Structuring information through gesture and intonation

Face-to-face communication is multimodal. In unscripted spoken discourse we can observe the interaction of several “semiotic layers”, modalities of information such as syntax, discourse structure, gesture, and intonation. We explore the role of gesture and intonation in structuring and aligning information in spoken discourse through a study of the co-occurrence of pitch accents and gestural apices. Metaphorical spatialization through gesture also plays a role in conveying the contextual relationships between the speaker, the government and other external forces in a naturally-occurring political speech setting

On the prevalence of racial discrimination in the United States.

Boutwell, Nedelec, Winegard, Shackelford, Beaver, Vaughn, Barnes, & Wright (2017) published an article in this journal that interprets data from the Add Health dataset as showing that only one-quarter of individuals in the United States experience discrimination. In Study 1, we attempted to replicate Boutwell et al.s findings using a more direct measure of discrimination. Using data from the Pew Research Center, we examined a large sample of American respondents (N = 3,716) and explored the prevalence of discrimination experiences among various racial groups. Our findings stand in contrast to Boutwell et al.s estimates, revealing that between 50% and 75% of Black, Hispanic, and Asian respondents (depending on the group and analytic approach) reported discriminatory treatment. In Study 2, we explored whether question framing affected how participants responded to Boutwells question about experiencing less respect and courtesy. Regardless of question framing, non-White participants reported more experiences than White participants. Further, there was an interaction of participant race and question framing such that when participants were asked about experiences of less respect or courtesy broadly, there were no differences between non-White participants and White participants, but when they were asked about experiences that were specifically race-based, non-White participants reported more experiences than White participants. The current research provides a counterweight to the claim that discrimination is not a prevalent feature of the lives of minority groups and the serious implications this claim poses for research and public policy

Can cross-group friendships influence minority students’ well-being at historically White universities

ABSTRACT-Past research has demonstrated the negative impact of race-based rejection sensitivity (RS-race) on institutional belonging and satisfaction among minoritygroup students in predominantly White universities. Given research documenting the benefits of cross-group friendship for intergroup attitudes, we tested whether friendships with majority-group peers would attenuate the effects of RS-race within these contexts. In a longitudinal study of African American students (Study 1), cross-group friendships with majority-group peers buffered students high in RS-race from lack of belonging and dissatisfaction at their university. An experimental intervention (Study 2) that induced cross-group friendship replicated the findings and established their specificity for minority-group students. We discuss implications for efforts toward diversifying educational settings

Social class and academic achievement in college: The interplay of rejection sensitivity and entity beliefs.

Undergraduates, especially those from lower income backgrounds, may perceive their social class background as different or disadvantaged relative to that of peers and worry about negative social treatment. We hypothesized that concerns about discrimination based on one's social class (i.e., class-based rejection sensitivity or RS-class) would be damaging to undergraduates' achievement outcomes particularly among entity theorists, who perceive their personal characteristics as fixed. We reasoned that a perceived capacity for personal growth and change, characteristic of incremental theorists, would make the pursuit of a college degree and upward mobility seem more worthwhile and attainable. We found evidence across 3 studies that dispositionally held and experimentally primed entity (vs. incremental) beliefs predicted college academic performance as a function of RS-class. Studies 1a and 1b documented that high levels of both entity beliefs and RS-class predicted lower self-reported and official grades, respectively, among undergraduates from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds. In Study 2, high entity beliefs and RS-class at matriculation predicted decreased year-end official grades among lower class Latino students. Study 3 established the causal relationship of entity (vs. incremental) beliefs on academic test performance as a function of RS-class. We observed worse test performance with higher RS-class levels following an entity (vs. incremental) prime, an effect driven by lower income students. Findings from a 4th study suggest that entity theorists with RS-class concerns tend to believe less in upward mobility and, following academic setbacks, are prone to personal attributions of failure, as well as hopelessness. Implications for education and intervention are discussed

A multilevel model of job inclusion of employees with disabilities: The role of organizational socialization tactics, coworkers social support, and an inclusive team context

The main objective of this study was to examine the role of social context as a main mechanism to understand how organizational socialization tactics influence job inclusion of employees with disabilities (EWD). Specifically, we analyzed the influence of socialization that employees without disability received by the organization on two indicators of EWD's job inclusion, organizational learning, and desire to stay in the organization. First, we examined the mediator role of social support perceived by EWD in the aforementioned relationships. Second, we used a cross-level moderating approach to examine how an inclusive team context (affective climate toward disability and stigma shared by team members without disability) impacts on the relationship between EWD's perceptions of social support and both indicators of job inclusion. Our sample was composed by 258 employees included in 66 teams from 15 organizations. Each team included one worker with disability. Two sources of information were used: EWD to measure perceived social support and indicators of job inclusion, and coworkers to measure socialization tactics, team affective climate toward disability, and team stigma. We used multilevel modeling and cross-level moderation with MPLUS to test our hypotheses. Our results showed that EWD's perceptions of social support mediated the relationship between organizational socialization tactics and both indicators of EWD's job inclusion. Team affective climate toward disability and team stigma moderated the relationship between EWD's perceptions of social support and organizational learning. Thus, the social context showed potential improving EWD's job inclusion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte FPU15/01560Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad PID2019-110093GB-I0