Understanding Empathy: Exploring Power Relations, Group Dynamics, and Counter-dominance in Shaping Outgroup Attitudes

This article is a literature review of how the context of group dynamics, power relations, and counter-dominance change our understanding of empathy towards outgroups. A large focus of current psychological research around empathy aims to better understand empathy in improving intergroup relations. However, many of the current studies measure the perspectives of the majority (high-power) groups, while failing to take into account the differences in the perspectives of the minority (low-power) groups, for whom empathy does not predict positive intergroup attitudes. In order to look at the importance of group dynamics and power relations in understanding empathy, I analyze different studies both in the interpersonal and intergroup contexts. Furthermore, when analyzing these studies within the different types of empathy contexts, I illustrate the prominent role of counter-dominance in explaining why empathy relates to positive attitudes toward subordinate groups but negative attitudes toward dominant groups. Additionally, I use counter-dominance to explain differences and similarities in findings when examining different intergroup empathy contexts such as group empathy and attitudinal empathy. In explaining these similarities and differences, I illustrate how counter-dominance is important to understanding empathy in the context of intergroup relations due to its ability to positively predict positive attitudes towards low-power groups and negatively predict attitudes towards high-powered groups

Ethnic Enclaves and the Dynamics of Social Identity on the College Campus: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The effects of membership in ethnic organizations and fraternities and sororities on intergroup attitudes were examined using a 5-wave panel study at a major, multiethnic university. The results showed that these effects were similar for both minority and White students. Membership in ethnic student organizations for minorities and Greek organizations for Whites was anteceded by the degree of one's ethnic identity, and the effects of membership in these groups were similar, although not identical, for both White and minority students. These effects included an increased sense of ethnic victimization and a decreased sense of common identity and social inclusiveness. Consistent with social identity theory, at least a portion of these effects were mediated by social identity among both White and minority students.African and African American StudiesPsycholog

Methanotrophic bacterial symbionts fuel dense populations of deep-sea feather duster worms (Sabellida, Annelida) and extend the spatial influence of methane seepage

Deep-sea cold seeps are dynamic sources of methane release and unique habitats supporting ocean biodiversity and productivity. Here, we describe newly discovered animal-bacterial symbioses fueled by methane, between two species of annelid (a serpulid Laminatubus and sabellid Bispira) and distinct aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria belonging to the Methylococcales, localized to the host respiratory crown. Worm tissue δ¹³C of −44 to −58‰ are consistent with methane-fueled nutrition for both species, and shipboard stable isotope labeling experiments revealed active assimilation of ¹³C-labeled methane into animal biomass, which occurs via the engulfment of methanotrophic bacteria across the crown epidermal surface. These worms represent a new addition to the few animals known to intimately associate with methane-oxidizing bacteria and may further explain their enigmatic mass occurrence at 150–million year–old fossil seeps. High-resolution seafloor surveys document significant coverage by these symbioses, beyond typical obligate seep fauna. These findings uncover novel consumers of methane in the deep sea and, by expanding the known spatial extent of methane seeps, may have important implications for deep-sea conservation

Methanotrophic bacterial symbionts fuel dense populations of deep-sea feather duster worms (Sabellida, Annelida) and extend the spatial influence of methane seepage

Deep-sea cold seeps are dynamic sources of methane release and unique habitats supporting ocean biodiversity and productivity. Here, we describe newly discovered animal-bacterial symbioses fueled by methane, between two species of annelid (a serpulid Laminatubus and sabellid Bispira) and distinct aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria belonging to the Methylococcales, localized to the host respiratory crown. Worm tissue δ¹³C of −44 to −58‰ are consistent with methane-fueled nutrition for both species, and shipboard stable isotope labeling experiments revealed active assimilation of ¹³C-labeled methane into animal biomass, which occurs via the engulfment of methanotrophic bacteria across the crown epidermal surface. These worms represent a new addition to the few animals known to intimately associate with methane-oxidizing bacteria and may further explain their enigmatic mass occurrence at 150–million year–old fossil seeps. High-resolution seafloor surveys document significant coverage by these symbioses, beyond typical obligate seep fauna. These findings uncover novel consumers of methane in the deep sea and, by expanding the known spatial extent of methane seeps, may have important implications for deep-sea conservation

Search for dark matter at √s=13 TeV in final states containing an energetic photon and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for physics beyond the Standard Model in events containing an energetic photon and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. As the number of events observed in data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, is in agreement with the Standard Model expectations, model-independent limits are set on the fiducial cross section for the production of events in this final state. Exclusion limits are also placed in models where dark-matter candidates are pair-produced. For dark-matter production via an axial-vector or a vector mediator in the s-channel, this search excludes mediator masses below 750–1200 GeV for dark-matter candidate masses below 230–480 GeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the couplings. In an effective theory of dark-matter production, the limits restrict the value of the suppression scale M∗ to be above 790 GeV at 95% confidence level. A limit is also reported on the production of a high-mass scalar resonance by processes beyond the Standard Model, in which the resonance decays to Zγ and the Z boson subsequently decays into neutrinos

The experience of stigma: individual, interpersonal, and situational influences

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A Longitudinal Test of the Model of Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition

Using data from a longitudinal study of college students, this study assessed the relationships among the threat perceptions of realistic threat and intergroup anxiety, the ideological motives of system justification and social dominance orientation (SDO), and political conservatism. Those who had higher perceptions of realistic threat and intergroup anxiety at the end of their first year of college showed higher levels of system justification and SDO at the end of their second and third years of college, controlling for precollege expressions of each variable. Higher levels of these two ideological motives at the end of students’ second and third years of college were associated with more politically conservative attitudes at the end of students’ fourth year of college, again controlling for precollege expressions. These longitudinal results are discussed in terms of a model of political conservatism as motivated social cognition.Psycholog

Social identity and personal identity stereotype threat: The case of affirmative action

Integrating insights from research examining the effect of being seen through the lens of stereotypes on academic performance and the social identity perspective, we examine the effect of perceived affirmative action admission at college entry on academic performance at the end of the first year. We propose that stereotype threat plays a crucial moderating role in determining when performance is affected. A longitudinal study of Black and Latino students at a large multiethnic university showed that perceptions of affirmative action admission negatively affected achievement among high stereotype-threatened individuals but not among low stereotype-threatened individuals. Furthermore, the results show that stereotype threat can have its effects because of concerns for the self (personal identity stereotype threat) or because of concerns for the group (social identity stereotype threat). As expected, social identity stereotype threat negatively affected the performance of individuals high in ethnic identification, whereas personal identity stereotype threat negatively affected the performance of individuals low in ethnic identification.status: publishe

Social dominance orientation: Cause or ‘mere effect’?

The question of whether SDO is a cause or mere effect of intergroup attitudes and behaviors has been the subject of heated debate. Much of the research brought to bear on the question, however, has used cross-sectional data that is not best-suited for making causal inferences. Using data from a panel study that tracked UCLA undergraduates over several years, we find support for the notion that SDO is a cause, rather than ‘mere reflection’ of prejudice and discrimination against outgroups. Specifically, using cross-lagged analyses among White students, we show that SDO measured in 1996 has significant marginal utility for predicting prejudice against a series of ethnic outgroups, as well as self-reported ingroup friendship preference, four years later, controlling for their 1996 levels. Conversely, outgroup affect and ingroup friendship preference measured in 1996 fail to predict SDO levels in 2000 once 1996 SDO levels are taken into account. Implications of these analyses for the debate on the interpretation of SDO as a relatively stable orientation towards group-based hierarchy in society are discussed.Psycholog