British Journal of Social Psychology最新文献

Power, especially in the court system, is a potent determinant of intergroup relationships. Blind justice being only an ideal, public opinion can influence whether harm to low power groups is considered criminal and should be prosecuted. Our experiments investigated the impact of social dominance orientation (SDO) on the perceived appropriateness of punishment for harm to subordinate group members by dominant group members. Further, we examined the moderating role of a remorseful apology. We argue that perpetrators who do not show remorse towards their less powerful victim might be judged less harshly by those scoring high in SDO. Apologizing for the harm indicates a desire for social cohesion, which should appeal more to those low on SDO. We tested our hypothesis across three potential hate crimes: a privacy violation against a gay man (Study 1, N = 87 US-Americans), a shooting of an unarmed Black man (Study 2, N = 91 US-Americans), and an assault against an innocent refugee (Study 3a, N = 179 and 3b, N = 157 Germans). In three of four studies, people who desired group dominance advocated harsher punishment of remorsefully apologizing perpetrators. Our research contributes to the understanding of punitive attitudes across group boundaries with far-reaching societal implications.

The alt-right increasingly claims that White men are becoming targets of discrimination, yet few studies examine how, and for whom, perceived (reverse) discrimination manifests among White men. We address this oversight by examining rates of change in perceptions of ethnic and gender discrimination across 10 annual waves of a nationwide sample of White men (2014 to 2023; N = 20,486). Latent class growth analysis revealed that most White men (82.75% of participants) reported low and stable perceptions of discrimination over time, alleviating concerns of widespread discontent. However, we identified a Disenfranchised class (8.49%) that perceived moderate discrimination and a Radicalized class (8.76%) whose initially low levels of perceived discrimination increased markedly over time. These classes differed across socio-demographic variables, socio-political attitudes and well-being measures. We thus identify how, and for whom, perceptions of discrimination change over time among White men and how these changes undermine health and progressive social change.

Relative deprivation theory argues that individuals can perceive themselves to be deprived relative to other individuals (IRD) or that their ingroup is deprived relative to other groups (GRD). Few studies, however, investigate how these distinct ‘types’ of relative deprivation manifest over time. We address this oversight using multi-trajectory latent class growth analysis to identify distinct growth trajectories of relative deprivation across 13 annual waves of a nationwide longitudinal panel study (2011–2023; N_total = 75,073). We identified two discrete classes: the Content class (90.5% of the sample) and the Deprived class (9.5%). Whereas the Content class had low levels of IRD and GRD that declined over 12 years, the Deprived class had moderate levels of IRD that decreased but high levels of GRD that increased over time. Membership in these two classes differed across demographics, well-being and sociopolitical measures. The implications for relative deprivation theory are discussed.

Anticipating, considering and incorporating possible futures are central components of human social life. Our social actions, beliefs, values and interactions are all oriented towards, or away from, various future outcomes. Yet despite this, social psychology is yet to harness its unique contribution to our understanding of the future, not addressing the challenges that many other disciplines are confronting in this emerging discipline. In this editorial, we introduce our special issue on ‘futures social psychology’, and in doing so, we provide a starting point for scholars interested in furthering research in this area. We outline previous important discipline-specific and methodological contributions, connecting social psychological perspectives to the wider academic and practitioner landscape. We outline how our eleven special issue contributions advance discussion, theorizing and research methodology on topics such as sustainability, collective group continuity, prefigurative politics, AI sentience and degrowth policies. Finally, we encourage social psychologists of all topic and methodological persuasions to adopt a generative, prospective and possibilities-focussed approach to their work, to ensure that social psychology as a discipline can effectively meet the challenges of the future and maximize its impact.

This research investigates whether and how workplace diversity approaches—identity-conscious versus identity-blind—are associated with LGBTQ+ employees' perceptions of tolerance. Whilst tolerance is widely regarded as an important virtue for the harmonious functioning of diverse societies, it can inadvertently harm minoritized individuals. In workplace settings, perceptions of tolerance may hinder the benefits of diversity by discouraging minoritized employees from sharing their perspectives and prompting individuals with relatively concealable stigmas, such as LGBTQ+ employees, to conceal their identities. Across two studies (n = 907), we examine the conditions under which tolerance perceptions may arise. Study 1 explores LGBTQ+ prospective employees' anticipated tolerance in organizations with identity-blind versus identity-conscious mission statements. Study 2 examines LGBTQ+ employees' workplace experiences, focussing on how organizational and leadership diversity approaches are related to perceptions of tolerance. Findings reveal that relatively identity-blind approaches are associated with increased feelings of being tolerated. Moreover, identity-conscious leadership strategies, when coupled with identity-conscious organizational approaches, further diminish perceptions of being merely tolerated. Our findings underscore an un-intended correlate of identity-blind diversity approaches, which may perpetuate tolerance-focussed climates and indirectly undermine inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees.

Initial research suggested that intimate partner violence (IPV) increased over COVID-19 due to social restrictions. This IPV increase during COVID-19 has been termed the ‘twin pandemics’. Closer inspection of the evidence, however, challenges this notion. In this study, Australian residents (N = 608) who were either exposed to strict, prolonged lockdown orders (Victorian residents) or not (non-Victorian residents) completed 10 waves of IPV perpetration assessment online over five months and baseline assessments of instigating factors (situational factors that increase IPV perpetration), impelling factors (personal characteristics that increase IPV perpetration) and inhibiting factors (personal and situational factors that diminish IPV perpetration). Latent profile analysis and conditional latent growth curve modelling revealed that lockdown alone did not predict IPV trajectories. However, individuals whose profiles evidenced higher instigating and impelling factors and lower inhibiting factors (i.e. perfect storm profile) demonstrated elevated physical and psychological IPV over time compared to those whose profiles evidenced lower instigating and impelling factors and higher inhibiting factors (i.e. low-risk profile). Those with a perfect storm profile also evidenced steeper acceleration in physical and psychological IPV over time. The findings call into question the ‘twin pandemics’ notion and suggest that IPV over COVID-19 is best predicted by a specific risk profile.

Athlete retirement involves substantial identity changes and psychological challenges. This longitudinal qualitative study explored the experiences of 16 recently retired elite Chinese athletes using the Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC). Semi-structured interviews were conducted within 3 months of retirement (T1) and 1 year later (T2), with reflexive thematic analysis applied to examine the dynamic relationship between social identity change and adjustment. Key themes highlighted the processes related to SIMIC in sports retirement: (a) identity loss impacting adaptation to new roles, (b) identity continuity achieved through identity remigration (strengthening connection with past group identity) and identity remooring (forming new identities related to previous ones), (c) challenges and advantages of identity gain, (d) the impact of identity aspiration to gain or maintain group membership and (e) ways in which similarity in group contexts increases group compatibility. Findings revealed that while athletes experienced distress from identity loss at T1, social support from existing group memberships mitigated these effects through identity remigration. By T2, identity continuity and compatibility between old and new group memberships, supported by group context similarity, became critical to adjustment to new roles. These findings extend SIMIC in novel ways and can inform support programmes for retiring athletes.

Decades of research have recognized political candidates' competence and warmth as predictors of voter preferences, but to whom these distinct personalities are most appealing remains unclear. In the current research, we investigated how voters' Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) influenced their preferences for highly competent or warm political candidates. In two studies, we experimentally manipulated candidate competence (Study 1) and warmth (Study 2) and measured voter preferences using overall evaluations, the feeling thermometer, and the likelihood-of-voting rating. We also measured perceived ability to clean up danger, perceived ability to win competitions, and perceived caring about people as potential mediators. The results suggested that a candidate's high competence (vs. neutral traits) increased preferences for the candidate among voters high in RWA more than those low in RWA. However, despite some indication, the effect that a candidate's high warmth (vs. neutral traits) increased such preferences among voters low in RWA more than those high in RWA lacked robustness across different voting preference measures. Additionally, the moderating effects of SDO on the relationships between candidate traits and voter preferences were not significant. Neither RWA nor SDO moderated the indirect effects of candidate competence and warmth through the proposed mediators.

Climate change is a significant and urgent challenge faced by humanity, yet the widespread dissemination of misinformation hampers progress in combating it. While previous research shows that false information about the scientific consensus on climate change can shape beliefs and attitudes, its effect on behavioural intentions remains less understood. To examine this, two experiments in Spain (n = 673) and Ecuador (n = 365) tested the impact of denialist versus confirmatory or neutral messages about the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change on the intention to take pro-environmental actions. Moreover, we explored the moderating roles of gender and ideological orientation, which are key factors in climate scepticism. In both countries, right-wing men who received consensus-denying messages showed fewer intentions to perform pro-environmental behaviours compared to those who received consensus-confirming messages. Consensus misinformation did not appear to have a consistent impact on women across ideological lines or on left-wing men. These findings highlight the urgent need to develop communication interventions targeted at specific demographic subgroups to counteract climate misinformation and promote pro-environmental actions.

People's perceptions of social classes may differ from scholars' definitions. We used a mixed method, sensitive to context, to examine lay perceptions of social classes in Spain. In Study 1 (N = 90), we conducted qualitative interviews to examine how people spontaneously characterize wealth-based groups. Participants identified between two and seven groups. We grouped these into five main analytical categories for analytical purposes: poor, lower and working classes, middle classes, upper classes and rich and beyond. These groups were described based on material characteristics, traits and culture. Positive traits were mainly associated with non-wealthy groups, especially the lower and working classes, while negative traits were associated with wealthy groups. In Studies 2 (N = 251) and 3 (N = 190), we extended these findings quantitatively, showing that positive stereotypes were associated with non-wealthy groups, whereas negative stereotypes were associated with wealthy groups. Using psychometric networks, non-wealthy groups were ascribed more positive traits—with some ambivalences—while wealthy groups were mainly described using negative traits. We confirmed this pattern of results through meta-analyses. These findings highlight the importance of lay perspectives in theoretical frameworks and the need for context-sensitive approaches in analysing social class representations.