Journal of Applied Social Psychology最新文献

The current research examined how benevolent sexism and romantic attachment work in concert with contingent self-esteem to explain the strategies people anticipate using when asked to envision themselves in a high-conflict heterosexual romantic relationship. Study 1 (N = 158) demonstrated that when women were presented with a hypothetical description of a troubled romantic relationship, they reported a greater desire to maintain the relationship via prosocial strategies (e.g., emphasizing commitment to the partner) when the man in the relationship was described as endorsing benevolent sexism as compared to a control condition. Additional analyses revealed that women's relationship-contingent self-esteem mediated the association between their benevolent sexism and their desire to employ maladaptive relationship maintenance strategies (e.g., making the partner jealous) within the context of the troubled relationship. Study 2 (N = 190) built on the findings from Study 1 in two ways. First, we expanded the Study 1 mediation model to include romantic attachment (alongside benevolent sexism) as an exogenous predictor. Second, we included both women and men in the sample to examine whether the hypothesized relations were moderated by gender. Findings illustrated that anxious attachment indirectly predicted participants’ anticipated use of negative relationship maintenance strategies via relationship-contingent self-esteem. The magnitude of these relations was comparable for women and men. Together, findings from the two studies provide insight into why people vary in their responses to relationships characterized by high levels of conflict.

This study examined how the sense of community influences civic attitude under varying social environments and motivational conditions. Three studies investigated how inclusivity and exclusivity, together with egoistic and altruistic motivations, shape civic engagement. Study 1 (n = 112) tested the effect of social environment, Study 2 (n = 118) examined motivational behavior, and Study 3 (n = 240) combined both factors in a two-by-two factorial design. Across all studies, sense of community was treated as a continuous independent variable to capture nuanced variations in its interaction with environmental and motivational contexts. The results showed that individuals with a low sense of community demonstrated stronger civic attitudes in exclusive environments, especially when guided by egoistic motivations, whereas those with a high sense of community maintained stable civic attitudes across all conditions. These findings extend social psychological understanding of civic participation by revealing how contextual and motivational factors jointly shape engagement. The study contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 11 by highlighting that effective community strategies should balance inclusive practices with selective belonging to foster resilient and sustainable participation.

In three field experiments (total N = 618), international students who varied in their acculturation orientations completed tasks in a majority or minority space on campus. Integrating theories from environmental and social psychology, we expected that fit between the individual's acculturation orientation and the social profile of the campus spaces would increase perceived and experienced psychological restoration. Consistent with this prediction, integrative mixed model analysis of the combined data across studies revealed that participants perceived the minority space as more restorative than the majority space, but only among those oriented towards their home culture (i.e., evidencing stronger fit). Effects on objective performance and mood were more mixed and less consistent with predictions. Overall, the results point to the importance of individual, social, and physical factors in shaping environmental experiences and perceptions.

Despite growing awareness and efforts to improve adequate food access, the prevalence of food insecurity among university students continues to rise. Research has consistently demonstrated that food insecurity is more likely to be experienced by students facing immediate financial hardship. However, to date, little research has investigated students' social class background and associated lack of psychosocial resources as risk factors for food insecurity. Recognizing the exclusionary nature of universities for students from lower-class backgrounds, we propose a novel social identity-based approach to understanding food insecurity experiences at university. We conducted two cross-sectional online surveys in 2020 with convenience samples of Australian students (Study 1 N = 2,666; Study 2 N = 177) to explore student identity and sense of belonging to university as mediators of the relationship between social class and food insecurity. In both studies, we found that lower social class was associated with increased risk for experiencing food insecurity, and that this relationship was serially mediated through reduced student identity and belonging. In Study 2, over half of students were experiencing food insecurity, yet fewer than a quarter had accessed any campus support services. Study 2 also found the serial mediation via identification and belonging was contingent on controlling for COVID-19's impact on students. These findings highlight the importance of student identity and belonging as key drivers of food (in)security that might be harnessed to improve university student outcomes. We suggest that beyond financial and material support, universities must cultivate inclusive environments where students feel psychologically connected, else they are unlikely to utilize such supports even when needed.

Organizations sometimes face choices where harming some employees brings overall benefits, e.g., downsizing under crisis. Similar to sacrificial dilemmas where causing harm saves lives, organizational sacrifices may communicate an affective-cognitive trade-off: sacrificing employees to maximize outcomes suggests a relatively cold but competent demeanor, whereas refusal to sacrifice may communicate warmth despite lower competence. Accordingly, people may expect leaders to sacrifice and conform to such role norms themselves. Finally, decision-makers may be able to influence such perceptions through verbal communication. Six preregistered studies (N = 2231) tested these possibilities. Consistent with prior work, people rated decision-makers who rejected sacrificial harm higher in warmth than competence, whereas managers who accepted sacrificial harm lower in warmth than competence. People also expected more sacrificial decisions from high- than low-authority decision-makers, even though they evaluated them similarly when making the same choice. Participants assigned to high versus low authority roles also accepted sacrifices more often, although this effect emerged only in less-experienced workers. Finally, expressing emotional concern for sacrificial victims increased ratings of warmth and moral character, and ratings of warmth and leadership when accepting harm. These findings suggest a paradox leaders may overcome with communication: People may expect sacrificial choices from leadership, even as they infer coldness and immorality (albeit competence) from such decisions—however, clarifying concern for victims may reduce approbation.