Journal of Applied Social Psychology最新文献

Immigration has played a significant role in human history as people move to new places for economic opportunities, religious freedom, and political refuge. However, asylum seekers are often viewed negatively and falsely portrayed in media, leading to fear and distrust among locals. In the current research, participants read a fictitious news article about an asylum seeker's (Syrian, Ukrainian, or Yemeni) motivation for seeking asylum (seeking safety, seeking financial betterment from a position of relative financial hardship, or seeking financial betterment from a position of extreme financial hardship). Participants then reported their willingness to help that asylum seeker, and their prejudice and empathy toward both that asylum seeker and their group as a whole (e.g., Syrian refugees). Results showed that people were more willing to help asylum seekers whose motivation for seeking asylum was grounded in safety concerns rather than moderate financial concerns (studies 1, 2, and 3). Participants also reported more willingness to help the asylum seeker's group as a whole if the individual asylum seeker's motivation was described as seeking safety rather than financial betterment. Further, describing financial concerns as so severe that they endangered survival generated more willingness to help than moderate financial concerns, demonstrating that severe enough financial concerns may be perceived as safety concerns (study 3). We also found that people were more willing to help Ukrainian refugees than Syrian refugees. Altogether, these findings have both theoretical and practical implications.

This study investigates the effects of an intensive Buddhist (Zen) meditation practice on reductions in existential isolation and increases in prosocial behavior. This study also examines whether the hypothesized reduction in existential isolation resulting from the intensive meditation practice predicts other-focused compassion. Study 1 utilized a quasi-experimental design to investigate the effects of meditation on existential isolation and other compassion by comparing healthy Koreans who completed a 7-day intensive silent Zen meditation (n = 35) with those who completed a 7-day vacation (n = 30). All participants completed measures twice: at baseline and after either their meditation retreat or their vacation. Study 2 used a longitudinal design to investigate whether Study 1 findings would replicate among 75 new TempleStay program participants. In Study 1, relative to participants in the vacation group, participants in the meditation group experienced reduced existential isolation and increased other-focused compassion from Time 1 to Time 2. Reductions in existential isolation mediated the increases in other-focused compassion. In Study 2, after a 1-week intensive meditation training, participants experienced a reduction in existential isolation and an increased in other-focused compassion; again, the reductions in existential isolation mediated increases in other-focused compassion. Across two studies, we found evidence of reduced existential isolation and increased other-focused compassion following an intensive Zen-meditation practice. These results indicate that meditation practice may help people who suffer from existential isolation, as well as the people with whom they interact.

Previous research has shown that prosocial behavior not only benefits the person being helped, but also promotes the well-being of the person helping. Still, several specific characteristics of the helping situation have not yet been considered in one single study. Thus, we examined under which circumstances the helper's well-being is more or less positively influenced. We carried out a 7-day diary study with 363 participants who reported on their everyday prosocial behavior as well as their well-being. We examined the effect of 13 potential moderation variables based on theoretical assumptions of self-determination theory and theories about reciprocity and altruism, as well as invested resources. Overall, the results replicated the positive effect of prosocial behavior on well-being. However, the helper's autonomy, the recipient's gratitude and low responsibility for the situation, the improvement of the situation through helping, and low expected self-blame (when not helping) on the side of the helper were necessary conditions. Moreover, taking within-subject effects into consideration, significant random effects in multilevel models showed that the effect of prosocial behavior on well-being can highly differ from person to person, emphasizing that not all people under all circumstances are happier when they help others.

People often close themselves off to novel ideas without giving them adequate consideration. By doing so, they possibly miss out on important advantages these ideas may bring. One strategy that appears to effectively reduce such resistance involves self-affirming techniques, which aim to bolster one's self-concept by focusing on values of the self which are unrelated to the persuasion topic. The current study focuses on a new aspect that may be essential to increase its effectiveness, so-called “processing-related self-affirmations” which are related to how a person processes a message. We investigated the effect of processing-related self-affirmations on resistance to persuasion. Nonvegetarian participants were asked to apply a processing-related self-affirmation, an unrelated self-affirmation, or no self-affirmation before reading a scientific report about the merits of vegetarianism. Results showed participants were, depending on the weekly amount of meat consumed, more favorable toward the report after being affirmed on an unrelated value compared with participants who were not self-affirmed, but no similar effect was found for processing-related self-affirmations. We cautiously show that relatedness and compatibility with the persuasion domain may not be the only factors influencing this effect, and include relatedness of self-affirmations to the processing of the persuasive message as a possible new factor.

Although great strides have been made toward gender equality in the United States, continued progress is needed. The current paper adapts bystander intervention theory to delineate which individuals are more likely to engage in gender equality activism. We postulated that individuals who identify that systemic sexism causes gender inequalities (i.e., systemic sexism recognition) and who feel personally responsible for advocating against these inequities (i.e., high antisexism) should be most likely to engage in gender equality activism. Cross-sectional data (Studies 1 and 2) supported that systemic sexism recognition and antisexism were strong predictors of activism intent. Two experiments further demonstrated that exposure to educational paradigms designed to heighten these factors increased systemic sexism recognition (Study 3) and antisexism (Study 4), which were subsequently associated with greater gender equality activism.

Internal identity asymmetry is the uncomfortable experience of having one's identity mistaken—feeling being misidentified—by others at work. Through two longitudinal field studies of working individuals, we investigate the consequences of internal identity asymmetry on individuals' attitudes and work performance. Importantly, we incorporate the stress and coping literature to examine how the individual's cognitive appraisal of the asymmetry (of negative affect and coping resources), together moderate the experience. Furthermore, our results also show that appraisals of negative affect and coping resources moderate the relationship between internal identity asymmetry and performance, such that identity asymmetry may also motivate increased performance at work, depending on this appraisal. Our findings shed light on the importance of cognitive appraisal for identity incongruent experiences at work, and how they might be harnessed for positive outcomes depending on appraisal, which can be developed and strengthened over time.

There is evidence that engagement with tangible heritage is linked to improvements in well-being. However, experimental tests of this association, as well as theoretical accounts explaining this relationship, are lacking. The present study aims to compensate for this gap by developing a theoretical framework based on the social identity approach that explains the effect of community-based heritage engagement on well-being, and testing this effect in a quasi-experimental field study in the context of community test pit archeological excavations. In line with the predictions, the results demonstrate that excavation participants (but not participants in the control condition) report improvements on a number of psychological outcomes after (as compared to before) participation in a 2-day excavation program (including well-being, self-efficacy, and perceived community support). The findings offer implications for community-based approaches to enhancing well-being, as well as the practice of conducting community-based archeological excavations.

Highly stigmatized groups, such as those experiencing homelessness, commonly encounter both animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization. Yet, how and when each form is related to the treatment of such groups is not well understood. We explored the relative importance of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization in predicting behaviors to avoid and willingness to help individuals experiencing homelessness. Additionally, we probed social justice importance and engagement as potential moderators of the relationship between dehumanization and behavior. Study 1 demonstrated that animalistic dehumanization was a more significant predictor of avoidant behaviors than mechanistic dehumanization. Notably, social justice motivations moderated this relationship such that when individuals were low in social justice motivations, avoidance was high irrespective of dehumanizing attitudes. Study 2 aimed to replicate these findings in a more general sample with attention to a new outcome variable—intentions to help individuals experiencing homelessness. Results again demonstrated that animalistic dehumanization was a stronger predictor of behavior than mechanistic dehumanization. Unlike Study 1, social justice motivations did not moderate the relationship between dehumanization and intentions to help. Rather, social justice importance was a stronger predictor of variance in willingness to help than dehumanizing attitudes. Together, our findings suggest that the personal importance of social justice issues may be just as vital as reducing negative attitudes to increase positive engagement with individuals experiencing homelessness and potentially others who belong to similarly dehumanized groups.

A large number of studies support the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing public stigma, which has numerous deleterious effects on the lives of people with mental illness. Missing from research literature, however, is an examination of intervention characteristics which may enhance their effectiveness. Drawing from the broader literature concerned with changing perceptions of social outgroups, the present research program explores the role of exemplar typicality—the degree to which the characteristics of outgroup members who participants read about or interact with adhere to stereotypes about their group. Scholars have arrived at divergent conclusions regarding the level of typicality that is the most beneficial, prompting experimentation into this issue. In three studies concerned with stigma against people with mental illness, participants read about (n = 262) or had contact with (E-contact, n = 248; imagined contact, n = 506) a typical, moderately atypical, or extremely atypical exemplar. Overall, the results suggested typical exemplars to be detrimental or less effective, while atypical exemplars appeared to produce lower public stigma. But there were inconsistent findings regarding the difference between the moderately and extremely atypical exemplars. These results call for intergroup contact scholars to reexamine the claim that typical exemplars are ideal, given their potential to aggravate biases toward some vulnerable social groups. The findings also suggest that organizations implementing prevalent interventions such as contact and personal narratives to reduce mental health stigma should carefully attend to the characteristics of the outgroup exemplars involved.

The investigation of how social distance affects psychological phenomena has relied mostly on comparisons between strangers and acquaintances. Such an operationalization suffers from a confound between social distance and acquaintance. We propose an experimental paradigm that manipulates social distance while avoiding the aforementioned confound. By relying on reciprocity and known social tie formation mechanisms, the Interaction Game provides researchers with a powerful tool for the investigation of social distance effects without inducing negative affective or emotional states. Four preregistered experiments demonstrate the internal and external validity of the paradigm. The capability of manipulating social distance in a targeted manner constitutes a critical step towards advancing our knowledge of the impact of such metrics on human cognition and behavior. Moreover, Experiment 4 demonstrates that the Interaction Game can induce social distance that is free of acquaintanceship, and that such a minimal manipulation is sufficient for inducing close-other favoritism in a social discounting task. These findings expand our understanding of social distance as a powerful mechanism underlying social judgments and behaviors.