The motivated cognitive basis of transphobia: The role of right-wing ideologies and gender role beliefs

Transgender individuals challenge the traditional assumption that an individual’s gender identity is permanently determined by their assigned sex at birth. Perceiving ambiguity surrounding indeterminate gender identities associated with transgender individuals may be especially disturbing for those who generally dislike ambiguity and have preference for order and predictability, that is, for people scoring higher on Need for Closure (NFC). We tested the associations between NFC and transphobia in two studies using community samples from the United Kingdom (n = 231) and Belgium (n = 175), and we examined whether right-wing ideological attitudes and traditional gender role beliefs mediated these relationships. Confirming our expectations, we found that NFC was significantly associated with transphobia through both stronger adherence to social conventions and obedience to authorities (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism) and stronger endorsements of traditional gender roles in the UK and Belgium, as well as through stronger preferences for hierarchy and social inequality (i.e., social dominance orientation) in the UK. Our results suggest that transgender individuals are more likely to be targets of prejudice by those higher in NFC at least partly due to the strong preference for preserving societal traditions and the resistance to a perceived disruption of traditional gender norms. Hence, attempts to reduce transphobia might be especially challenging among those high in NFC. Nevertheless, prejudice-reducing interventions could incorporate techniques that satisfy epistemic needs for predictability, certainty, and simple structure which may have higher chances of success among high NFC individuals

The dinoflagellate cyst genera Achomosphaera Evitt 1963 and Spiniferites Mantell 1850 in Pliocene to modern sediments: a summary of round table discussions

Source at https://doi.org/10.1080/01916122.2018.1465739. We present a summary of two round-table discussions held during two subsequent workshops in Montreal (Canada) on 16 April 2014 and Ostend (Belgium) on 8 July 2015. Five species of the genus Achomosphaera Evitt 1963 and 33 of the genus Spiniferites Mantell 1850 emend. Sarjeant 1970 occuring in Pliocene to modern sediments are listed and briefly described along with remarks made by workshop participants. In addition, several holotypes and topotypes are reillustrated. Three species previously assigned to Spiniferites are here considered/accepted as belonging to other genera: Impagidinium inaequalis (Wall and Dale in Wall et al.1973) Londeix et al. 2009, Spiniferites? rubinus (Rossignol 1962 ex Rossignol 1964) Sarjeant 1970, and Thalassiphora balcanica Baltes ̧ 1971. This summary forms the basis for a set of papers that follows, where points raised during the workshops are explored in greater detail