Brexit or Bremain? A person and social analysis of voting decisions in the EU referendum

The period following UK's European Union referendum in 2016 foreshadows significant social and political change in the UK. The current research draws on social psychological theories to empirically examine the drivers of voting decisions during the referendum. We report the results of a prospective study using structural equation modelling with data (N = 244) collected just before, and self‐reported voting behaviour immediately following (N = 197), the European Union referendum. We employ a person and social approach to examine the additive roles of worldview, conservatism, social identity, and intergroup threat as predictors of voting intentions and behaviour. Results showed that person factors (worldview and conservatism) predicted voting intentions through social factors (European identity and realistic threat) and that intentions predicted behaviour. The results highlight the importance of addressing threat‐based intergroup rhetoric and the potential of common in‐group identity to mitigate psychological threat.     

Appealing to common humanity increases forgiveness but reduces collective action among victims of historical atrocities

Appealing to common humanity is often suggested as a method of uniting victims and perpetrators of historical atrocities. In the present experiment (N = 109), we reveal that this strategy may actually work against victim groups' best interests. Appealing to common humanity (versus intergroup identity) increased forgiveness of perpetrators but independently also served to lower intentions to engage in collective action. Both effects were mediated but not moderated by reduced identification with the victim group. We, thus reveal an important feature of appeals to common humanity: That this strategy may reduce social change at the same time as helping to promote more positive intergroup attitudes. These novel findings extend research on the human identity to a new theoretically interesting and socially important domain. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A qualitative exploration of school racial diversity,friendship choices,and Black women's identity-based experiences in high school

Social integration is a critical component of adolescents' positive school adjustment. Although prior scholars have highlighted how Black women and girls' social identities (e.g., race, gender, social class) influence their academic and social experiences in school, very little work has focused on how school racial diversity shapes Black girls' peer networks throughout K–12 education. To address this gap in the literature, the present qualitative study explored the narratives of 44 Black undergraduate women (M_age = 20 years) who reflected on their friendship choices in high school. We used consensual qualitative research methods to examine how Black women navigated friendships during their time attending predominantly White (less than 20% Black), racially diverse (21%–60% Black), and predominantly Black (61%–100% Black) high schools. Coding analyses revealed five friendship themes: (a) Black female friends, (b) mostly Black friends, (c) mostly interracial friends, (d) mostly White friends, and (e) White friends in academic settings and Black friends in social settings. Our findings highlight how the young women's ongoing negotiation of racialized and gendered school norms influenced their sense of closeness with same-race and interracial peers. Black girls may have challenges with forming lasting and meaningful friendships when they cannot find peers who are affirming and supportive, particularly in predominantly White school contexts. This study underscores the need to look at how racial diversity in the student population offers school psychologists and educators insight into how to better support the social and emotional development of Black girls.     

Once upon a time…: Using fairy tales as a form of vicarious contact to prevent stigma-based bullying among schoolchildren

We conducted a vicarious contact intervention with the aim of promoting bystanders' intentions to react to stigma-based bullying among schoolchildren. Participants were Italian primary schoolchildren (N = 117 first to third graders); the outgroup was represented by foreign children. Vicarious contact was operationalized with story reading, creating fairy tales on stigma-based bullying where minority characters were bullied by majority characters. Once a week for 3 weeks, participants were read fairy tales in small groups by an experimenter and engaged in reinforcing activities. Results revealed that the intervention increased intergroup empathy (but not intergroup perspective-taking) and anti-bullying peer norms and fostered contact intentions. The intervention also had indirect effects via intergroup empathy on helping and contact intentions and on bystanders' reactions to stigma based-bullying. We discuss theoretical and practical implications, also in terms of the relevance of the present results for school policy. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .     

To belong or not to belong: Protecting minority engagement in the face of discrimination

School belonging is pivotal in enabling sustained task engagement, yet minorities' belonging is contingent on the intergroup context. From a social identity approach, discrimination experiences elicit identity threat, undermining school belonging. Conversely, a positive diversity climate may shield belonging through protecting minority identities. This study addresses minority school belonging and task engagement from the interplay of identity threat and protection in diverse classrooms. We hypothesise that a positive diversity climate can buffer minority disengagement in response to discrimination by protecting school belonging. Drawing on Turkish and Moroccan minority samples (N = 1050) in 274 diverse classrooms in 52 Belgian secondary schools, we test multilevel models with school belonging as mediating process connecting minorities' engagement to the interplay of discrimination experiences with perceived diversity climate. Minority youth who experienced discrimination from teachers reported less school belonging, which in turn predicted lower task engagement. Conversely, minority perceptions of a positive diversity climate predicted more belonging. Moreover, perceived diversity climate buffered minority engagement against personal experiences of discrimination through protecting school belonging. Whereas discrimination experiences undermined minority school belonging and task engagement, minority perceptions of a positive diversity climate protected belonging and engagement against discrimination.     

Change in school ethnic diversity and intergroup relations: The transition from segregated elementary to mixed secondary school for majority and minority students

This research examined the impact of a change in school diversity on school children's intergroup relations. A longitudinal survey tracked 551 White British and Asian British students (M_age = 11.32) transitioning from elementary (time 1) to secondary (time 2) school in an ethnically segregated town in the United Kingdom. We estimated a multivariate, multilevel model. A cross-sectional comparison of segregated schools and a mixed elementary school at time 1 revealed that both Asian and White British in the mixed school reported more positive intergroup relations. A longitudinal analysis found that the transition from segregated elementary to mixed secondary schools was associated with Asian British developing more positive intergroup relations. White British reported overall less positive intergroup relations, although only trust decreased; evidence from other measures remains inconclusive. The findings are important for understanding early stages of diversity exposure, and the impact of changing diversity levels on majority and minority groups.     

Psychological Variables as Predictors of Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Among Minority and Immigrant Adolescents1

The occurrence of discrimination in the real world is difficult to determine objectively, as it is defined in part by intentions. The perception of discrimination may therefore be influenced by one's interpretation of the intentions of others. In order to examine psychological characteristics that influence the perception of ethnic discrimination, 164 Armenian, Mexican American, and Vietnamese adolescents completed measures of perceived discrimination (PD), self-esteem, mastery, depression/anxiety, intergroup competence, and ethnic identity, as well as demographic variables. A path analysis showed that higher depression/anxiety scores and lower intergroup competence predicted more PD; depression/anxiety and intergroup competence were in turn predicted by self-esteem and mastery, respectively. Birthplace and socioeconomic status had an indirect effect on PD, via intergroup competence. The results suggest the importance of psychological variables in the perception of discrimination.     

Self-protection and growth as the motivational force behind majority group members' cultural adaptation and discrimination: A parallel mediation model via intergroup contact and threat

What motivates majority group members to adapt to or reject cultural diversity? Considering the relevance of personal values on our attitudes and behaviours, we inspected how self-protection and growth predict levels of discriminatory behavioural and cultural adaptation intentions towards migrants via intergroup contact and perceived intergroup threats, simultaneously (i.e., parallel mediation). Specifically, positive contact between groups is known for reducing prejudice through diminishing perceived intergroup threats. Yet current research emphasises the role of individual differences in this interplay while proposing a parallel relationship between perceived intergroup threats and contact. Also by inspecting cultural adaptation and discriminatory behavioural intentions, the present study examined more proximal indicators of real-world intergroup behaviours than explored in past research. Using data from 304 US Americans, structural equation modelling indicated a good fit for a parallel mediation model with growth relating positively to cultural adaptation intentions and negatively to discriminatory behavioural intentions through being positively associated with intergroup contact and negatively with perceived intergroup threats, simultaneously. The reverse was found for self-protection. These findings stress that personal values constitute a relevant individual difference in the contact/threats-outcome relationship, providing a motivational explanation for majority group members' experience of cultural diversity in their own country.     

Seeking help from a female friend: Girls' competencies,friendship features,and intentions

Adolescent girls frequently manage problems by seeking help from friends. We examined girls' intentions of seeking help from a female friend and whether these intentions were related to their competencies (emotional competence, self‐disclosure) directly and/or indirectly via specific friendship features (companionship, closeness). Participants included 222 Canadian girls (Grades 9–12) who completed an anonymous survey at school. Results showed that girls had high intentions of seeking help from a female friend and that higher self‐disclosure competence was linked directly to higher intentions. Both competencies were linked indirectly to higher intentions mediated by friendship features. These findings indicate that competencies make help seeking by girls from girls likely in multiple ways and suggest how coping programs can address help seeking in girl–girl friendships.     

Effects of intergroup similarity on intergroup relations

We examined the impact of intergroup similarity on two aspects of intergroup relations. Drawing on social identity and belief congruence theory, we hypothesized that — at high levels of intergroup similarity — increasing similarity has dual, seemingly opposed effects: It increases ingroup favouritism in evaluations but also increases readiness for social contact with the outgroup. We further hypothesized that both effects are moderated by the strength of individuals' identification with their ingroup. Finally, we hypothesized that there is ingroup favouritism on dimensions relevant for defining the group, but outgroup favouritism on dimensions irrelevant for this purpose. One hundred and forty-nine students from two prestigious high schools, who were assigned to one of three levels of manipulated similarity between their schools, evaluated both schools on dimensions relevant and irrelevant to the school context and expressed their readiness for social contact with the other school. Ingroup favouritism appeared on relevant dimensions and outgroup favouritism on irrelevant dimensions. As predicted, for those highly identified with their ingroup, intergroup similarity led to greater ingroup favouritism in evaluations on relevant dimensions but to increased readiness for outgroup social contact. Implications for interpreting inconsistent results of past research and for specifying conditions for intergroup bias are discussed.     

Children's prosocial behavioural intentions towards outgroup members

When will children decide to help outgroup peers? We examined how intergroup competition, social perspective taking (SPT), and empathy influence children's (5–10 years, N = 287) prosocial intentions towards outgroup members. Study 1 showed that, in a minimal group situation, prosociality was lower in an intergroup competitive than in a non‐competitive or interpersonal context. Study 2 revealed that, in a real groups situation involving intergroup competition, prosociality was associated with higher empathy and lower competitive motivation. In a subsequent non‐competitive context, there were age differences in the impact of SPT and competitive motivation. With age, relationships strengthened between SPT and prosociality (positively) and between competitiveness and prosociality (negatively). Among older children, there was a carry‐over effect whereby feelings of intergroup competitiveness aroused by the intergroup competitive context suppressed outgroup prosociality in the following non‐competitive context. Theoretical and practical implications for improving children's intergroup relationships are discussed.     

The development of bystander intentions and social–moral reasoning about intergroup verbal aggression

A developmental intergroup approach was taken to examine the development of prosocial bystander intentions among children and adolescents. Participants as bystanders (N = 260) aged 8–10 and 13–15 years were presented with scenarios of direct aggression between individuals from different social groups (i.e., intergroup verbal aggression). These situations involved either an ingroup aggressor and an outgroup victim or an outgroup aggressor and an ingroup victim. This study focussed on the role of intergroup factors (group membership, ingroup identification, group norms, and social–moral reasoning) in the development of prosocial bystander intentions. Findings showed that prosocial bystander intentions declined with age. This effect was partially mediated by the ingroup norm to intervene and perceived severity of the verbal aggression. However, a moderated mediation analysis showed that only when the victim was an ingroup member and the aggressor an outgroup member did participants become more likely with age to report prosocial bystander intentions due to increased ingroup identification. Results also showed that younger children focussed on moral concerns and adolescents focussed more on psychological concerns when reasoning about their bystander intention. These novel findings help explain the developmental decline in prosocial bystander intentions from middle childhood into early adolescence when observing direct intergroup aggression.     

Children with social phobia have lower quality friendships than children with other anxiety disorders

Background and Objective: Whilst shy, socially anxious or socially withdrawn children in nonclinical community samples report lower friendship quality (FQ) than nonanxious children, no study has examined the FQ of clinically anxious children. The aim of the study was to examine the FQ of children with anxiety disorders; and whether it differs for clinical children with or without a diagnosis of social phobia (SP). Design: The study design was cross-sectional self-report. Methods: Clinical children – 39 anxiety-disordered children with SP and 28 anxiety-disordered children without SP (No-SP) – presented for psychological treatment, and 29 nonclinical children were recruited from the community. Same-sex close friends were invited to participate using an unrestricted nomination procedure. All children were aged between 7 and 13 years. Both target child and friend completed the Friendship Quality Questionnaire and the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale. Results: Using multilevel modeling within the framework of the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model, SP dyads were found to report lower overall FQ than No-SP dyads. SP dyads did not report lower overall FQ than nonclinical dyads. Conclusion: Children with SP in their diagnostic profile may be unique in their friendship experiences relative to children with other anxiety disorders.     

SITUATIONS SOCIALES À POTENTIEL CONFLICTUEL ET CARACTÉRISTIQUES SOCIO-COGNITIVES D'ENFANTS AGRESSIFS ET REJETÉS*

Twenty aggressive and rejected children (boys and girls), twenty socially competent and popular children, and twenty children having average social skills - all of which were first and second graders attending regular school - participated in this study. All were presented on videotape with nine typical peer-conflict situations. Each child was asked about the way that he/she felt, and the way that he/she would resolve each problem situation. In addition, each child had to specify what he/she thought to be the offender's intentions in each problem situation. Several points differentiated first grade from second grade subjects. However, aggressive, socially skilled and average subjects distinguished themselves on only a few items. Differences relating to subject's sex were also scarce. Data support the view that aggressive children know as well as other children how to appropriately resolve interpersonal conflict situations. However, they do not use this knowledge because of impulsivity control problems, an inability to correctly identify others' intentions or a lack of motivation.     

青少年友谊关系质量与社交焦虑的相互影响:一项交叉滞后分析

采用问卷法和追踪设计,通过交叉滞后回归分析,考察初中三年期间698名青少年的友谊关系质量与社交焦虑的相互影响及其动态变化。结果发现,初二到初三期间,青少年友谊关系质量的喜爱-满意维度显著负向预测社交焦虑;初中三年期间,青少年社交焦虑显著负向预测友谊关系质量的喜爱-满意维度;但友谊关系质量的冲突维度与社交焦虑的相互预测作用不显著。这些结果表明,青少年友谊关系的喜爱-满意维度与其社交焦虑之间存在相互影响,而且该相互作用存在一定程度的动态变化。     

青少年跨群体友谊与群际态度的关系研究

本研究旨在考查不同群体(本地、外地)青少年朋友选择的特点,以及跨群体友谊与群际态度的关系,同时考查了群际焦虑在跨群体友谊与群际态度之间的中介作用。905名初中学生参与了本次调查,测量工具包括朋友提名(友谊数量和质量)、群际态度(积极情感与消极刻板印象)和群际焦虑量表。结果发现:(1)在本地与外来学生混合的学校中,跨群体友谊普遍存在,且外地学生在选择朋友时存在一定的本群体偏好;(2)跨群体友谊与更为积极的外群体态度相关联,且这种"友谊效应"只存在于外地学生中;(3)跨群体友谊通过群际焦虑的中介作用对群际态度产生影响。     

Testing a contact intervention based on intergroup friendship between Roma and non‐Roma Hungarians: reducing bias through institutional support in a non‐supportive societal context

Although intergroup friendships have been shown to reduce prejudice, little research has considered whether interventions fostering intergroup friendship would be effective in highly prejudicial contexts. We conducted a quasi‐experiment (N = 61) to test whether a contact‐based intervention based on intergroup friendship could reduce bias against Roma people among non‐Roma Hungarians. Participants in the contact condition engaged in a face‐to‐face interaction with a Roma person, and responded to questions involving mutual self‐disclosure. Through pre‐ and post‐test questionnaires, we observed significant positive change in attitudes and contact intentions among participants in the contact condition, while these effects were not observed among participants in the control condition. Positive change was moderated by perceived institutional norms, which corroborates the potential of contact‐based interventions.     

Improving Intergroup Relations with Extended Contact among Young Children: Mediation by Intergroup Empathy and Moderation by Direct Intergroup Contact

A correlational study investigated extended contact as a strategy to improve outgroup attitudes and stereotyping and to prepare children for future contact. Additional aims were to investigate when and why the effects of extended contact occur. In particular, intergroup empathy was tested as a mediator and direct contact (i.e. cross‐group friendship) as a moderator of extended contact. Participants were Italian and immigrant elementary school children. Results showed that extended contact was associated with improved intergroup empathy, which, in turn, was associated with more positive outgroup attitudes, stereotypes and behavioural intentions. These effects were significant only among participants with a low or moderate level of direct contact. The theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's perceptions of intergroup and intragroup similarity and the role of social experience

Perceptions of intragroup and intergroup similarity were assessed in 1st grade (M = 6.78 years, SD = .42) and 4th grade (M = 9.79, SD = .51) boys and girls (N = 382) who attended either ethnically homogeneous or ethnically heterogeneous schools. Children's evaluations of same-race and cross-race friendships were also assessed. European-American children attending homogeneous and heterogeneous schools attributed greater homogeneity to the same-race Black dyads. European-American children attending homogeneous schools, furthermore, focused on skin color in their evaluations of similarity and friendship to a greater extent than did European-American and minority (i.e., African-American, Latin-American, Asian-American) children attending heterogeneous schools. Children attending heterogeneous schools were more positive about friendship in general than children attending homogeneous schools, suggesting that social experiences in school settings are an important context of children's intergroup contact experience. The findings indicate that children's intergroup contact influences their perceptions of similarity and reasoning about cross-race friendship.