British Journal of Social Psychology最新文献

The under-reporting of family violence is a global problem. Multiple barriers to help-seeking have been identified, including some associated with social identities like race, age and gender. This discursive psychology study examines identity and help-seeking in social interaction. We analysed 200 calls classified by police call-takers as family harm using conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis. We found that callers oriented to a locally generated identity category ‘the one who called police’ as problematic. Callers sought anonymity or proposed cover stories to avoid being identified by others. Anonymity raised practical problems for recording callers' names and cover stories raised questions about the legitimacy of alternative accounts for police contact. We found callers' concerns with being identified create a dilemma produced through competing moral judgements tied to coexisting institutional and relational identity categories. Participants display understandings that calling the police may be the right thing to do as a help-seeker, but the wrong thing to do as a friend or family member. Our findings reveal how a locally generated identity category was observable as a force shaping help-seeking in real-time high-stakes encounters.

Collective action can be a crucial tool for enabling individuals to combat crime in their communities. In this research, we investigated individuals' intentions to mobilize against organized crime, a particularly impactful form of crime characterized by its exercises of power over territories and communities. We focused on individuals' views and perceptions of state authorities, examining how these views may be linked to intentions for collective mobilization. Using a large dataset with participants from eight countries (N_Total = 2088), we tested two distinct and opposing indirect paths through which perceived state responsiveness may be associated with collective mobilization intentions against organized crime, namely increased collective community efficacy (a Catalyst Indirect Effect) and diminished perceived threat from criminal groups (a Complacency Indirect Effects). Results showed that state responsiveness was associated with stronger collective action intentions through increased collective community efficacy. There was also some evidence of reduced collective action intentions through diminished perceived threat. These findings highlight the complex role of state responsiveness in predicting people's intentions to mobilize against collective problems in their communities. Implications of the findings, limitations and future directions are discussed.

Hope is a future-oriented emotion that attunes people to the possibility of positive change, and thus could potentially catalyse societal engagement with climate change. A recent meta-analysis suggests that the relationship between hope and climate action is most robust when the target of hope is climate engagement (i.e. action hope) rather than climate change more broadly. Yet, this previous meta-analysis also suggests that fostering action hope and climate engagement may be challenging via typical short media messages used in many studies. Here we consider an alternative source of action hope: receiving social support. Two studies tested whether social support motivates climate action via increased action hope. Study 1 (correlational online survey, pre-registered, N = 887) demonstrates that, as predicted, both instrumental and emotional support predict intentions to take civic action and these effects are explained by action hope. Study 2 (field study, N_educators = 84, N_contacts = 520) mostly replicates and extends these findings in a field setting, demonstrating that social support recipients' action hope is also associated with social support reported by support providers (here, environmental educators) and that this action hope again explains a possible relationship between social support and climate engagement.

Infectious diseases pose significant challenges to public health, leading to illness and even death. Vaccinations are vital for protecting society, yet beliefs in conspiracy theories related to infectious diseases increase vaccine hesitancy. This paper delves into vaccination decisions in the context of COVID-19, which continues to strain the health care system. While past research focuses on countering conspiratorial beliefs with cognitive persuasion interventions, we propose a social intervention as an alternative. Our novel intervention seeks to mitigate the effects of conspiratorial beliefs by fostering individuals' interdependent self-construal – viewing oneself in the context of social relationships. Interdependent self-construal was operationalized in multiple ways (measured in Studies 1, 2 and 3; manipulated to test causality in Studies 4 and 5). Conspiratorial beliefs were also manipulated in Study 5. The results show that the association between conspiratorial beliefs and vaccine hesitancy is weakened among individuals whose interdependent self-construal is more accessible. Moreover, this effect was mediated by prosocial motivation. We discuss the implications of our findings for developing and communicating health policies and propose potential contexts where this intervention may be relevant, thereby providing valuable insights into enhancing societal well-being in the face of conspiratorial beliefs.

This study aimed to examine how social representations of modern slavery and immigration become entangled in newspaper media. 2672 UK newspaper articles were collated from 2013 to 2022 and analysed using Content Analysis (Descendant Hierarchical Classification) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Two themes and corresponding extracts were identified from the content analysis output and analysed using CDA allowing for the exploration of the role of the hegemonic social representations to understanding how discourses of modern slavery are reproduced through the othering in relation to ethnicity and migration. The two themes that emerged were ‘Leading the way in tackling slavery’ and ‘Making claims.’ The themes combined showed how the media and political discourse positioned the UK government as leading the way in tackling modern slavery. Simultaneously, discourses criminalized migrants and constructed them as the source of social harm, and the obstacles to resolving the social injustices were those opposing anti-immigration legislation. These two contradictory positions have implications in how modern slavery is understood by the public. More worryingly, it could lead to silence from victims due to the threat of being criminalized.

One of the most robust findings in environmental psychology is that men report lower pro-environmentalism than women. Whilst this difference is often attributed to personality or identity processes, there seems to be a lack of empirical research on potential ideological influences. We propose—and provide evidence through two correlational studies—that radical pro-environmentalism is often akin to propositions of change that challenge tenets of patriarchal ideology such as dominance orientations. As men tend to endorse patriarchal ideologies more than women, they may perceive these challenges as more threatening, leading to greater opposition towards pro-environmental change. In line with our hypothesis, Study 1 (N = 450, UK sample) revealed that men's (vs. women's) greater endorsement of hegemonic masculinity and threat perceptions of anticipated social change accounted for their stronger rejection of pro-environmental policies. Study 2 (N = 254, Francophone Swiss sample) showed that men's greater endorsement of hegemonic masculinity, and higher social and ecological dominance orientation explained their higher perceptions of threat compared to women. These results highlight hegemonic masculinity as a plausible ideological framework likely to bridge previous gender gap explanations and provide policymakers with preliminary insights regarding resistance to change.

As described by early sociological research (Goffman, 1963, Behavior in public places: Notes on the social organization of gatherings), a typical behavioural pattern in public encounters between strangers is so-called Civil Inattention (CI). CI describes a ritual of politely communicating having noticed the other while assuring non-communication intentions. A typical example of showing CI is initially looking at the other person but then quickly averting the gaze. As argued earlier, CI fulfils a central role in the smooth functioning of a society. Also, CI gains new relevance in the digital era, in particular regarding privacy needs. Still, previous research on CI often remained on a theoretical or descriptive level, and its psychological functions have not been explored systematically. As an advancement, our study provides a deeper understanding of CI, exploring individual narratives, relevant psychological needs, and contextual factors. We conducted a qualitative interview study (N = 25) followed by an experimental online study (N = 353) with a 2 (presence of CI) × 2 (physical distance) mixed design. It shows that CI adds to well-being and specifically addresses needs for relatedness, security, and autonomy. However, though Study 1 suggested physical distance as a relevant contextual factor, the present experimental manipulation in Study 2 did not show significant effects.

Psychological ownership refers to the subjective feeling that something is mine. Although research shows that observed behaviours towards a target object can signal psychological ownership to others, we propose that trait cues—specifically, cues of dominance—also inform inferences of psychological ownership. Across four pre-registered studies, we predict and find that another person's trait dominance promotes inferences of psychological ownership for both a tangible (e.g. a restaurant booth) and intangible entity (e.g. a brand). This effect persists across three different trait dominance cues, providing convergent evidence of this relationship. Thus, we extend prior research by showing that cues of a trait that predicts an antecedent to psychological ownership can promote inferences of psychological ownership. Theoretical implications and future research opportunities are also discussed.

Memorials extend beyond their physical constructs, embodying political narratives and influencing collective memory. This study examines how traditional memorials and counter-memorials shape geopolitical storytelling and public sentiment. Through text analysis of over 158,000 online reviews, we compare emotional responses elicited by these memorial types. Our findings reveal distinct differences in reactions, with traditional memorials evoking pride and heroism, while counter-memorials prompt reflection on loss and historical trauma. These results contribute to understanding how memorials influence political perceptions and collective memory, offering insights into the psychological mechanisms behind geopolitical engagement with historical events.

Liberals and conservatives both express political animosity and favouritism. However, less is known about whether the same or different factors contribute to this phenomenon among liberals and conservatives. We test three different relationships that could emerge among cognitive ability, cognitive reflection and political group-based attitudes. Analysing two nationally representative surveys of US Americans (N = 9035) containing a measure of cognitive ability, we find evidence that compared to people lower in cognitive ability, people higher in cognitive ability express more animosity towards ideologically discordant groups and more favouritism towards ideologically concordant groups. This pattern was particularly pronounced among liberals. In a registered report study, we then test whether the same is true of cognitive reflection in another large dataset (N = 3498). In contrast to cognitive ability, we find no relationship between cognitive reflection, political animosity and favouritism. Together, these studies provide a comprehensive test of how cognitive ability and cognitive reflection are related to political animosity and favouritism for liberals and conservatives in the United States.