Antecedents and consequences of desire for cultural tightness in organizations

In every aspect of our life, we live according to social norms – unwritten, implicit norms that we rarely recognize and often take for granted. Within our country, city, organization, groups of friends, and even family, we have social norms to follow. Citing Michelle Gelfand (2018, p. 3), “social norms are the glue that holds groups together”. The strictness of such norms varies between cultures: There are cultures with strong norms and low tolerance towards those who violate these norms, and cultures with flexible norms and indulgence towards deviation. The former are defined as tight, whereas the latter are defined as loose. Tightness-Looseness, as will be defined later in the first chapter, is a continuum where the two extremes represent respectively tightness and looseness, whereas different degrees of tightness-looseness can be found in the middle. However, occasionally we are required to follow norms that we consider excessively rigid (i.e., tight) and want them to be more flexible. Or vice versa: in the face of overly elastic rules (i.e., loose), we might want them to be more stringent. Consequently, in the first case, it is possible to turn a blind eye in front of deviant behavior, while in the second case, it is more likely to wish that those who deviate from the norms will not get away with it. The primary purpose of the present work is to investigate what drives people to desire tightness – i.e., desire for strict norms and severe punishments for those who deviate – within their work contexts and what the consequences of this desire may be. This thesis is divided into three sections, or chapters. In the first chapter, the tightness-looseness construct is defined, and the most important research conducted so far on the subject is described. Chapter 1 will start from the anthropological research of Pelto, who investigated tightness-looseness in traditional societies, up to the present day with the research of Gelfand and colleagues, who investigate tightness-looseness in modern, and even non-industrial societies. In the second chapter, we focused on the organizational implications of tightness-looseness. Although the research on tightness-looseness in work contexts is still limited, there is some evidence regarding the influence of tightness-looseness on some specific organizational aspects (e.g., leadership effectiveness, creativity and organizational innovation, organizational deviance). Finally, the third chapter is dedicated to describing the studies that compose the current research: a series of correlational (studies 1—4) and experimental (study 5) studies investigating the antecedents and consequences of the desire for tightness in organizations, as well as a meta-analysis. More specifically, the roles of employees’ need for cognitive closure and initiating leadership structure will be explored as antecedents, while self-control, work moral disengagement, and reactions to workplace deviance will be examined as possible consequences. Introduction to the studies and discussions of them are reported. Finally, a general discussion will be outlined, including limitations and possible directions for future research

Sexually objectifying work environments and affective commitment in a sample of Italian waitresses: The mediating role of anxiety and job satisfaction

Sexual objectification can assume various forms, from interpersonal to cultural and environmental ones. Previous research has highlighted how working in sexually objectifying environments (SOEs) can lead female workers to experience negative feelings (i.e. anxiety, job dissatisfaction). The study's main aim was to investigate the relationships between sexually objectifying work environments, job satisfaction, anxiety, and affective commitment

COVID‑19:Physical activity, government restrictions, and mental health in the UK and Italy

COVID-19 restrictions could potentially induce poor mental health. This study considers opposing government restrictions on outdoor physical activity in Italy and the UK to evaluate participants’ ability to conduct physical activity, the relationship between physical activity and mental health, and whether restrictions affect mental health as mediated by physical activity. Participants from the UK and Italy self-reported physical activity before and during restrictions, sociodemographic data, and symptoms of depressions, stress, and anxiety during restrictions. Changes in physical activity were analyzed by tests of differences, and relationships between mental health, physical activity, and the effect of country restrictions were evaluated through path analysis. Two hundred sixty-four participants (UK: 57%; Italy: 43%) responded. The model (χ2(2) = .429, p > .05; RMSEA < .08; CFI > .90) confirmed the country’s effect on physical activity. Participants from Italy significantly decreased physical activity while the least active individuals in the UK increased activity during restrictions. Decreases in physical activity had a significant effect on increased reports of stress and depression. Physical activity did not mediate mental health within the countries. Future policies may consider ways to support individuals in maintaining physical activity habits to minimize the possibility of worsening mental health

Natural language learning and grounding for robotic systems

In many ways, human cognition is importantly predictive. We predict the sensory consequences of our own actions, but we also predict, and react to, the sensory consequences of how others experience their own actions. This ability extends to perceiving the intentions of other humans based on past and current actions. We present research results that show that social aspects and future movement patterns can be predicted from fairly simple kinematic patterns in biological motion sequences. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate and discuss the different environmental (gravity and perspective) and bodily constraints on understanding our social and movement-based interactions with others. In a series of experiments, we have used psychophysical methods and recordings from interactions with objects in natural settings. This includes experiments on the incidental processing of biological motion as well as driving simulator studies that examine the role of kinematic patterns of cyclists and driver’s accuracy to predict the cyclist’s intentions in traffic.  The results we present show both clear effects of “low-level” biological motion factors, such as opponent motion, on the incidental triggering of attention in basic perceptual tasks and “higher-lever” top-down guided perception in the intention prediction of cyclist behavior. We propose to use our results to stimulate discussion about the interplay between expectation mediated and stimulus driven effects of visual processing in spatial cognition the context of human interaction. Such discussion will include the role of context in gesture recognition and to what extent our visual system can handle visually complex environments

Concern with COVID-19 Pandemic Threat and Attitudes Towards Immigrants:The Mediating Effect of the Desire for Tightness

Tightening social norms is thought to be adaptive for dealing with collective threat yet it may have negative consequences for increasing prejudice. The present research investigated the role of desire for cultural tightness, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, in increasing negative attitudes towards immigrants. We used participant-level data from 41 countries (N = 55,015) collected as part of the PsyCorona project, a cross-national longitudinal study on responses to COVID-19. Our predictions were tested through multilevel and SEM models, treating participants as nested within countries. Results showed that people's concern with COVID-19 threat was related to greater desire for tightness which, in turn, was linked to more negative attitudes towards immigrants. These findings were followed up with a longitudinal model (N = 2,349) which also showed that people's heightened concern with COVID-19 in an earlier stage of the pandemic was associated with an increase in their desire for tightness and negative attitudes towards immigrants later in time. Our findings offer insight into the trade-offs that tightening social norms under collective threat has for human groups

‘We are all in the same boat’: How societal discontent affects intention to help during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has cau-sed a global health crisis. Consequently, many countries have adopted restrictive measures that caused a substantial change in society. Within this framework, it is reasonable to suppose that a sentiment of societal discontent, defined as generalized concern about the precarious state of society, has arisen. Literature shows that collectively experienced sit-uations can motivate people to help each other. Since societal discontent is conceptualized as a collective phenomenon, we argue that it could influence intention to help others, particu-larly those who suffer from coronavirus. Thus, in the present study, we aimed (a) to explore the relationship between soci-etal discontent and intention to help at the individual level and (b) to investigate a possible moderating effect of societal discontent at the country level on this relationship. To fulfil our purposes, we used data collected in 42 countries (N = 61,734) from the PsyCorona Survey, a cross-national longitudinal study. Results of multilevel analysis showed that, when societal discontent is experienced by the entire com-munity, individuals dissatisfied with society are more prone to help others. Testing the model with longitudinal data (N = 3,817) confirmed our results. Implications for those find-ings are discussed in relation to crisis management. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this arti-cle's Community and Social Impact Statement

Concern with COVID-19 pandemic threat and attitudes towards immigrants: The mediating effect of the desire for tightness

Tightening social norms is thought to be adaptive for dealing with collective threat yet it may have negative consequences for increasing prejudice. The present research investigated the role of desire for cultural tightness, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, in increasing negative attitudes towards immigrants. We used participant-level data from 41 countries (N = 55,015) collected as part of the PsyCorona project, a crossnational longitudinal study on responses to COVID-19. Our predictions were tested through multilevel and SEM models, treating participants as nested within countries. Results showed that people’s concern with COVID19 threat was related to greater desire for tightness which, in turn, was linked to more negative attitudes towards immigrants. These findings were followed up with a longitudinal model (N = 2,349) which also showed that people’s heightened concern with COVID-19 in an earlier stage of the pandemic was associated with an increase in their desire for tightness and negative attitudes towards immigrants later in time. Our findings offer insight into the trade-offs that tightening social norms under collective threat has for human groups

Trust in government regarding COVID-19 and its associations with preventive health behaviour and prosocial behaviour during the pandemic: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Background. The effective implementation of government policies and measures for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic requires compliance from the public. This study aimed to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of trust ingovernment regarding COVID-19 control with the adoption of recommended health behaviours and prosocial behaviours, and potential determinants of trust in government duringthe pandemic.Methods. This study analysed data from the PsyCorona Survey, an international project onCOVID-19 that included 23 733 participants from 23 countries (representative in age andgender distributions by country) at baseline survey and 7785 participants who also completedfollow-up surveys. Specification curve analysis was used to examine concurrent associationsbetween trust in government and self-reported behaviours. We further used structural equation model to explore potential determinants of trust in government. Multilevel linear regressions were used to examine associations between baseline trust and longitudinal behavioural changes.Results. Higher trust in government regarding COVID-19 control was significantly associatedwith higher adoption of health behaviours (handwashing, avoiding crowded space, self-quarantine) and prosocial behaviours in specification curve analyses (median standardised β =0.173 and 0.229, p < 0.001). Government perceived as well organised, disseminating clear messages and knowledge on COVID-19, and perceived fairness were positively associated withtrust in government (standardised β = 0.358, 0.230, 0.056, and 0.249, p < 0.01). Higher trustat baseline survey was significantly associated with lower rate of decline in health behavioursover time ( p for interaction = 0.001).Conclusions. These results highlighted the importance of trust in government in the control of Covid-19

.Using machine learning to identify important predictors of COVID-19 infection prevention behaviors during the early phase of the pandemic

Before vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became available, a set of infection-prevention behaviors constituted the primary means to mitigate the virus spread. Our study aimed to identify important predictors of this set of behaviors. Whereas social and health psychological theories suggest a limited set of predictors, machine-learning analyses can identify correlates from a larger pool of candidate predictors. We used random forests to rank 115 candidate correlates of infection-prevention behavior in 56,072 participants across 28 countries, administered in March to May 2020. The machine-learning model predicted 52% of the variance in infection-prevention behavior in a separate test sample—exceeding the performance of psychological models of health behavior. Results indicated the two most important predictors related to individuallevel injunctive norms. Illustrating how data-driven methods can complement theory, some of the most important predictors were not derived from theories of health behavior—and some theoretically derived predictors were relatively unimportant

‘We are all in the same boat’ : how societal discontent affects intention to help during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a global health crisis. Consequently, many countries have adopted restrictive measures that caused a substantial change in society. Within this framework, it is reasonable to suppose that a sentiment of societal discontent, defined as generalized concern about the precarious state of society, has arisen. Literature shows that collectively experienced situations can motivate people to help each other. Since societal discontent is conceptualized as a collective phenomenon, we argue that it could influence intention to help others, particularly those who suffer from coronavirus. Thus, in the present study, we aimed (a) to explore the relationship between societal discontent and intention to help at the individual level and (b) to investigate a possible moderating effect of societal discontent at the country level on this relationship. To fulfil our purposes, we used data collected in 42 countries (N = 61,734) from the PsyCorona Survey, a cross-national longitudinal study. Results of multilevel analysis showed that, when societal discontent is experienced by the entire community, individuals dissatisfied with society are more prone to help others. Testing the model with longitudinal data (N = 3,817) confirmed our results. Implications for those findings are discussed in relation to crisis management. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement