Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy最新文献

This study aims to assess the relationship between income inequality and social solidarity as a measure of societal stability, using European countries as a case study. Data from 20 European countries were included in the research. The primary dependent variable was defined as social solidarity, serving as an indicator of societal stability. The analysis of social solidarity was conducted concerning various social groups, including overall solidarity and solidarity towards vulnerable societal categories. Responses to questions were evaluated using the Likert scale. Income inequality within each country, measured by the Gini coefficient, was designated as the explanatory variable. Control variables were incorporated, including GDP per capita and the percentage of social expenditure relative to a country's GDP. The conducted analysis demonstrates a negative correlation between income inequality and the manifestation of social solidarity. The analysis of individual characteristics reveals that specific groups exhibit greater social solidarity compared to others. The conclusion drawn is that both lower and higher household income levels lead to a decrease in the overall manifestation of social solidarity in the face of increasing income inequality. The study's findings contribute theoretically to the discourse on income inequality and its impact on societal stability.

Sex guilt refers to a feeling of shame or anxiety induced by sexual behavior due to the inconsistency between a person's value and their sexuality. Sex guilt often stems from traditional, gender stereotypical sexual views and attitudes. In this study, we inquired what factors could be predicting sex guilt. Negative sexual messaging (NSM) refers to the promotion of abstinence and the glorification of virginity, representing a set of sex-negatives views. We evaluated the relationships between NSM in childhood and sex guilt in adulthood. We include childhood sexual abuse as an alternative predictor of sex guilt to anchor our results with NSM. Participants were recruited through undergraduate groups and online platforms (total N = 1322) and completed an online survey regarding about their sexual experience. We found that NSM was a strong, persistent predictor of sex guilt. Those who experienced more NSM reported higher sex guilt. Our findings could be particularly informative for educators and policy maker who creates sex education curricula. Further study is needed to clarify the mechanisms through which NSM are associated with sex guilt.

Men are privileged economically, politically, and socially, yet some deny this. Previous research suggests that denial of privilege can help to manage the discomfort associated with a privileged identity, but we propose that it serves primarily to preserve privilege. In two preregistered studies (N_total = 911 Australian participants) we show that denial of male privilege is not unique to men and that it is strongly predicted by anti-egalitarianism, even when controlling for gender and other variables known to predict attitudes toward inequality (facets of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation). In Study 1, a multiple regression model accounted for 59% of the variability in reported male privilege awareness, with anti-egalitarianism contributing 47% of the explanatory power. In Study 2, the explanatory power of anti-egalitarianism was more modest (26%) and similar to that of gender (27%), and both also positively predicted claims of female privilege. This suggests that rather than simply reflecting unawareness of male privilege or being a way to manage a privileged identity, denying the existence of male privilege and claiming that women are privileged helps to preserve gender inequality by presenting it as a just result of meritocracy.

Sexual violence is far too common in the U.S. and across the world (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Bystander interventions are one type of intervention that aim to reduce contact sexual violence incidence as well as other problematic features of sexual violence like victim blame. Despite bystander intervention popularity, research has yet to address what people think about bystanders themselves and if people blame them in sexual violence scenarios. Across three sets of studies (N = 887), participants read a simple vignette that explicitly stated a man had raped/sexually assaulted a woman and participants were then asked to allocate blame to the perpetrator, victim, and bystanders. In some studies, bystanders were not explicitly mentioned, and participants had to self-nominate others who they thought could be responsible. In other studies, possible bystanders were listed by the researchers. Our results replicated across all sets of studies and indicated that people rarely thought to allocate blame to bystanders when they were not explicitly mentioned. When bystanders were explicitly mentioned, participants gave some blame to the bystanders and consequently reduced blame to the perpetrator. Our results have important implications for both legal settings and sexual assault prevention.

Many studies have found that trust is a vital factor that influences risk perception. However, previous studies in this field have used surveys that provide limited information about causality. Therefore, experimental studies to explore the causality between trust and risk perceptions are needed. We conducted three studies to examine the relationship and mechanism of trust in the government's flood response and flood hazard risk perception. In Study 1, we found that people's risk perception and trust in the government's flood response were significantly negatively correlated. In Studies 2 and 3, using correlational and experimental methods, we found that the higher the public's trust in the government's flood response, the more they used heuristics to process risk information, and their risk perception was lower than that of the group with low trust in the government's flood response. Our research provides evidence of causality between trust and risk perceptions, suggesting that trust in the government's flood response can influence risk perception via heuristics in China, which provides a better understanding of the importance of trust in risk perception. These conclusions have policy implications for government responses to flood disasters, emphasizing the need for public participation and timely, transparent communication of accurate information and preventive strategies.

This study investigates the complex relationship between Transgression type (for-profit vs. non-profit) and individual-level variables in shaping moral perceptions and online victimization of wrongdoer organizations (OVWOM) following transgressions by conducting two experimental studies (N₁ = 111, N₂ = 164). Study 1 utilizes real-world organizations to investigate the impact of transgression type (for-profit vs. non-profit), whereas Study 2 employs fictitious entities to alleviate potential response bias and focuses on moral disengagement as a moderating factor. Findings reveal a decrease in perceived morality post-transgression across both transgression types, with non-profits not eliciting significantly higher OVWOM. However, the influence of transgression type on perceived morality is found to be contingent upon individual moral disengagement, affecting OVWOM in Study 2. Moreover, factors such as desire for revenge, social desirability bias, gender, and educational background emerge as significant predictors of perceived morality and OVWOM. These results highlight the nuanced nature of public responses to organizational transgressions, emphasizing the complex interplay between organizational characteristics and individual psychological mechanisms. The study underscores the necessity of integrating moral disengagement and individual-level factors into crisis management strategies for organizations.

Stigma reduces the status of individuals from full social acceptance, motivating the stigmatized person to find ways to cope with the perceived threat as much as possible. The present study explored the experience of dealing with a mental illness daily within the public space. We applied an interpretive description method using a semi-structured interview guide to elicit subjective responses from 12 purposefully recruited outpatients. Study participants described various ways through which individuals coped with their illness, including secrecy, avoidance/withdrawal, relaxation techniques, confrontation, ignoring the stigmatizing agent, ingroup comparisons, and engaging in diversion activities. The participants' observations suggest they were unhappy about how society perceived and treated them. To deal with stigma, multifaceted approaches of active engagement with the public, healthcare providers, policymakers, and government are needed to mitigate the phenomenon.

Scrutiny about and controversy regarding the use of college admissions tests have increased since COVID-19 eliminated mass face-to-face testing. At that time, many selective colleges chose to make their admissions decisions without using such tests. More recently, the controversy has been sustained as some selective colleges and universities have reinstated requiring test scores. These tests, primarily the ACT and SAT, have received empirical support but also have faced substantial criticism from test critics and researchers. This paper examines contributions of admissions tests for predicting college outcomes in the presence of additional information available for making college decisions. We investigate relations of ACT tests with academic outcomes for four successive (2011–2014) first-year cohorts at a large, moderately selective Midwestern Research 1 university. Analyses examine how strongly ACT college admissions tests are related to short- and long-term college success for students controlling for their backgrounds (citizenship, race/ethnicity, first-generation, sex, socio-economic status). ACT tests contributed modestly to the prediction of first-year performance. However, with first year college GPA included, ACT tests failed to add to the prediction of GPA in years 2, 3, and 4, and to prediction of dropout and graduation. These findings inform conversations about the use of college admissions tests post-COVID.