Current research in ecological and social psychology最新文献

Virtual encounters are becoming increasingly frequent. These encounters have the dual potential for either posing a threat to existing relationships or promoting relationship stability. Three studies investigated whether interacting with a flirtatious virtual human would inoculate individuals against the allure of real alternative partners. In all studies, partnered participants conversed with a virtual bartender of the other gender who behaved either seductively or neutrally. Then, participants interacted with a real other-gender human being and rated their perceptions of both targets. In Study 1, an attractive confederate interviewed participants. In Study 2, a confederate sought participants’ help and recorded their helping behavior. In Study 3, participants interacted with their current partner. Results indicated that following the flirtatious virtual encounter, participants devalued the interviewer's attractiveness, invested less time in helping the confederate, and desired their partner more. This research is the first to show that interacting with a virtual agent promotes real-world relationships.

As collaborators on projects with epistemic foundations in the diverse everyday realities of different African settings, we respect and endorse the goal of the special issue (SI) to expand “psychological science to include the Middle East and Africa.” In this Short Communications article, we draw on a central insight of Africa-centering perspectives—namely, a healthy vigilance about the coloniality of knowledge in hegemonic whitestream science—to engage the goal of the SI via a critical reading of its call for papers around a contrast between imperialist and decolonial forms of inclusion. Although inclusion of research in African settings addresses issues of epistemic exclusion, imperialist forms of inclusion that assimilate African cases to whitestream science can reproduce forms of epistemic extractivism, epistemic imposition, and epistemological violence. In contrast, decolonial forms of inclusion draw on African epistemic resources to denaturalize accounts of the modern present that researchers represent, typically without reference to the coloniality that constitutes modernity, as something akin to natural facts. Rather than assimilate African cases to whitestream science, the goal of decolonial inclusion is an ecological and social psychology that takes African experience—and especially unflinching awareness of the coloniality of modernity—as an epistemic foundation for a global science.

COVID-19 is a global event that has impacted every individual on earth in some way and can be viewed as a mortality salience trigger. Although there were reports of increased nature exposure across the world, research is needed to understand whether the pandemic event impacted the underlying psychology of the human-nature nexus. Given the likelihood of pandemics and environmental challenges increasing in frequency in the future, there is a need for a deeper understanding of how pandemics impact individuals’ relationship with the natural environment in South Africa. To achieve this, the study applied psychological types (grouping individuals based on homogeneity) to explore potential shifts as human nature is neither fixed, nor universal. The study asked: Given the multiple significant impacts of COVID-19 on the African continent, how have perceptions and attitudes towards the natural environment changed within and between types of individuals from 2016 (pre COVID) to 2021 (COVID) in South Africa? In a longitudinal, quantitative study, separate samples 721 in 2016 and 665 in 2021 were obtained. Participants in 2021 were grouped into the same six types using the same criteria, for comparison with the 2016 data. The results showed limited potential for pandemics to act as catalysts for long-term individual change towards increased pro-environmentalism. The study confirmed the main tenets of Terror Management Theory that individuals tend to be driven to uphold worldviews when confronted with mortality. Furthermore, there was a reduced experience of personal control over outcomes that increased reliance on sources of control outside the self as an attempt to buffer against mortality concerns. The study contributes towards Terror Management Theory's application during pandemics, and how that relates to individual environmental attitudes and perceptions.

Integration is often assumed to be a public good and both UK and devolved governments have developed refugee integration strategies to address this aspiration. Within these strategies the development of social bridges with members of the host society is seen as a key indicator of integration, however the local neighbourhood is often neglected in research. This paper reports the findings of a discursive psychological analysis of interviews with 19 refugees and asylum seekers about their integration in Wales, UK. It focuses on the ways in which participants discursively constructed accounts of their neighbourhood relationships. The analysis highlights the importance of looking at the ways in which place is characterised by refugees and asylum seekers and the implications that this has for the kind of person who does, or does not, belong in that place. We demonstrate that most participants constructed their accounts using a discourse of ‘just saying hi’ and suggest that in using such a repertoire participants went to rhetorical lengths to construct themselves as respecting the normative principles of interaction amongst neighbours. Participants lives were largely circumscribed within the home and neighbourhoods were positioned as banal spaces in which stability take precedence over closer relationships with neighbours. The findings suggest that asylum dispersal policy of accommodation on a ‘no-choice’ basis and the use of housing in ‘difficult to let’ areas may be actively impeding other policies aimed at refugee integration.

Recent research shows that increasing diversity due to immigration can lead members of dominant ethnic groups (e.g., Whites in America) to experience prototypicality threat – the concern that their claim to best represent their national identity may be lost. Here we examine the emotional and behavioral responses to prototypicality threat in the domain of politics. Across eight years, five studies, two nations, and four electoral contexts (White Americans’ support for Trump in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election; White Britons’ support for the 2016 Brexit Referendum; White Americans’ support for Congressional candidates in 2018 U.S. Midterm Election; and White Americans’ support for a fictitious Congressional candidate in the 2022 U.S. Midterm Election), we show that prototypicality threat explains support for nativist policies and candidates. Furthermore, when those high in prototypicality threat see their favored nativist politics as victorious, they report lower anxiety and threat after the election. By demonstrating the role of prototypicality threat in support for nativist politics specifically, this work helps us understand how people respond to broad societal issues and suggests novel strategies for addressing politics hostile to immigrants.

Promoting individual lifestyle changes towards pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) has been one of the key strategies for tackling the climate crisis adopted by governments. Messaging to promote PEBs has been used in different contexts – most notably home and workplace settings; however, the message phrasing, opportunities, and motivations for adopting these behaviours can differ between locations. In this study, from a sample of working people, we investigate the sources and themes of PEB messages they remember. We then classify these based on their underlying motivations (egoistic, altruistic or biospheric). We compare these messaging prompts to those PEBs actually tried by participants and the factors leading to their successful or failed adoptions related to institutional or societal norms. Finally we explore what motivates and supports the transfer of adopted contextual PEBs between home and work. Our results highlight that messaging triggering a diversity of motivations may lead to the greatest adoption rates. For transfer of actions to be successful between contexts, both infrastructure and behavioural norms need to receive support for PEB changes to become habitual and ubiquitous.