Jonas R. Kunst

Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet)

En overveldende mengde forskning viser at long covid er en multi-organ, systemisk sykdom. Mind-Body ReprogrammeringsTerapi alene kan neppe …

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (QJEP) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218251396952

Prior research suggests that people who believe in and spread conspiracy theories are often viewed negatively, yet investigations systematically disentangling both factors are scarce. The present research addressed this gap through two pre-registered experiments with representative samples from the U.S. In Study 1, 418 participants evaluated eight fictional individuals across 3,344 trials, presented as (a) believing in and/or (b) spreading conspiracy theories in a 2 x 2 within-subjects design. Analyses revealed that both characters who believed in conspiracy theories and those who spread them were perceived as less competent, moral, and warm, and as more narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic. Moreover, both believers and spreaders were perceived as likely to engage in conspiratorial actions themselves, and participants reported lower willingness to interact with them. However, significant interactions for all variables showed that these effects were particularly pronounced for characters who spread conspiracy theories without believing in them. Notably, participants’ own conspiracy beliefs and to some extent their right-wing political orientation attenuated several effects and reversed some. In Study 2, we employed the reverse-correlation technique to model 412 participants’ mental representations of individuals who varied in belief and/or spread of conspiracy theories using a 2 x 2 between-subjects design. Results were directionally consistent with Study 1—both believers and spreaders of conspiracy theories were mentally represented less favorably—but no interactions or moderations were observed. Moreover, believing had significantly stronger effects than spreading on the rating dimensions. We discuss the social implications of these results and outline future directions.

The international journal for the psychology of religion p. 18-18 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2025.2568774

British Journal of Social Psychology 64(4) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70015

Social scientists have developed impactful frameworks to understand who unites in protest. Yet, when exceptional circumstances arise, people are sometimes astounded by the convergence of disparate groups protesting together for an apparently unifying cause. One recent example is the COVID‐19 pandemic. A new movement protesting the containment measures rapidly evolved, gaining momentum only weeks after the measures' implementation. Strikingly, the movement included participants from, among others, the political far left and right—individuals who had protested each other only weeks earlier and would do so again after the pandemic was declared over. This context enabled a real‐life investigation of how people navigated conflicting ideologies to mobilise collectively. Drawing on 11 naturalistic protest observations and template analysis of 30 interviews with 31 protesters, we find that most participants indeed experienced the movement as ideologically diverse. At the same time, protesters used three strategies to navigate ideological conflict: (1) highlighting superordinate identities and ally utility (i.e., usefulness in advancing shared goals); (2) defending allies through in−/out‐group biases; and (3) embracing diversity. Our analysis demonstrates the combined explanatory power of social identity, social categorisation, and coalitional psychology frameworks in understanding emerging Querfront alliances, showing how protesters moved from identity construction to coalition calculus.

British Journal of Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.70021

Social Science and Medicine 384 p. 1-11 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118598

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 128 p. 737-750 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2025.04.020

Identifying cues to contagious disease is critical for effectively tracking and defending against interpersonal infection threats. People hold lay beliefs about the types of sensory information most relevant for identifying whether others are sick with transmissible illnesses. Are these beliefs universal, or do they vary along cultural and ecological dimensions? Participants in 58 countries (N = 19,217) judged how effective, and how likely they were to use, cues involving each of the five major sensory modalities in an imagined social interaction during a flu outbreak. Belief patterns were strongly consistent across countries (sight > audition > touch > smell > taste), suggesting a largely universal conceptualization of the role of sensory information for interpersonal respiratory disease detection. Results also support a safe senses hypothesis, with perceivers reporting that they would use senses that function at a distance—and thus reduce pathogen transmission risk—more than would be expected given participants’ beliefs as to the efficacy of these senses for disease detection. Where societal variation did emerge, it was captured by a cohesive set of socio-ecological factors, including human development, latitude, pathogen prevalence, and population density. Together, these findings reveal a shared lens through which contagious respiratory disease is assessed, one that prioritizes minimizing risk to perceivers, and may offer leverage for designing interventions to improve public health.

Cambridge University Press

Migration Studies 13(1) p. 1-25 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnaf009

European Review of Social Psychology p. 1-51 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2025.2492506

Collabra: Psychology 11(1) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.130882

The Early Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (EPAQ; Hembacher & Frank, 2020) was developed in the U.S. to assess parents’ beliefs, knowledge, ideas, and attitudes about parenting. Given the diversity of parenting practices among cultures, it is essential to establish the cross-cultural validity of the instruments used to measure them. For this reason, this study aims at (1) assessing the psychometric properties of the EPAQ in Norway, Russia, and the U.K. and (2) investigating whether the underlying structure aligns with the original one observed in the U.S. Moreover, we aimed at (3) exploring the potential relationship between parental attitudes and children’s language development using MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI; Fenson et al. 2007). Our sample consisted of 3333 parents of children between 0 and 156 months from Norway (n = 1060), the U.K. (n = 656) , and Russia (n = 1617). Analyses revealed a different factor solution in the countries of our sample, as compared to the original three-factor solution found in the original American sample. Especially in Russia, the structure of parental attitudes as measured by the EPAQ differs both from the original factor solution and from the factor solution identified in Norway and the U.K. Therefore, at least in the Russian context, different culture-sensitive scales need to be developed and, generally, new items for the EPAQ should be developed for further refinement. Moreover, our analyses highlighted a significant negative association between the factor Communicative and Emotional Detachment and vocabulary scores as a function of the child’s age in Russia.

PLOS ONE 20(6) p. 1-19 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323938

Previous research has studied the extent to which men are the default members of social groups in terms of memory, categorization, and stereotyping, but not attitudes which is critical because of attitudes’ relationship to behavior. Results from our survey (N > 5000) collected via a globally distributed laboratory network in over 40 regions demonstrated that attitudes toward Black people and politicians had a stronger relationship with attitudes toward the men rather than the women of the group. However, attitudes toward White people had a stronger relationship with attitudes toward White women than White men, whereas attitudes toward East Asian people, police officers, and criminals did not have a stronger relationship with attitudes toward either the men or women of each respective group. Regional agreement with traditional gender roles was explored as a potential moderator. These findings have implications for understanding the unique forms of prejudice women face around the world.

The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism p. 28-45

The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism p. 323-344

The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism p. 345-365

Psychopharmacology p. 1-10 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-025-06802-1

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 107 p. 1-11 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2025.102198

Handbook of Diversity Competence - European Perspectives Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-69308-3

Handbook of Diversity Competence - European Perspectives p. 473-487 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-69308-3

Psychological Inquiry 35(3-4) p. 229-232 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2024.2442938

Conspiracy theories have the capacity to evoke intense emotions that can serve as catalysts for behavioral propensities, even those of the most extreme nature (Bierwiaczonek et al., 2024), underscoring the paramount importance of a psychological understanding of this intricate process. While a number of studies have investigated the role of emotions in this context (e.g., Prooijen, 2022; van Prooijen et al., 2022; Wabnegger et al., 2024), a comprehensive framework to elucidate how different conspiracy theories elicit distinct emotions based on their appraisal has been notably absent. This lacuna in the literature makes the contribution by Pummerer et al. (2024) all the more invaluable and timely. In their review, the authors put forward the Appraisal Model of Conspiracy Theories (AMCT) to understand the diverse emotional and behavioral consequences of conspiracy beliefs. The model posits that different features of conspiracy theories, when made salient, elicit specific combinations of appraisals related to certainty, control, and pleasantness. These appraisal patterns are thought to be associated with distinct emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, pride, and schadenfreude, which in turn are connected to different action tendencies ranging from withdrawal, confrontation, aggression aimed at exclusion, to community-building. The model can be considered a seminal contribution to the field and generates many testable hypotheses for future research.

The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism p. 451-473

Journal of Personality 92(6) p. 1744-1758 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12921

Objective: Political attitudes are predicted by the key ideological variables of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), as well as some of the Big Five personality traits. Past research indicates that personality and ideological traits are correlated for genetic reasons. A question that has yet to be tested concerns whether the genetic variation underlying the ideological traits of RWA and SDO has distinct contributions to political attitudes, or if genetic variation in political attitudes is subsumed under the genetic variation underlying standard Big Five personality traits. Method: We use data from a sample of 1987 Norwegian twins to assess the genetic and environmental relationships between the Big Five personality traits, RWA, SDO, and their separate contributions to political policy attitudes. Results: RWA and SDO exhibit very high genetic correlation (r = 0.78) with each other and some genetic overlap with the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. Importantly, they share a larger genetic substrate with political attitudes (e.g., deporting an ethnic minority) than do Big Five personality traits, a relationship that persists even when controlling for the genetic foundations underlying personality traits. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the genetic foundations of ideological traits and political attitudes are largely non-overlapping with the genetic foundations of Big Five personality traits.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2024.101956

ACS Chemical Neuroscience 15(7) p. 1515-1522 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.3c00825

Personality and Social Psychology Review Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/10888683241258406

British Journal of Social Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12722

Nature Communications 15(1) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47113-x

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241273285

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 100 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2024.101976

European Journal of Social Psychology 54(3) p. 670-687 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3037

Although the importance of temporal perspectives for understanding collective movements has been theoretically emphasised, they are rarely considered in research. Focusing on the mass protests against COVID-19 policies in Germany, we investigated how protesters make use of temporal references in their protest narratives. Results from 11 multi-site protest observations and 31 interviews showed that participants (a) drew historical perpetrator and victim analogies and imagined a dystopian future, bolstering perceptions of injustice, (b) drew on resistance narratives and imagined the ideal, utopian future society, increasing their perceived efficacy and (c) countered feelings of insignificance by identifying with past heroes. Protesters living in the East of Germany drew comparatively more resistance analogies than those living in the West, who often likened those complying with the COVID-19 policies to the perpetrators of the past national-socialist and communist dictatorships. The findings empirically underline the importance of integrating historical–cultural–future perspectives into models of collective action.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 98 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101911

Frontiers in Public Health 12 Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1414864

The Journal of Social and Political Psychology 12(2) p. 265-283 Doi: https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.13385

There are differing perspectives on the roles that social-perceptual and individual-difference factors play in explaining susceptibility to misinformation. With quota-representative samples from the U.S. (n = 492), the U.K. (n = 600), Poland (n = 558), and Germany (n = 490), we ran a comprehensive test of four social-perceptual factors (i.e., social trust, institutional trust, relative deprivation, and perceived area unsafety) and six individual-difference factors (i.e., narcissism, conspiracy mentality, closed-mindedness, need for predictability, need for order, and perceived locus of control). In terms of the social-perceptual factors, social trust and perceptions of area unsafety were consistently related to higher misinformation susceptibility across countries. In terms of individual-difference factors, narcissism and conspiracy mentality were associated with increased susceptibility to misinformation in three of the four countries. Relative deprivation and external locus of control were related to misinformation susceptibility in the pooled sample. We discuss societal implications of these findings and highlight directions for future research.

Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations 3 Doi: https://doi.org/10.5964/phair.12975

Many individuals like eating meat but condemn causing harm to animals. Dissociating meat from its animal origins is one way to avoid the cognitive dissonance this ‘meat paradox’ elicits. While the significance of meat-animal dissociation for meat consumption is well-established, a recent literature review suggested that it consists of two distinct tendencies. First, people may differ in the degree to which they passively disassociate meat from its animal origins. Second, they may differ in the extent to which they actively dissociate to decrease dissonance. By developing and validating a scale in three pre-registered studies using samples of American and British meat-eaters, the present investigation aimed to quantitatively establish whether these two proposed tendencies constitute distinct constructs with different relations to dietary preferences, meat-related cognition, and affect. Study 1 (n = 300) provided initial support for a normally-distributed scale with two orthogonal dimensions that were systematically and differently related to a range of individual differences and dietary preferences. In Study 2 (n = 628), both dimensions were non-responsive to short-term cues that highlight the animal-meat link but predicted dietary preferences independent of them. Finally, Study 3 (n = 231) showed that the dissociation dimensions predict dietary preferences even in people working in the meat industry who have long-term exposure to cues that connect meat with its animal origins. Together, the results of the three studies supported the notion that people’s dissociation tendencies can be divided into two qualitatively distinct tendencies. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Behavior Genetics 54 p. 321-332 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-024-10185-y

The attachment and caregiving domains maintain proximity and care-giving behavior between parents and offspring, in a way that has been argued to shape people’s mental models of how relationships work, resulting in secure, anxious or avoidant interpersonal styles in adulthood. Several theorists have suggested that the attachment system is closely connected to orientations and behaviors in social and political domains, which should be grounded in the same set of familial experiences as are the different attachment styles. We use a sample of Norwegian twins (N = 1987) to assess the genetic and environmental relationship between attachment, trust, altruism, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Results indicate no shared environmental overlap between attachment and ideology, nor even between the attachment styles or between the ideological traits, challenging conventional wisdom in developmental, social, and political psychology. Rather, evidence supports two functionally distinct systems, one for navigating intimate relationships (attachment) and one for navigating social hierarchies (RWA/SDO), with genetic overlap between traits within each system, and two distinct genetic linkages to trust and altruism. This is counter-posed to theoretical perspectives that link attachment, ideology, and interpersonal orientations through early relational experiences.

British Journal of Social Psychology 64(2) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12801

Psychological research has begun considering the dynamics involved in majority-group acculturation, which is the extent to which cultural majority groups adopt the culture of immigrants and minority groups. However, previous research has predominantly concentrated on reactions to ‘immigrants’ or ‘minority groups’ as a homogenous entity, overlooking the nuanced perceptions and varied valuations attributed to different groups. Recognizing the heterogeneity among immigrant and minority groups, the present work investigated the influence of several perceived characteristics of immigrant and minority groups on majority-group members' adoption of their cultures. Specifically, in three pre-registered studies—one correlational (Nparticipants = 201, Ntrials = 2814) and two within-subjects experimental (Nparticipants = 144 and 146, Ntrials = 720 and 730) designs with close to politically representative samples from the U.K. and U.S. —majority-group members were more willing to adopt immigrant and minority-group cultures that they perceived as warm, competent and moral because these perceptions made immigrants and minority groups seem indispensable to the identity and economy of the mainstream society. Our studies highlight the importance of considering the differentiated acculturation that majority-group members have to various groups within the same national context. We discuss the societal and cultural repercussions of this selective uptake of other cultures.

Nature Communications 15(1) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51740-9

Social & Personality Psychology Compass 18(2) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12919

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 93 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101780

Scientific Data 10 p. 1-15 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01811-7

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data.

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302231200168

People tend to think of the prototypical person as a man more than as a woman, but this bias has primarily been observed in language-based tasks. Here, we investigated whether this bias is also present in the mental imagery of faces. A preregistered cross-cultural reverse-correlation study including participants from six WEIRD and non-WEIRD countries varying in gender equality (i.e., China, Ghana, Norway, Pakistan, Turkey, and the US; N = 645) unexpectedly suggested that people imagine the face of a generic “person” more as a woman than as a man. Replicating this unexpected result, a second preregistered study (N = 115) showed that U.S. participants imagine the face of a typical person as being more similar to their imagined face of a woman than of a man. We discuss explanations for these unexpected findings, including the possibility that the prototypical person is male-biased—consistent with previous work—but the default face may be female-biased.

Royal Society Open Science 10(10) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221036

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 93:101779 p. 1-10 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101779

Do minority-group members welcome or reject that majority-group members adopt other cultures? Acculturation is commonly defined as a process of mutual accommodation. Yet, the acculturation of majority-group members has only recently received research attention. To date, we do not know the extent to which minority-group members expect majority-group members to adopt the culture of minority groups and/or to maintain their mainstream culture. Knowledge is also lacking about how these expectations relate to minority-group members’ own acculturation orientations and symbolic and realistic threat perceptions. We further do not know whether such associations are similar among minority- and majority-group members. To address these gaps, we surveyed 246 Muslim minority-group members and 247 White Christian majority-group members in the United Kingdom. Muslim minority-group members’ acculturation expectations towards majority-group members were normally distributed around the midpoint of the scale, suggesting that they did not reject majority-group acculturation on average. Acculturation expectations were correlated with symbolic and realistic threat perceptions among majority-group members but not among minority-group members. Cluster analyses showed that integrated Muslim minority-group members found it relatively important for majority-group members to adopt minority-group culture and to maintain their own culture. In sum, the results support the idea that minority-group members, at least in some contexts and settings, view acculturation as a mutual cultural change rather than as cultural appropriation.

Frontiers in Psychiatry 13 Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.974782

Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2711

Journal of experimental psychology. Applied Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000488

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 120(1) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212906120

Although life trajectories are frequently theorized to explain people’s attitudes toward different social groups, few studies have been able to directly assess their importance with suitable data. Addressing this gap and focusing on the development of general and domain-specific self-esteem, we report results from a population-based sample of Norwegians (N = 2,215) followed over 28 years and five time points from adolescence to midlife. Growth curve models demonstrated that irrespective of self-esteem domain, low levels of self-esteem in adolescence as well as a depressed self-esteem development over the next three decades were related to more overall opposition to social equality as well as more opposition to gender equality and immigration in midlife. The results held when controlling for participants’ baseline political orientations and other key covariates in adolescence. Our findings indicate that low self-esteem and a lack of posi- tive self-esteem development can be detrimental to harmonious intergroup relations in ever-diversifying societies. We discuss how future psychological interventions aimed at enhancing self-esteem may promote support for a more inclusive society.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 97 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101888

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 97 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101876

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 120(20) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213874120

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 96 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101857

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 93 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101759

Muslims in the U.K. who maintain their religious culture are often viewed as a suspect community. This pre-registered experimental research examined the mediating role of perceived (dis)loyalty as underlying process and the moderating role of acculturation expectations. A total of 334 non-Muslim White British participants in Study 1 and 810 in Study 2 were asked to indicate their acculturation expectations towards Muslims. They were then randomly assigned to read a text that described Muslims in a fictional town as either (a) maintaining their religious culture or (b) adopting the mainstream British culture, or they read (c) a neutral control text. As expected, in Study 1, when Muslims were presented as maintaining their religious culture, trust decreased compared to the control group. Conversely, when described as adopting the mainstream culture, trust increased while support for surveillance of Muslims decreased. Both effects were mediated by the perception of Muslims being disloyal or loyal to the U.K in both studies, respectively. Perceived loyalty to their religious group did not significantly mediate any effect. We replicated these findings in Study 2. Moreover, we showed that describing Muslims as maintaining their religious culture decreased trust and increased support for surveillance especially among participants who expected Muslims to give up their religious culture. Moderated mediation analysis showed that these effects were partly mediated by perceived loyalty to the U.K. We discuss the societal implications of the findings for policymakers and Muslim leaders along with recommendations for future research.

Scientific Reports Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45805-w

Abstract Recent research suggests that music can affect evaluations of other groups and cultures. However, little is known about the objective and subjective musical parameters that influence these evaluations. We aimed to fill this gap through two studies. Study 1 collected responses from 52 American participants who listened to 30 folk-song melodies from different parts of the world. Linear mixed-effects models tested the influence of objective and subjective musical parameters of these melodies on evaluations of the cultures from which they originated. Musical parameters consistently predicted cultural evaluations. The most prominent musical parameter was musical velocity, a measure of number of pitch onsets, predicting more cultural warmth, competence and evolvedness and less cultural threat. Next, with a sample of 212 American participants, Study 2 used a within-subjects experiment to alter the tempo and dissonance for a subset of six melody excerpts from Study 1, testing for causal effects. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that both dissonance and slow tempo predicted more negative cultural evaluations. Together, both studies demonstrate how musical parameters can influence cultural perceptions. Avenues for future research are discussed.

Frontiers in Psychiatry 14 Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1165103

European Review of Social Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2023.2190267

Management Decision Doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-06-2021-0747

Abstract Purpose Physically less attractive job applicants are discriminated against in hiring decisions. In a US context, the authors tested whether appearance-altering photo-filters can exploit this bias, focusing on the moderating role of job type, gender and race as well the mediating role of two major dimensions of person perception (warmth and competence). Design/methodology/approach In study 1, 223 managers evaluated White mock applicants presented with or without a beautifying filter for either a position as a social worker or an IT specialist. In study 2, 212 managers evaluated Black and White mock applicants with or without beautifying filters for an HR specialist position. Findings In study 1, beautifying filters increased perceived hireability irrespective of job type, but especially when applicants were female. Both male and female applicants whose photos were filtered were perceived as more competent, but only male applicants were perceived as warmer. In study 2, beautifying filters increased the hireability only slightly for White female applicants, followed by White and Black male applicants but substantially for Black female applicants. The filters increased the perceived competence of Black (and especially Black female) applicants but not of White applicants and increased the perceived warmth of all groups except for White females. Warmth and competence partially mediated the observed effects on hireability in both studies. Originality/value In the context of widely available technological advances, the authors show that beautifying photo-filters can exploit attractiveness biases, at least at an early hiring stage. The results emphasize the importance of intersecting factors such as gender and race.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 119(22) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111091119

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges.

PLOS ONE 17(7) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270225

Previous work has often disregarded the psychological heterogeneity of violent extremists. This research aimed to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the psychological diversity of violent extremists. Based on qualitative work, we developed and validated the Extremist Archetypes Scale, identifying five distinct archetype dimensions: “adventurer,” “fellow traveler,” “leader,” “drifter” and “misfit.” Study 1 identified five dimensions among White majority members ( N = 307), four of which were related to extremist violent intentions and which dissociated in terms of sociopolitical ideologies and intergroup attitudes. Preregistered Study 2 ( N = 308) confirmed the scale’s five-factor solution in another sample of White majority members, replicated relationships with violent intentions, and demonstrated the dimensions’ distinct personality correlates. As in Study 1, the archetype dimensions had positive associations with extremist violent intentions and tapped onto different psychological profiles in terms of major personality traits. Study 3 ( N = 317) replicated these results in a sample of Muslim minority members. Measurement equivalence was established across gender, age, political orientation, and ethnicity (majority and minority).

Current Opinion in Psychology 46 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101346

Frontiers in Psychology 13 Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.980180

Cleaner and Responsible Consumption 5 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clrc.2022.100068

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104303

advances.in/psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00001

Frontiers in Psychiatry 13 Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.912397

Affective Science 3 p. 577-602 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00128-3

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302221096324

Psychological Inquiry Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2022.2106756

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 80 p. 285-306 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2020.07.003

It has been argued that sports contexts may be suitable venues for reducing intercultural hostility, including its more extreme forms, yet empirical evidence remains scarce. The present study investigated the main and interactive influence of two sets of factors on support for violent extremism: (a) ethnic diversity of teams, that is, the heterogeneity of the team members’ ethnic origins, and (b) team members’ intercultural perceptions, including perceived social capital, contact experiences and diversity ideologies within the team. Individual-level data from 257 players nested within 36 German soccer teams were combined with assessments of the ethnic diversity of each team based on a genealogical database. Multi-level analyses were conducted. Some evidence suggested that higher ethnic diversity within a team and frequent inter-ethnic contact between its players were associ ated with more extremism. However, cross-level moderation analyses showed that ethnic diversity was associated with less support for violent extremist groups when inter-ethnic contact quality was high. Perceptions of colorblind team ideologies that focus on minimiz ing/ignoring differences between groups were associated with lower threat perceptions and extremism. While social capital generally played little of a role, one social capital indicator, norms of behavior, was unexpectedly associated with higher threat perceptions. Overall, the present findings suggest that increasing ethnic diversity in sports teams may in itself not reduce extremist attitudes and sometimes may even backfire. Rather, how intercultural relations are managed within these contexts seems decisive. Prioritizing venues for posi tive contact experiences between soccer players of different backgrounds seems essential.

Journal of Environmental Psychology 76 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101647

The #FridaysForFuture movement has attracted young activists around the world. In the present mixed-method, socio-cultural psychological research, we investigate people's motivations for joining the movement in the privileged yet paradoxical context of Norway – a country that has gathered most of its wealth through oil production (i.e., the Norwegian Paradox). In Study 1, from a thematic analysis of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork from a series of major strikes and interviews with protestors (N = 93) it emerged that attributing responsibility for climate change, a necessity for shared action to mitigate the effects of climate change, and a shared sense of collective identity, helped to galvanize the prolonged social movement. These inductive and ecologically valid findings, combined with existing theory, in Study 2, partially confirmed and extended the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA; van Zomeren et al., 2008) with survey data from high school students (N = 362). Collective guilt, environmental threat, past protest participation, organized environmentalism, political orientation, and social capital predicted future protest intentions, whereas activist identification and group efficacy mediated these effects. We discuss how the understanding of global environmental movements from the perspective of participants, who are both structurally responsible for the crisis and will experience most of its consequences themselves, can contribute to the broader discussion on facilitating climate action within privileged contexts.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.01.001

Acculturation is commonly conceptualized as a two-way process in which all groups involved in intercultural contact change. Yet, very little is known about the acculturation orientations of majority-group members and the factors that differentiate those who adopt aspects of minority groups’ culture from those who reject them. In the present research, we for the first time aimed to answer this question from a personality perspective. A total of 301 White majority-group members living in the U.S. first completed a personality assessment and then indicated the extent to which they maintained their own culture and adopted the culture of ethnic minority groups. Our analytic approach combined top-down variable-centered and bottom-up person-centered analyses. In terms of variable-centered analyses, participants who adopted the culture of minority groups scored lower on conscientiousness and higher on openness. Moreover, adoption of minority-group cultures was positively associated with the personality facets sociability and inquisitiveness, and negatively with modesty and prudence. In terms of person-centered analyses, four acculturation clusters emerged, resembling strategies commonly observed among minority groups: marginalization, separation, integration and a diffuse strategy in which participants scored around the midpoint on own culture maintenance as well as minority culture adoption. Interestingly, especially this diffuse cluster differed from the other clusters on personality traits and facets, with participants tending to be more open than integrated and separated individuals, and less conscientious than separated individuals. The present report suggests that personality traits may help explain how majority-group members acculturate and highlights avenues for future research.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211024118

Individuals with other-race friends are perceived to identify less strongly with their racial in-group than are individuals with same-race friends. Using the reverse-correlation technique, we show that this effect goes beyond perceptions of social identification, influencing how people are mentally represented. In four studies with Black and White American participants, we demonstrate a “racial assimilation effect”: Participants, independent of their own race, represented both Black and White targets with other-race friends as phenotypically more similar to the respective racial out-group. Representations of targets with racial out-group friends were subsequently rated as more likely to engage in social action supportive of the racial out-group. Out-group targets with other-race friends were represented more favorably than out-group targets with mostly same-race friends. White participants had particularly negative representations of in-group members with mostly Black friends. The present research suggests that individuals’ social networks influence how their race and associated traits are mentally represented.

Nature Human Behaviour Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01173-x

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world.

British Journal of Social Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12496

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 84 p. 155-167 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.07.012

Cultural globalization affects most people around the world in contemporary, modern societies. The resulting intercultural contact have been examined using the theory of globalization-based acculturation. However, little is known about possible differences and similarities in processes underlying the effects of direct (e.g., through contact with immigrants) and indirect (e.g., engagement with cultural elements through media) forms of new cultural exposure. Drawing on the contact hypothesis, social identity theory, and symbolic threat theory, we examined whether perceived intercultural threat and local and global identities would explain whether both forms of contact result in multicultural acquisition or in ethnic protection. In Study 1 (N = 402), indirect, but not direct, intercultural contact was positively associated with multicultural acquisition; and both types of intercultural contact were negatively linked with ethnic protection. Global identity significantly mediated the association of both direct and indirect intercultural contact with both multicultural acquisition and ethnic protection, whereas perceived cultural threat only significantly mediated the associations of direct intercultural contact with multicultural acquisition and ethnic protection. In Study 2 (N = 424), higher levels of ethnic protection, and lower levels of multicultural acquisition, emerged in the experimental group primed with indirect, versus direct, intercultural contact. Furthermore, intercultural threat was negatively, and global identity positively, associated with multicultural acquisition, while intercultural threat was positively, and global identity negatively, associated with ethnic protection. Results are discussed in relation to similarities and differences across direct and indirect intercultural contact, providing a nuanced understanding of contemporary intercultural contact and globalization-based acculturation among majority populations.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 85 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.08.003

Acculturation is an inherently causal phenomenon that deals with changes and processes initiated by intercultural contact. However, although more than 13,000 scientific articles to date have been published on a topic related to acculturation, only a small fraction uses data that allow for causal inferences. As a result, our field can be seen as facing a “crisis of causality,” where central theories and models that assume causality between constructs still lack robust empirical support. To address this gap, I provide recommendations for the next generation of acculturation research, emphasizing primarily the need for experimental and longitudinal studies.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.03.006

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations p. 1-21 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302211028293

Terrorism and Political Violence Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2021.1967149

Psychological Science 32(9) p. 1476-1493 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211006432

When moving to a new country or living in that country as ethnic-minority-group members, individuals have to relate to different cultural spheres. Scholars and practitioners commonly agree that how people acculturate influences their psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Integration (or biculturalism), which involves engagement in both one’s heritage culture and the dominant mainstream culture, is considered the most beneficial acculturation strategy. But how robust is the evidence for the role of acculturation in adaptation? Here, we present a reanalysis of a previous meta-analysis of mostly correlational studies ( k = 83, N = 23,197) and a new meta-analysis of exclusively longitudinal studies ( k = 19, N = 6,791). Results show that the correlational link between acculturation and adaptation is much weaker than previously assumed and that longitudinal evidence is minuscule at best. Our findings suggest that empirical support is still lacking for the most basic premises of acculturation theory.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2020.10.007

Current Directions in Psychological Science 30(6) p. 1-10 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214211040771

In many countries, individuals who have represented the majority group historically are decreasing in relative size and/or perceiving that they have diminished status and power compared with those self-identifying as immigrants or members of ethnic minority groups. These developments raise several salient and timely issues, including (a) how majority-group members’ cultural orientations change as a consequence of increasing intercultural contact due to shifting demographics; (b) what individual, group, cultural, and socio-structural processes shape these changes; and (c) what the implications of majority-group members’ acculturation are. Although research across several decades has examined the acculturation of individuals self-identifying as minority-group members, much less is known about how majority-group members acculturate in increasingly diverse societies. We present an overview of the state of the art in the emerging field of majority-group acculturation, identify what is known and needs to be known, and introduce a conceptual model to guide future research.

Journal of experimental psychology. General 150(6) p. 1115-1131 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000961

Research suggests that some people, particularly those on the political right, tend to blatantly dehumanize low-status groups. However, these findings have largely relied on self-report measures, which are notoriously subject to social desirability concerns. To better understand just how widely blatant forms of intergroup dehumanization might extend, the present article leverages an unobtrusive, data-driven perceptual task to examine how U.S. respondents mentally represent “Americans” versus “Arabs” (a low-status group in the United States that is often explicitly targeted with blatant dehumanization). Data from 2 reverse-correlation experiments (original N = 108; preregistered replication N = 336) and 7 rating studies (N = 2,301) suggest that U.S. respondents’ mental representations of Arabs are significantly more dehumanizing than their representations of Americans. Furthermore, analyses indicate that this phenomenon is not reducible to a general tendency for our sample to mentally represent Arabs more negatively than Americans. Finally, these findings reveal that blatantly dehumanizing representations of Arabs can be just as prevalent among individuals exhibiting low levels of explicit dehumanization (e.g., liberals) as among individuals exhibiting high levels of explicit dehumanization (e.g., conservatives)—a phenomenon into which exploratory analyses suggest liberals may have only limited awareness. Taken together, these results suggest that blatant dehumanization may be more widespread than previously recognized and that it can persist even in the minds of those who explicitly reject it.

Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12223

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220907701

National and European policies aim to facilitate the integration of Roma people into mainstream society. Yet, Europe’s largest ethnic group continues to be severely discriminated. Although prejudice has been identified to be at the core of this failure, social psychological research on anti-Gypsyism remains scarce. We conducted a study in six countries using student and community samples ( N = 2,089; Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Norway, Italy, Spain) to understand how anti-Gypsyism among majority-group members predicts unfavorable acculturation preferences toward Roma people. Openly negative stereotypes predicted acculturation preferences strongly across the countries. However, stereotypes about the Roma receiving undeserved benefits were also relevant to some degree in East-Central Europe, implying that intergroup relations are framed there as realistic conflict. Stereotypes about traditional Roma culture did not play a central role in acculturation preferences. Our findings highlighted that anti-Gypsyism may be an impediment to integration efforts, and efforts should be context-specific rather than pan-national.

Frontiers in Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.572966

In times of the coronavirus, complying with public health policies is essential to save lives. Understanding the factors that influence compliance with social distancing measures is therefore an urgent issue. The present research investigated the role of political and social trust for social distancing using a variety of methods. In Study 1 ( N = 301), conducted with a sample from the United Kingdom in the midst of the virus outbreak (i.e., the first wave), neither political nor social trust had main associations with self-reported social distancing tendencies. However, both factors interacted such that social trust was associated with lower social distancing tendencies among participants with low levels of political trust. In Study 2, using an experimental longitudinal design and again conducted with a sample collected from the UK ( N = 268) during the first wave of the pandemic, social distancing practices increased over time, independent of an experimental manipulation of political trust. Moreover, while the interaction between political and social trust from the first study could not be conceptually replicated, social trust was positively related to social distancing intentions. Moving from the individual to the country level and assessing actual behavior at both the first and second wave of the pandemic, in Study 3 ( N = 65 countries), country-level political trust was related to less social distancing during the first wave. Social trust was related to a higher growth rate of infections. Against the background of these inconsistent findings, we discuss the potential positive and unexpected negative effects of social trust for social distancing.

The international journal for the psychology of religion Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2020.1774206

Increasing atheism, or the view that there is no God, is a major trend affecting the Western religious landscape. Scholarly interest in atheists has grown together with their number, but unanswered questions abound. In this study, we present survey data (N = 758) collected from deconverted and lifelong atheists in four countries (Australia, Finland, Germany, and Norway), and investigate the relationships between deconversion, religious identity, spiritual identity, and interreligious attitudes. We show that retaining a low level of religious or spiritual identity is more typical for deconverts than life-long atheists. Furthermore, we demonstrate that higher religious or spiritual identity among deconverts is associated with more positive attitudes toward different religious groups (national religious majority, religious minorities in general, and Muslims specifically).

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220922643

This article provides an examination of the structure of Islamophobia across cultures. Our novel measure—the Tripartite Islamophobia Scale (TIS)—embeds three theoretically and statistically grounded subcomponents of Islamophobia: anti-Muslim prejudice, anti-Islamic sentiment, and conspiracy beliefs. Across six samples (i.e., India, Poland, Germany, France, and the United States), preregistered analyses corroborated that these three subcomponents are statistically distinct. Measurement invariance analyses indicated full scalar invariance, suggesting that the tripartite understanding of Islamophobia is generalizable across cultural contexts. Furthermore, the subcomponents were partially dissociated in terms of the intergroup emotions they are predicted by as well as the intergroup outcomes they predict (e.g., dehumanization, ethnic persecution). For example, intergroup anger and disgust underpin Islamophobic attitudes, over and above the impact of fear. Finally, our results show that social dominance orientation (SDO) and ingroup identification moderate intergroup emotions and Islamophobia. We address both theoretical implications for the nature of Islamophobia and practical interventions to reduce it.

Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12223

Background Conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID‐19 are widespread and have even been propagated by highly ranked state officials and politicians in the US. Health authorities have cautioned that such theories, although not questioning the existence of the pandemic, may increase the spread of the virus by reducing people's efforts to socially distance. Methods We test this proposition empirically using longitudinal survey data collected at five timepoints during the early outbreak of the virus in the US (N = 403). Results Multivariate growth curve analyses showed that, although conspiracy beliefs decreased and social distancing increased over time, people holding more conspiracy beliefs at the beginning of the pandemic showed the lowest increase in social distancing. Moreover, cross‐lagged analyses demonstrated that people who reported more conspiracy beliefs at any wave tended to report less social distancing at the following wave. Conclusions Our findings show that COVID‐19 conspiracy theories pose a significant threat to public health as they may reduce adherence to social distancing measures.

Current Opinion in Psychology 35 p. 55-59 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.03.010

Recently, the world has experienced a wave of violent protest, and in particular Islamist and right-wing extremism have become increasing challenges for many societies. We argue that especially the experience of relative deprivation, that is the perception that oneself or one’s group is undeservingly worse off than others, can explain various, contemporary forms of violent extremism, including (a) low-power groups’ violent attempts to challenge the unequal status quo, (b) high-power groups’ violent defense of their privileged position, and sometimes even (c) people’s violent attempt to help out-groups in need. In light of recent research and growing social inequalities, we expect relative deprivation to be a key factor driving violent extremism across cultures and contexts in the 21st century.

Appetite 147:104554 p. 1-8 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.104554

Meat eaters often have an ambivalent relationship with the common practice of killing animals for food. They enjoy the taste of meat but dislike the harming of animals that it entails. This moral conflict, often referred to as the ‘meat paradox,’ tends to result in cognitive dissonance that meat eaters need to resolve. One of the arguably most basic strategies to deal with this dissonance is to cognitively dissociate meat from its animal origins. Whereas philosophers for long time have theorized about the role of such dissociation for consumer behavior, researchers have only recently started to empirically investigate the phenomenon. Here, we present the first systematic literature review of research on consumers’ tendency to dissociate meat from its animal origins. Twenty-one publications comprising eight qualitative, one mixed-methods, four correlational, and twenty experimental/interventional studies were identified, which all provided support for the central psychological role of dissociation for meat consumption. However, the review also revealed the need for further research on moderating variables such as gender, age and generation, dietary styles, and people's place of living, including cross-cultural differences. Strikingly, no study so far seems to have included behavioral outcomes, urging the need for future research on how dissociation might affect behavior.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 73 p. 74-88 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2019.08.001

In many Western countries, the public has extensively debated factors potentially leading Muslim minority-group members to support violence by foreign extremist states or to commit violence themselves. Here, one central question has been whether their acculturation orientations may play a role. Combining perspectives from intergroup threat theory and acculturation psychology, the present study investigated whether one reason for why threat perceptions lead to higher violent behavioral intentions among Muslims, as evidence by previous research, may be that they are related to distinct acculturation orientations. It tested this proposition in two samples comprising of Norwegian (N = 253) and British Muslims (N = 194). The more Norwegian Muslims perceived realistic threat, the more violent behavioral intentions they showed, but this relation was not mediated by acculturation. Among British Muslims, mainstream acculturation orientation was related to more violent intentions, while threat was not. In both samples, symbolic threat was associated with more support for Muslim military violence and this relationship was mediated by religious acculturation in the U.K. In contrast to previous research, symbolic threat was linked with less personal intentions to commit violence in the U.K., mediated by religious acculturation. Complementary analyses calculating acculturation strategies indicated that assimilated, and to some extend integrated, Muslims in both countries tended to show the highest violent behavioral intentions. By contrast, separated individuals showed the highest level of support for Muslim military violence. Ways in which these findings can be used to counter violence and improve intergroup relations in Western ethnically diverse societies are discussed.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 117(4) p. 807-838 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000168

Majority-group members often hold negative attitudes toward minority-group members who identify with both the majority and their minority group. Integrating perspectives from social identity theory and acculturation research with a coalitional psychology framework, we show that an underlying mechanism for such bias is the perception that dual identifiers are disloyal to the majority group. In Study 1, majority-group participants in the U.S. questioned the loyalty of a dually identified Arab immigrant more than one who identified solely with the (American) majority group, especially under intergroup threat, which in turn predicted less favorable feelings toward the immigrant. Study 2 conceptually replicated the effect of the identity manipulation and the mediating influence of perceived loyalty on judgments about an immigrant being allowed to enlist in the U.S. military. Study 3, partially replicated the findings in Poland, focusing on Russian immigrants as targets. In Study 4, which independently manipulated both the identity expressed by immigrants and their loyalty, a dually identified immigrant whose loyalty to the majority group was portrayed as high was not judged as less qualified than an immigrant who identified only with the majority group for jobs with the potential to inflict damage on the majority group. Study 5, replicated and extended the previous studies in the context of fans of allied or rival soccer teams in Germany, revealing the moderating role of existing group relations on the hypothesized loyalty processes. In summary, coalitionally driven perceptions of (dis)loyalty appear to undergird bias toward minority-group members who hold dual identifications.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 116(36) p. 17741-17746 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1818711116

A foundational question in the social sciences concerns the interplay of underlying causes in the formation of people’s political beliefs and prejudices. What role, if any, do genes, environmental influences, or personality dispositions play? Social dominance orientation (SDO), an influential index of people’s general attitudes toward intergroup hierarchy, correlates robustly with political beliefs. SDO consists of the subdimensions SDO-dominance (SDO-D), which is the desire people have for some groups to be actively oppressed by others, and SDO-egalitarianism (SDO-E), a preference for intergroup inequality. Using a twin design (n = 1,987), we investigate whether the desire for intergroup dominance and inequality makes up a genetically grounded behavioral syndrome. Specifically, we investigate the heritability of SDO, in addition to whether it genetically correlates with support for political policies concerning the distribution of power and resources to different social groups. In addition to moderate heritability estimates for SDO-D and SDO-E (37% and 24%, respectively), we find that the genetic correlation between these subdimensions and political attitudes was overall high (mean genetic correlation 0.51), while the environmental correlation was very low (mean environmental correlation 0.08). This suggests that the relationship between political attitudes and SDO-D and SDO-E is grounded in common genetics, such that the desire for (versus opposition to) intergroup inequality and support for political attitudes that serve to enhance (versus attenuate) societal disparities form convergent strategies for navigating group-based dominance hierarchies.

Nature Human Behaviour p. 1-13 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0708-1

From the 2016 US presidential election and into 2019, we demonstrate that a visceral feeling of oneness (that is, psychological fusion) with a political leader can fuel partisans’ willingness to actively participate in political violence. In studies 1 and 2, fusion with Donald Trump predicted Republicans’ willingness to violently persecute Muslims (over and above other established predictors). In study 3, relative deprivation increased fusion with Trump and, subsequently, willingness to violently challenge election results. In study 4, fusion with Trump increased after his election and predicted immigrant persecution over time. Further revealing its independent effects, this fusion with Trump predicted a willingness to persecute Iranians (independent of identification with him, study 5); a willingness to persecute immigrants (study 6); and a willingness to personally protect the US border from an immigrant caravan (study 7), even over and above fusion with the group of Trump’s followers. These findings echo past political movements and suggest critical future research.

Asian Journal of Social Psychology 22(3) p. 244-255 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12363

Little is known about how climatic differences may psychologically impact individuals who migrate from one geographical area to another. A climatic demand theory perspective suggests that migration from more demanding climatic areas to less demanding climatic areas would lead to better psychological outcomes while predicting the opposite for migration from less demanding to more demanding climates. In contrast, a climatic‐fit perspective would predict that moving to areas that climatically are similar to one's home would lead to the best psychological outcomes whereas any major deviation would lead to worse outcomes. To test these competing perspectives, a longitudinal, multisite study was conducted with over 1,000 student migrants who moved from various areas in China to 12 cities. Participants’ life satisfaction and perceived stress were assessed upon arrival and at the end of the semester together with their sociocultural adaptation. Supporting the climatic‐fit perspective, multilevel analyses showed that participants reported the least stress and highest sociocultural adaptation when they migrated to host sites that were climatically similar to their homes. Conversely, individuals who migrated from very demanding to less demanding climatic regions and vice versa reported an increase in stress and lower sociocultural adaptation.

PLOS ONE 13(1) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190639

Criminal Justice and Behavior Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854818794742

Mainstream media and public figures are often criticized for readily attributing terrorism committed by White perpetrators to mental illness, while attributing the same behavior committed by non-Whites to ideological motivation. Using a data-driven reverse-correlation approach, we show that attributing terrorism to mental illness results in a phenotypically more White mental representation of the perpetrator as compared with attributing terrorism to ideology or providing no information about its motivation. Importantly, we show that, because terrorists who are described as being motivated by mental illness are perceived as more White than those motivated by ideology, they are subsequently judged as less guilty for alleged terrorist activities. We present further evidence that this effect may be due to perceived Whiteness signaling higher socio-economic status, which reduces perceptions of culpability. In sum, our research demonstrates that extreme violence attributed to unintentional causes is perceptually associated with White perpetrators, leading to leniency in criminal judgments.

PLOS ONE Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190639

Appetite 120(1) p. 356-366 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.09.016

Dissociating meat from its animal origins helps consumers deal with the cognitive dissonance resulting from liking meat but disliking causing pain to animals. Extending previous research, we tested whether dissociation would play less of a role for meat consumption in a country where average consumers are more frequently exposed to unprocessed meat (i.e., Ecuador) than where such exposure is rare (i.e., the US). Specifically, we randomly showed Ecuadorians and US Americans a pork roast with the head present or removed. Showing the head led to less dissociation, and subsequently more disgust and empathy for the killed animal in both countries, but to significantly larger degrees in the US. Follow-up analyses with participants' self-reported exposure to unprocessed meat supported the notion that these cross-cultural variations indeed reflected differences in unprocessed meat exposure. In contrast, disgust and empathy, in turn, predicted a lower willingness to eat meat and a higher willingness to choose a vegetarian alternative dish equally in both countries. Because the dissociation part of our model was substantially stronger in the US, it explained about double as much variance in willingness to eat meat and vegetarian choice in the US (63–72%) as compared to Ecuador (30–32%). In sum, the potency of the dissociation mechanism seems to depend on how used consumers in a country are to seeing unprocessed meat, whereas the subsequent affective mechanisms universally influence meat consumption. This research has been accepted and published in Appetite. © 2017 Elsevier

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 11(4) p. 417-432 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000192

Although the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in contesting ethno-national narratives, it is often also framed and perceived in religious terms. While all 3 groups who consider the region a holy land, namely Jews, Muslims and Christians, have theological roots in common, the potential of emphasizing such commonalities among more than 2 groups and—most importantly—whether acknowledging such shared Abrahamic lineage generally may be an asset for actual peacemaking in the region remains unknown. Focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we aimed to fill this gap by using diverse groups and contexts. In Study 1, American Jews acknowledging their shared Abrahamic lineage with Muslims were more supportive of aid to, and peacemaking with, Palestinians. Next, we broadened this categorization to also include Christians. In Study 2, the more American Jews acknowledged this extended categorization including all 3 groups, the less biased they were toward Muslims and Christians and the more they supported political and territorial conflict solutions. We then took the paradigm to the Middle East. In Study 3, Israeli Jews acknowledging the Abrahamic category showed less bias toward Muslims and Christians and were more supportive of peacemaking, intergroup contact and the two-state solution. Finally, in Study 4, Palestinian-Muslims living in the Palestinian Territories who acknowledged this shared religious lineage showed less bias toward Jews, yet more bias toward Christians. In all studies, findings held when controlling for political orientation or social dominance orientation. Implications for using religious and Abrahamic categorizations for conflict resolution and intergroup relations are discussed.

Media Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2018.1532300

PLOS ONE 13(12) p. 1-13 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209084

It is well-established that experiences of discrimination influence immigrants’ acculturation. Yet, whereas a large body of research has demonstrated the role of discrimination by members of the dominant societal group, surprisingly little is known about how being discriminated by members of one’s own group relates to the way immigrants acculturate. With a sample of 162 African first- and second-generation immigrants living in Norway, the present research investigated the relationship between both types of discrimination, acculturation and psychological well-being. It did so, focusing on discrimination based on one’s skin tone, a type of discrimination Africans can experience from White as well as African individuals. Results showed that skin-tone discrimination by Whites was associated with a lower host culture orientation. By contrast, skin-tone discrimination by Africans was associated with a lower heritage culture orientation. Mediation analyses showed that the positive relationship of skin-tone discrimination by Whites and Africans with life satisfaction was mediated by a lower host and heritage culture orientation respectively. This indirect relationship did not reach significance with self-esteem as dependent variable. Participants’ actual skin tone was unrelated to experiences of skin-tone discrimination. We discuss our results in light of previous research and highlight potential limitations.

European Journal of Social Psychology 48(5) p. 567-584 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2362

This research demonstrates a common psychology of outgroup hostility driven by perceived intergroup threat among three groups and seven cultural contexts: non‐Muslim Westerners, Muslims in Western societies, and Muslims in the Middle East. In Study 1, symbolic, but not realistic and terroristic threats, predicted non‐Muslim Norwegians' intentions to join anti‐Islamic movements. In Study 2, symbolic and realistic, but not terroristic threat, predicted non‐Muslim Americans' willingness to persecute Muslims. In Studies 3 and 4, symbolic threat predicted support and behavioral intentions against the West among Swedish and Turkish Muslims. Finally, in Study 5, a comparison demonstrated that symbolic and realistic threats had the same effects on violent intentions among non‐Muslim and Muslim Danes, and Muslims in Afghanistan. Meta‐analysis showed that symbolic threat was most strongly associated with intergroup hostility. Across studies, participants with high religious group identification experienced higher levels of threat. Implications for intergroup research and prejudice reduction are discussed.

PLOS ONE Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190639

Sex Roles Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0931-7

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 44(2) p. 265-282 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217739279

Appetite 120 p. 181-195 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.08.038

Although daily meat consumption is a widespread habit, many individuals at the same time put a high value on the welfare of animals. While different psychological mechanisms have been identified to resolve this cognitive tension, such as dissociating the animal from the consumed meat or denying the animal's moral status, few studies have investigated the effects of the animal's appearance on the willingness to consume its meat. The present article explored how the perception of cuteness influences hypothetical meat consumption. We hypothesized that cuter animals would reduce the willingness to consume meat, and that this relationship would be mediated by empathy felt towards the animal. Across four pre-registered studies sampling 1074 US and Norwegian participants, we obtained some support for this prediction in the US but to a lesser degree in Norway. However, in all studies an indirect mediation effect of cuteness on meat consumption going through empathy towards the animal was observed. We also explored possible moderating and additional mediating mechanisms of trait pro-social orientation, caretaking intentions and sex effects for which we found mixed evidence. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. The final version of this research will be published in Appetite. © 2017 Elsevier

European Journal of Social Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2555

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 114(21) p. 5407-5412 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1616572114

Social Psychological and Personality Science Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617740613

Physical cues influence social judgments of others. For example, shorter individuals are evaluated less positively than taller individuals. Here, we demonstrate that height also impacts one of the most consequential intergroup judgments—attributions of humanity—and explore whether this effect is modulated by the tendency to value hierarchy maintenance. In Study 1, the shorter participants perceived a range of out-groups to be, the more they dehumanized them, and this tended to be particularly pronounced among those scoring high on social dominance orientation (SDO). In Study 2, participants dehumanized an out-group more when they were led to believe that it was relatively short. Finally, Study 3 applied a reverse correlation approach, demonstrating that participants in general, and especially those scoring high on SDO, represented shorter groups in ways less consistent with full humanity than they represented taller groups. Together, this research demonstrates that basic physical height cues shape the perceived humanity of out-groups. This research has been accepted and published in Social Psychology and Personality Science. © 2017 SAGE Publications

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 60 p. 67-82 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2017.07.004

Acculturation refers to changes that result from intercultural contact. Although it is commonly defined as a two-way process with changes occurring among both minority members and majority members, surprisingly little research has focused on the acculturation of majority members. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, the present study attempted to fill this gap by exploring how and how much majority members change because of exposure to immigrant cultures. In the first part, using an open-response format, majority members reported positive as well as negative cultural change across a broad range of life domains. Most changes were reported in the private as compared to public sphere, and in terms of behaviours rather than values. Second, based on their responses to quantitative acculturation scales, the majority-group participants could meaningfully be clustered into three acculturation strategies commonly used to describe minority-group members’ acculturation, namely a separation, integration and undifferentiated acculturation cluster. No evidence for an assimilation cluster was found. Separated majority members (i.e., who maintain their majority culture but do not adopt immigrant cultures) reported significantly more identity threat and perceived ethnic discrimination, but also higher self-esteem. Interestingly, integrated majority members (i.e., who both maintain their majority culture and adopt immigrant cultures) were three times less likely to live in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods as compared to separated participants. The results of this study offer important insights into majority members’ acculturation experiences and their psychological importance. Implications for culturally plural societies and future research are discussed. This research has been accepted and published in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations. © 2017 Elsvier

Journal of Applied Social Psychology 47(12) p. 682-695 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12483

People with mental disorders often face prejudices that can further deteriorate their condition. We tested whether Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and Belief in a Just World (BJW), and characteristics of the mentally ill predict such prejudices. Both in a general population sample and a sample of health professionals and trainees, SDO, but not RWA and BJW, predicted more prejudice, although this pattern was less pronounced among health professionals/trainees. BJW interacted with the targets' gender in Study 1, predicting less empathy toward a male but not toward a female mentally ill person. In Study 2, depressed individuals were blamed more for their illness than those with schizophrenia or cancer. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

European Journal of Social Psychology 46(2) p. 249-259 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2174

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 42(5) p. 688-700 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216642196

Appetite 105 p. 758-774 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.07.009

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 47 p. 28-40 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.03.028

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 41(10) p. 1438-1453 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215599349

The international journal for the psychology of religion 25(4) p. 293-306 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2014.937965

Religious fundamentalism is associated with Christian–Islamic conflicts globally, but the psychological reasons remain unexplored. Here, we show that fundamentalism is detrimental to interreligious relations because it makes Christians and Muslims alike reject common theological grounds and Abrahamic origins. Specifically, Study 1 demonstrated that such dual Abrahamic categories mediated the negative effects of fundamentalism on real monetary donations to outgroup children desperately in need (i.e., Save the Children Syria) among Christians but not Atheists. Of importance, this was the case only to the degree that Syrian children were perceived as Muslims and, hence, as part of an Abrahamic outgroup. Using a double-randomized experimental design, Study 2 demonstrated the causal effects of religious fundamentalism on Abrahamic categorization and of Abrahamic categorization on mutual resource distribution bias among Muslims and Christians. Together, these studies suggest that religious fundamentalism fuels interreligious conflicts because it crucially impacts basic categorization processes, with subsequent negative effects on intergroup relations. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal for the Psychology of Religion on 03 Jul 2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10508619.2014.937965

International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (JOSE) 20(1) p. 139-147 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2014.11077030

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 39(1) p. 188-195 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.10.007

European Journal of Social Psychology 44(4) p. 337-348 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2014

International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation 2(4) p. 225-241 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/ipp0000008

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 37(2) p. 225-237 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.11.001

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 37(4) p. 477-490 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.04.007

International Journal of Intercultural Relations 36(4) p. 518-532 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.12.014

Islamophobic sentiments in the Western world have gained scientific attention, particularly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, the effects of religious stigma on Muslim minorities’ identity formation have rarely been studied. Using structural equation modeling, this cross-sectional study examined direct and indirect effects of different forms of religious stigma on the national affiliation of 210 Norwegian-Pakistani and 216 German-Turkish Muslims. Furthermore, the study examined the mediator role of religious identity. Our results suggest that being a Muslim in Norway is more reconcilable with affiliating with the nation than being a Muslim in Germany. However, across the samples, the results indicated that various forms of religious stigma affected Muslims’ national identity and engagement in the public and private sphere in distinct ways. These effects were both positive and negative, differed between the two samples, and in Germany, were mediated by the participants’ religious identity. The findings indicated that the ways in which religious stigma influences Muslims’ national affiliation is context and culture bound.