Journal of Applied Social Psychology最新文献

Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) aims at advantaging the organization while transgressing relevant laws or widely held norms of ethical conduct. Across three studies (Study 1 N = 138; Study 2 N = 413; Study 3 N = 139), the paper examines whether identity leadership plays as an antecedent of employees' UPB intention based on two simultaneous processes: one process related to identity leaders being perceived as exemplary group members, who model and inspire given standards of behavior as a function of the procedural justice employees experience within their workgroup; the other process related to identity leaders strengthening employees' organizational identification. The obtained results provided consistent evidence that identity leadership is associated directly with employees’ UPB intention by interacting negatively with procedural justice and that, at the same time, it is associated with it indirectly, through the mediation of organizational identification. Discussion focuses on the complexity of both UPB, where an ethical and a pro-organizational dimensions are intertwined, and identity leadership, whose contents are conditional on the meanings employees associate with their group membership.

Organizations are increasingly committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. However, those who have the power to implement DEI interventions and those who ought to benefit from such interventions might have conflicting perspectives about their aims. In three studies, we investigate how those with high (vs. low) power endorse structural versus individualistic interventions for women. In Study 1 (n = 403), we focus on women's evaluation of the intervention. We find that they anticipate that structural interventions will be more successful at alleviating gender barriers at work than individualistic interventions. In Studies 2 (n = 500) and 3 (n = 319), we focus on men and women across different levels of power and find that individuals, regardless of their gender and their hierarchical position, prefer interventions that challenge organizational systems that maintain inequalities than those that support women in coping with DEI issues. However, individuals with stronger system-legitimacy beliefs showed just as much support for individualistic DEI interventions as for structural ones. The results suggest overall support for structural DEI interventions, but that ongoing meritocratic beliefs can detract from their actual implementation. We discuss how intervention research may benefit from focusing on interventions that target system-legitimacy beliefs to leverage more support and implementation of structural interventions.

In a world shaped by global crises—from pandemics to international armed conflicts to an escalating climate crisis—research into human reactions to and coping with uncertainty is becoming increasingly important. The fundamental role of identification with social groups in maintaining well-being during times of threat has been emphasized. In this context, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between interindividual differences— need to belong, perspective taking, need for cognitive closure—and changes in social identification. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a two-wave online study with a sample of 1008 participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined changes in social identification in narrow social groups (i.e., family, friends, neighbors) and broader social categories (i.e., own country, Europe, humanity). We found an overall increase in social identification in times of crises across all groups. The results show that need to belong (at Time 1) was positively related to increases in social identification (at Time 2) for all groups, while the positive association between perspective taking (at Time 1) and increases in social identification (at Time 2) was observed for almost all groups except neighbors. Contrary to our expectations, however, the need for cognitive closure (at Time 1) showed no association with changes in identification with any social group (at Time 2). These findings emphasize the importance of interindividual differences for our understanding of changes in social identification over time.

Exposure to conflict-related violence is one of the most harmful consequences of living amidst a violent intergroup conflict. While its potential significance is profound, the impact of exposure to conflict-related violence on intergroup empathy remains largely unexplored. The current paper aims to address this gap by proposing political ideology as a potential moderator of the exposure-empathy link. Three studies conducted among Jewish-Israeli participants reveal an interactive effect of exposure to conflict-related violence and political ideology on intergroup empathy. In Study 1, high (vs. low) exposure to conflict-related violence was associated with decreased empathy among rightists—but increased empathy among leftists—towards individual outgroup members. In Study 2, political ideology also moderated the exposure-empathy relationship: Bereaved (vs. non-bereaved) rightists exhibited significantly less intergroup empathy towards both an individual bereaved outgroup member and the outgroup as a whole, an effect not found among leftists. Study 3 revealed a similar, albeit marginally significant, interactive effect of exposure to conflict-related violence and political ideology on empathy towards individuals living in a different violent conflict. Finally, an internal meta-analysis provided further, more robust evidence for these effects. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings and suggest future directions for research on this important issue.

While previous research has mostly focused on visionary leadership's positive effects, real-world examples suggest that such leadership might sometimes also cause followers to engage in unethical prosocial behavior to contribute to a vision's noble cause. However, the process and the conditions under which this occurs are poorly understood. We draw on the theory of motivated moral reasoning to argue that visionary leadership promotes follower moral elevation and, in turn, follower unethical prosocial behavior, but that this effect is contingent on the follower's dispositional tendency for perspective-taking. In two experimental studies, we show that visionary leadership only has a positive effect on unethical prosocial behavior through moral elevation among followers with a high dispositional tendency for perspective-taking. Our work identifies the specific mechanism through which visionary leadership is related to unethical prosocial behavior as well as an important boundary condition of this effect. Moreover, it integrates the respective literatures on visionary leadership, moral emotions, and moral judgment.

Social approaches can contribute to clarifying environmental issues. For instance, social identity theory can help to comprehend people's motivations for getting involved in environmental protection. However, the kind of social identity best suited for predicting environmental protection engagement remains unclear. This study examines different categories of social identity in relation to different types of environmental protection engagement. The predictive power of identification with environmentalists, as well as with politicized and non-politicized environmental groups, are considered separately. Furthermore, environmental protection engagement is divided into pro-environmental behavior and two different demanding forms of pro-environmental collective action—participatory environmental action and leadership environmental action. Data collected online from 985 respondents involved in environmental protection were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that while environmental group identification was not significantly related to any kind of environmental protection engagement, environmentalist identification emerged as a predictor of participatory environmental action, leadership environmental action and pro-environmental behavior. Moreover, these connections were stronger for participants belonging to a politicized environmental group than for those belonging to a non-politicized environmental group and those not belonging to any environmental group. These results support and extend previous findings on the role of social identity in pro-environmental collective action and pro-environmental behavior.