Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology最新文献

The centrality of information and communicative processes in persuading society has, historically, made the media one of the key networks of power and influence in society. The rapid expansion of social media platforms has, however, enabled revolutionary changes in how this power is wielded and how persuasion occurs. This has had a profound impact on how political, economic, and social issues are understood and addressed. While a comprehensive body of social psychological theory and applied practice on the topic of persuasion has been developed over many years, persuasion in the contemporary social media environment is one that researchers are yet to fully understand. Methods for achieving this understanding continue to evolve. This article draws on a large corpus of material (2218 Facebook advertisements and metadata) which documented the Russian Internet Research Agency campaign to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential elections. Drawing on Aristotle's rhetorical framework, this article presents a process analysis to understand how political persuasion is undertaken in the contemporary social media environment. The findings provide new insights into the social psychological processes of persuasion in contemporary society and demonstrate the utility of a rhetorical framework in understanding persuasion campaigns in dynamic digital settings.

This review investigates the pull and push factors that drive women towards necessity entrepreneurship, that is, starting a business out of necessity, as an alternative to adverse conditions (e.g., job loss, financial hardship, lack of autonomy). A literature review was conducted using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol to identify the main variables examined in existing research. Sixty-eight articles published on this topic were selected and analysed through the lens of the Ecological Systems Theory. The results revealed a predominance of studies analysing macro-level factors, such as national poverty conditions and structural gender inequalities. At the meso-level, the literature highlighted the importance of social capital that supports women as they embark on entrepreneurial paths. At the micro-level, studies focused on motivation and self-efficacy, while gender and entrepreneurial identity received little attention. Additionally, the literature devoted substantial interest to the analysis of this topic in emerging countries, while there was little analysis in stronger economic contexts. This review aimed to map the existing literature by identifying relevant strengths and gaps, proposing directions for future research and considerations for intervention.

Public support plays an important role in adopting LGBTQ+ rights, including anti-discrimination and political rights. Their support by advantaged group members may stem from (a) positive appraisal and empathy for the marginalised group and (b) injustice perception and anger at social inequality. We propose a novel dual-pathway model that assumes that positive perceptions and empathy may motivate people to support anti-discrimination rights and that perceptions of injustice and anger predict support for political rights. We also explored whether political orientation predicted engagement in support of LGBTQ+ rights along different paths. In two cross-sectional studies (Hungary N = 350; US N = 381) among cisgender, heterosexual participants, we identified initial evidence for a dual-pathway model distinguishing morality and injustice pathways. We found that liberals were motivated primarily by perceptions of injustice, whereas support by conservatives was dependent on perceptions of the moral standing of the LGBTQ+ community as well. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the psychology of supporting LGBTQ+ rights along the political spectrum, highlighting the diversity of attitudes and motivations within different political and social contexts. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Drawing on the Social Identity Theory of Leadership, this study explores how Greta Thunberg's influence emerges through group processes where her leadership is sustained among climate activists by perceptions of one of us and doing it for us. Using a qualitative survey of 108 climate activists from the United Kingdom, Turkey and Sweden, we examine how these perceptions are constructed and maintained by climate activists across different socio-political contexts. Although many activists view Thunberg as central to raising awareness and mobilising action, her leadership is seen as effective when it aligns with collective values and identity. Perceptions of her leadership are dynamic and shaped by her behaviour, rhetoric and evolving relationships with activists, media and political actors. Some participants expressed concern about her dominance in the public narrative and questioned her representativeness due to her privileged background (e.g., middle-class White European). Notably, identity prototypicality (one of us) and advancement (doing it for us) were closely linked: Activists often cited the same actions or messages as evidence of both. Findings highlight the mutual influence of leadership and movement identity. Although prototypical leaders embody the movement's identity and facilitate collective agency, leaders who inspire mobilisation and organise collective actions for activists to enact their identity are perceived as more prototypical.

Living in a new cultural environment features potential tensions between how international students see themselves and what is expected of them in the host society, which can have a negative impact on their self-treatment and mental health. This research explored which specific dimensions of self-construal protect international students in the Netherlands from negative self-treatment and depressive symptoms. Specifically, we conducted two cross-sectional survey studies with international students from the two largest groups in the Netherlands. We found that three specific dimensions of their self-construal—higher levels of consistency, self-direction, and self-expression—were associated with lower levels of negative self-treatment and depressive symptoms. We discuss how this pattern of findings aligns with a pancultural explanation based on human need satisfaction, but also with a more contextual explanation based on the cultural fit between specific dimensions of self-construal and core values of Dutch society.

Although the importance of a collective action approach for pandemic management has been acknowledged during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, actual attempts at involving people in designing a package of mitigation measures were absent. Our research examines the potential of active participation of the student community in collective pandemic decision making in the university setting. We address two questions. First, would a student population be willing and able to contribute to the design of mitigation measures that apply to their own situation? Second, would other students, knowing that student contributions had been part of COVID-19 policies design at campus, be more inclined to endorse these measures? We examine these questions in two studies employing an observational survey design (Study 1 N = 47) and an experimental design (Study 2 N = 215), employing (multilevel) regression models. Our findings reveal that students who were themselves actively involved in the decision-making process were able to compose a package of measures (with actual potential of reducing the risk of virus transmission), which they considered legitimate, feasible, and effective. These positive effects did not generalise to the wider student community as students, after knowing that their fellow students had been involved, did not report more support. We conclude that collective decision making is a promising approach that may inform current debate about collective decision making and future pandemic preparedness. Future research should examine which elements of greater involvement of the target population could increase widescale community support.

Dehumanisation is the perception of someone less than human. Several studies have used innovative approaches to investigate the subtle ways in which humanity can be denied. While most of these models clearly distinguish humans from animals and robots, none adequately capture the huge range of dehumanisation that exists in metaphorical thought, such as disease-related metaphors (i.e., biologisation). Building on existing theoretical frameworks concerning dehumanisation, we developed a set of items (i.e., the Tripartite Agency Attribution Scale) measuring the capacity to experience emotions (affective mental states), produce effective actions (behavioural potential), and think rationally (cognitive abilities), and demonstrated the relevance of this approach to assess biological dehumanisation. Study 1 (N = 512) and Study 2 (N = 237) consistently showed that viruses (vs. animals vs. humans) are perceived as possessing behavioural potential but lacking affective mental states and higher-order cognitions. Accordingly, Study 3 (N = 250) showed that biologised (vs. animalised vs. mechanised vs. non-dehumanised) social groups in Italian society are perceived as primarily possessing behavioural potential with limited affective and cognitive abilities. Our research provides empirical evidence of a new, subtle way to investigate one of the most understudied forms of dehumanisation, while also expanding the literature on this process. Please refer to the Supporting Information section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.