collective action using theories of social dominance and social identity

Inspired by the popular Arab protests against oppressive regimes that began in 2010, people around the world protested in sympathy with the Arab peoples. The present research draws on two major theories of intergroup relations to develop an initial integrative model of sympathetic collective action. We incorporate social dominance theory’s (SDT) concept of (rejectionist) legitimizing myths with the solidarity and emotional mediation concept of the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) to understand motivations for sympathetic collective action among bystanders. Using data from 12 nations (N = 1,480), we tested three models: (a) SIMCA (i.e., solidarity, anger, and efficacy), (b) a social dominance theory model of collective action (i.e., social dominance orientation and ideologies concerning Arab competence), and (c) an integrated model of sympathetic collective action combining both theories. Results find the greatest support for an integrated model of collective action. Discussion focuses on theoretical pluralism and suggestions for future research

Support for collective action against refugees: The role of national, European, and global identifications, and autochthony beliefs

To understand recent anti-refugee protests in Europe, we examined how different levels of inclusiveness of group identities (national, European, and global) are related to intentions to protest among native Europeans. We focused on the mediating role of autochthony (a belief that the first inhabitants of a territory are more entitled) and the moderating role of threat. Survey data from 11 European countries (N=1909) showed that national identification was positively associated with autochthony, and therefore, with the intention to protest against refugees. In contrast, global identification was related to lower protest intentions via lower autochthony. These paths were found only among Europeans who perceived refugees as a threat. European identification was not related to the endorsement of autochthony or to collective action. These findings indicate why and when majority members are willing to participate in collective action against refugees, and underscore the importance of global identification in the acceptance of refugees

Gaia Data Release 3: The first Gaia catalogue of variable AGN

One of the novelties of the Gaia-DR3 with respect to the previous data releases is the publication of the multiband light curves of about 1 million AGN. The goal of this work was the creation of a catalogue of variable AGN, whose selection was based on Gaia data only. We first present the implementation of the methods to estimate the variability parameters into a specific object study module for AGN. Then we describe the selection procedure that led to the definition of the high-purity variable AGN sample and analyse the properties of the selected sources. We started from a sample of millions of sources, which were identified as AGN candidates by 11 different classifiers based on variability processing. Because the focus was on the variability properties, we first defined some pre-requisites in terms of number of data points and mandatory variability parameters. Then a series of filters was applied using only Gaia data and the Gaia Celestial Reference Frame 3 (Gaia-CRF3) sample as a reference.The resulting Gaia AGN variable sample, named GLEAN, contains about 872000 objects, more than 21000 of which are new identifications. We checked the presence of contaminants by cross-matching the selected sources with a variety of galaxies and stellar catalogues. The completeness of GLEAN with respect to the variable AGN in the last Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalogue is about 47%, while that based on the variable AGN of the Gaia-CRF3 sample is around 51%. From both a comparison with other AGN catalogues and an investigation of possible contaminants, we conclude that purity can be expected to be above 95%. Multiwavelength properties of these sources are investigated. In particular, we estimate that about 4% of them are radio-loud. We finally explore the possibility to evaluate the time lags between the flux variations of the multiple images of strongly lensed quasars, and show one case.Comment: 19 pages, 31 figures, 2 table. This paper is part of Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3). In press for A&

Insulin-resistance HCV infection-related affects vascular stiffness in normotensives

Background and Aims. Arterial stiffness evaluated as pulse wave velocity, is an early marker of vascular damage and an independent predictor for cardiovascular events. We investigated if the insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia chronic hepatitis C virus infection-related could influence arterial stiffness. Methods. We enrolled 260 outpatients matched for age, body mass index, gender, ethnicity: 52 with never-treated uncomplicated chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV+), 104 never-treated hypertensives (HT) and 104 healthy subjects (NT). Pulse wave velocity was evaluated by a validated system employing high-fidelity applanation tonometry. We also measured: fasting plasma glucose and insulin, total, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine, e-GFR-EPI, HOMA, quantitative HCV-RNA. Results. HCV+ patients with respect to NT had an increased pulse wave velocity (7.9 ± 2.1 vs 6.4 ± 2.1 m/s; P < 0.0001), similar to that observed in HT group (8.8 ± 3.2 m/s). HCV+ patients, in comparison with NT, had higher triglyceride, creatinine, fasting insulin and HOMA (3.2 ± 1.3 vs 2.5 ± 1.0; P < 0.0001). At linear regression analysis, the correlation between pulse wave velocity and HOMA was similar in HT (r = 0.380, P < 0.0001) and HCV+ (r = 0.369, P = 0.004) groups. At multiple regression analysis, HOMA resulted the major determinant of pulse wave velocity in all groups, explaining respectively 11.8%, 14.4% and 13.6% of its variation in NT, HT and HCV+. At correlational analysis hepatitis C virus-RNA and HOMA demonstrated a strong and linear relationship between them, explaining the 72.4% of their variation (P = 0.022). Conclusions. We demonstrated a significant and direct correlation between HOMA and pulse wave velocity in HCV+ patients, similar to that observed in hypertensive

Heroes and villains of world history across cultures

© 2015 Hanke et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedEmergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World History Survey (WHS) involving 6,902 university students in 37 countries evaluating 40 figures from world history. Multidimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators, with Einstein having the most positive evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein. After more traditional empirical methods (e.g., factor analysis) failed to identify meaningful cross-cultural patterns, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify four global representational profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in Christian countries, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian countries. We discuss possible consequences and interpretations of these different representational profiles.This research was supported by grant RG016-P-10 from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (http://www.cckf.org.tw/). Religion Culture Entropy China Democracy Economic histor

Greedy Elites and Poor Lambs : How Young Europeans Remember the Great War

The present study examines current social representations associated with the origins of the Great War, a major event that has profoundly affected Europe. A survey conducted in 20 European countries (N = 1906 students in social sciences) shows a high consensus: The outbreak of the war is attributed to the warring nations' leaders while the responsibility of the populations is minimized. Building on the concept of social representation of history (Liu & Hilton, 2005), we suggest that the social representations of the Great War fulfill social psychological functions in contemporary Europe. We suggest that WWI may function as a charter for European integration. Their content also suggests a desire to distinguish a positively valued ingroup ("the people") from powerful elites, construed as an outgroup.Peer reviewe

“Heroes” and “Villains” of world history across cultures

Emergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World History Survey (WHS) involving 6,902 university students in 37 countries evaluating 40 figures from world history. Multidimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators, with Einstein having the most positive evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein. After more traditional empirical methods (e.g., factor analysis) failed to identify meaningful cross-cultural patterns, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify four global representational profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in Christian countries, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian countries. We discuss possible consequences and interpretations of these different representational profiles.This research was supported by grant RG016-P-10 from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (http://www.cckf.org.tw/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript