British Journal of Social Psychology最新文献

Social psychological research typically focuses on promoting peace between groups in conflict by fostering intergroup harmony through prejudice reduction or advancing social justice through collective action. Unfortunately, these investigations rarely consider the mainstream discursive structures and epistemic engagement that normalize collective ethnic/racial violence. We addressed this gap with two mixed-method (i.e., qualitative and quantitative) studies in two contexts (Turkey and the United States), utilizing decolonial frameworks informed by liberation psychology, critical race theory and privileged ethnic/racial (Turkishness and White racial) contracts. Comparative analysis of meta-representations of peace among Turks (Study 1; N = 116) and White Americans (Study 2; N = 151) exposed the overlapping (i.e., negative peace and reliance on the nation-state order) and divergent (i.e., assimilative inclusion and neoliberal individuality) elements of privileged epistemic engagement with peace that align with Turkishness and White racial contracts, perpetuating collective violence. Furthermore, both Turks' and White Americans' ethnic/racial identity endorsement predicted higher perceptions of the state/military contribution to peace, suggesting the role of racial privilege in maintaining systemic violence. To our knowledge, this work is the first social psychological investigation of the Turkishness contract and the comparative analysis of privileged meta-representations of peace.

Friendship is a common and complex social bond. Among friendship practices yet to be fully understood are group- versus dyadic-oriented friendship styles, or whether people socialize with one versus multiple friends at a time. We report two studies comparing friendship styles and relational mobility among 1674 young adults (18–35 years old) in Japan and the United Kingdom. Respondents from both countries completed the Friendship Habits Questionnaire, a new measure of dyadic- versus group-oriented friendship styles. Participants also estimated their friendship group size and time spent in friendship groups versus dyads, and completed a scale of relational mobility. Participants' group-oriented friendship style, assessed with the Friendship Habits Questionnaire, was associated with larger friendship groups and more time spent in groups, rather than dyads of friends. Compared to Japanese, participants from the United Kingdom had more group-oriented friendship styles and were more relationally mobile. Moreover, group-oriented friendship styles were associated with higher relational mobility. These findings provide insights into models of friendship and social relationships promoted across diverse cultural settings.

Smiling is widely recognized for facilitating interpersonal relationships, yet its effects in intergroup, non-cooperative contexts remain underexplored. Across four experiments and six samples (N_total = 2074) in Spain and the US, we explored how displays of happiness by immigrants from various ethnocultural groups (vs. non-immigrants) influence host culture members' emotions, perceptions, social interaction and avoidance intentions and helping intentions. Results showed that representations of smiling immigrants were associated with higher perceptions of warmth and competence, eliciting positive emotions like joy, admiration and feeling moved, while reducing negative emotions like anger. Host culture perceivers were more willing to engage with, and less likely to avoid, smiling immigrants, largely due to increased perceptions of warmth and likability. However, these representations did not significantly increase helping intentions. The role of group membership of the expresser in moderating these effects was limited. The findings suggest that immigrants' displays of positive emotions in awareness-raising social campaigns and mass media could serve as a counter-strategy to prevalent negative stereotypes. However, our research also indicates that host societies may condition the acceptance and naturalization of immigrants on the emotions they express, their perceived ‘successful’ adaptation or demonstrated agency.

Recent advances in intergroup contact research have drawn on methods from human geography to investigate how segregation shapes, and is shaped by, everyday intergroup experiences. Emerging findings suggest that the phenomena might be reciprocally intertwined, but empirical evidence is limited and mixed. This research tested the reciprocal relationship between everyday intergroup contact and segregation using ecological momentary assessment and GPS-GIS tracking in two segregated UK cities with youths aged 15–17. Study 1 (Belfast; n_participants = 15; n_interactions = 115; n_GPS-point = 633) focused on Catholics–Protestants divisions, and Study 2 (Bradford; n_participants = 30; n_interactions = 334; n_GPS-point = 2868) addressed ethnic segregation among Asian, White, and Black communities. In both studies, youths reported on social interactions throughout 6 days, while their urban mobility in outgroup spaces was tracked. In Belfast, more mixed districts predicted higher anxiety during intergroup interactions, yet, positive intergroup contact was followed by increased visits to outgroup spaces. In Bradford, mixed districts increased the likelihood (but not the quality) of intergroup contact, while the link between positive contact and subsequent outgroup space use was replicated. The findings highlight a virtuous cycle depending on contextual norms by which positive contact and desegregation practices might reinforce each other, arguably demonstrating the potential of intergroup contact for levelling urban divisions.

Through three studies (N_tot = 2338), the present research examines the relationship between epistemic psychological needs, conspiratorial beliefs and trust in science, specifically investigating how these factors influence preferences for online content marked by conspiratorial or scientific rhetoric. Study 1 reveals that conspiratorial beliefs are positively associated with insecure epistemic needs, and Study 2 replicates and deepens these findings by introducing behavioural measures of engagement with Google-like headlines presenting conspiratorial or scientific claims. Finally, Study 3 further confirms the link between epistemic needs and conspiracy beliefs, using curiosity as a predictor of conspiratorial beliefs, trust in science and engagement with online content while also considering hostile attribution bias and cognitive reflection as influential variables. The results suggest that different dimensions of epistemic psychological needs can lead to the adoption of divergent belief systems, offering new perspectives on understanding the dynamics between conspiratorial beliefs and trust in science.

Research seeking to explain why people believe conspiracies has largely focused on intrapsychic factors, but there is growing research examining structural-level elements of disadvantage. The socio-functional model of conspiracy belief (Adam-Troian et al., 2023, British Journal of Social Psychology, 62, 136) posits that subjective feelings of permanent insecurity arising from objective material strain (i.e., precarity) cause conspiracy belief directly or indirectly through institutional distrust. Across three preregistered studies using observational longitudinal designs over 3 (n = 637) and 11 months (n = 832), and a between-group experimental design (n = 285), we use various methods to estimate causal effects for this proposition during the current cost-of-living crisis. In Studies 1 and 2 using random intercept cross-lagged panel models, we find no evidence that increases in precarity temporally precede increases in conspiracy belief (or vice versa) but find stable between-persons effects over time. In Study 3, despite successfully manipulating precarity using a self-imagine paradigm, we find no direct or indirect effect on conspiracy belief through decreased government trust. We discuss the importance of using methods that permit credible causal inferences and key directions for future studies investigating the socio-functional model.

Masculinity is an aspect of one's identity that is precarious in nature and when threatened can lead men to harbour antigay attitudes and respond negatively to members of the LGBT community. However, much of the research examining men's responses to the masculinity threat has predominantly focused on the experiences of heterosexual men. Across two studies, we aimed to understand how masculinity threat impacts gay men's identification with their sexual and gender identities as these identities are often stereotyped to conflict. In Study 1 (N = 110), we found that gay men identified less with their sexual group identity the more they perceived themselves to be masculine after experiencing a threat to their masculinity (i.e., false feedback). However, identification with their gender identity remained unaffected after experiencing a threat to their masculinity. In Study 2 (N = 297), we replicated our findings and demonstrated that experiencing masculinity threat can negatively impact gay men's intentions to advocate for gay and trans rights, and their attitudes towards transgender individuals. The current research provides important insights into how masculinity threat impacts gay men's group identification and the negative consequences regarding intragroup processes within the LGBT community.

How do internalized cultural values shape responses to discrimination among minoritized groups? This research investigates how honour values, originating from socio-ecological contexts marked by insecurity and weak institutional protection, shape prejudice confrontation among individuals from honour-culture backgrounds living in Western European dignity cultures. Across three studies, we examined South and West Asians in the United Kingdom and Turkish post-migrants in Germany. We tested whether endorsement of collective honour and modern proxies of socio-ecological conditions in which honour cultures emerge (e.g., perceived financial threat, low trust in police effectiveness and procedural unfairness) predict intentions to confront discrimination. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the frequency of discrimination experiences and collective honour predicted aggressive confrontation. Studies 2 and 3 showed the dual role of honour norms: endorsement of honour norms related to family reputation predicted only non-aggressive confrontation, whereas endorsement of retaliation norms predicted only aggressive confrontation. Study 3, a pre-registered experiment, found no causal effect of manipulated contemporary manifestations of long-term socio-ecological conditions on honour endorsement or confrontation. Together, findings suggested that lived experiences of discrimination, alongside honour norms, predict confrontation. Moreover, they highlight the importance of distinguishing between dimensions of honour norms when examining culturally grounded responses to intergroup discrimination.

Political sophistication (PS) describes how individuals absorb political information from their environment, integrate it into existing knowledge structures and form political opinions accordingly. This paper explores the origins and development of PS, offers a critical classification and proposes new avenues for conceptualization. Drawing on the literature from psychology, political science and educational research, the paper traces the evolution of the concept and highlights a shift in how PS is understood. By reviewing research on bias and values, especially work that engages with PS, the analysis identifies both the lack of a coherent theoretical framework and inconsistencies in its measurement. Existing findings, such as the so-called political sophistication bias, are critically re-examined in this context. Building on this foundation, the paper introduces democratic sophistication as a refined conceptualization of PS, framing it as an individual-level variable relevant to democratic citizenship. The potential of democratic sophistication is then explored concerning its role in social psychological research, its interdisciplinary relevance and its practical implications for understanding political discussion behaviour, mitigating polarization and fostering citizens' capacity for deliberative engagement.

The paper reports longitudinal analyses examining the extent to which institutional trust mediates the relationship between individuals' sense of precarity and their adherence to conspiracy beliefs. Across three waves, 925 participants (50.2% female) between the ages of 18 and 85 (M = 49.53; SD = 15.81) reported subjective appraisals of their financial situation (precarity), trust in institutions and adherence to conspiracy beliefs. The current study extends the previous analyses by including three-wave longitudinal data. The preregistered autoregressive cross-lagged panel model supports the notion that a sense of precarity follows adherence to conspiracy beliefs rather than preceding them, while institutional (dis)trust and conspiracy beliefs show a bidirectional pattern. However, the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model does not corroborate this, suggesting that the effects may be driven by stable between-person differences rather than actual within-person changes. Additionally, the latter model reveals two separate temporal patterns linking conspiracy beliefs with either the sense of precarity or institutional trust, opening the possibility that our results were driven by two distinct underlying mechanisms. The paper discusses the importance of longitudinal studies for a more accurate understanding of social-psychological realities in which conspiracy beliefs and suspicions of institutions may flourish.