Cross‐cultural similarities and differences in the theoretical predictors of cyberbullying perpetration: Results from a seven‐country study

The Barlett Gentile cyberbullying model (BGCM) posits that correlated anonymity perceptions and the belief in the irrelevance of muscularity for online bullying (BIMOB) predict positive cyberbullying attitudes to predict subsequent cyberbullying perpetration. Much research has shown the BGCM to be the only published theory that differentiates traditional and cyberbullying while validly predicting cyberbullying. So far, however, the cross‐cultural ubiquity has gone understudied. Thus, 1,592 adult participants across seven countries (USA, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, and Singapore) completed measures germane to the BGCM. Supporting the BGCM, the variables were significantly correlated for the entire sample, participants from independent cultures, and participants from interdependent cultures. However, the relationship between BIMOB and positive cyberbullying attitudes as well as the relationship between positive cyberbullying attitudes and cyberbullying perpetration were stronger for independent cultures. These results suggest that the BGCM postulates are mostly universal, but several relations appear to be culturally different. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

A cross-cultural examination of implicit attitudes toward shyness in Canada and China

The goal of this research was to explore implicit and explicit attitudes about shyness in Canada and Mainland China. In Study 1, Canadian undergraduate students (N = 650) completed a newly developed online version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) focused on shyness, as well as questionnaires about their own shyness and explicit beliefs about shyness. Results suggested that Canadian university students automatically associated shyness with negative words. In Study 2, Chinese undergraduate students (N = 290) completed a newly developed Mandarin Chinese online version of the IAT related to shyness, as well as questionnaires of their own shyness explicit beliefs about shyness. Results indicated that Chinese students also automatically associated shyness with negative words, but differences were observed in the pattern of association with participants’ own shyness. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of attitudes toward shyness in both cultures.     

Assembling human empathy towards care robots: The human labor of robot sociality

This paper conceptualizes human to robot empathy as empathetic arrangements configured in caring spaces. Analyzing empathy towards care robots as arrangements comprising robots, spaces, discourses, bodies and institutions enables recognition of the way empathy is about self-other relationships while eschewing an understanding of empathy in terms of a reciprocal relationship between human and robot. Situating the therapeutic, zoomorphic robot, Paro and the health care support robot, Care-O-Bot as part of empathetic arrangements draws attention to how the cultivation of empathy towards robots governs and regulates patient sociality. In particular, it shows that these robots do not function as substitutes for human carers but instead are dependent on human labor if they are to deliver therapy ethically and effectively. They rely on the affective labor of the patient and the labor of carers and others in the arrangement.     

Exploring the interactions between modal options,destination access,and travel mood

A good understanding of subjectively experienced well-being in daily travel is critical for the design and evaluation of transportation policies and programs. Numerous studies have examined the relationship between how we travel and how we feel during travel. However, people’s travel mood is not only determined by their trip characteristics but also their potential mobility—the capacity of being mobile. Using the data collected via a smartphone application in Minneapolis-St. Paul area, we measure potential mobility in two aspects—modal options and destination access and reveal that people in households with better access to cars and alternative transportation modes are, all else equal, more likely to report more positive moods and fewer negative moods during travel. In addition, people living in neighborhoods with greater access to destinations are less likely to feel stress when traveling. We also find that associations between mode and mood are moderated by modal options and destination access. These findings confirm the importance of explicitly considering modal options and destination access in policy debates and planning initiatives addressing transportation and well-being. In doing so, they demonstrate the relevance of Sen’s Capabilities Approach to transportation planning.     

It's a Total Way of Life? Catholic Priests,Women's Ordination,and Identity Work

Research has shown Catholic priests to be polarized on a few issues, including women's ordination. Explanations have been offered for why priests are initially polarized—particularly the influence of ordination cohort—but not for how attitudes are maintained over time. Using 31 in‐depth interviews with Catholic priests in the United Kingdom, I find that priests are indeed polarized into groups I call “Total Identity Priests” and “Plural Identity Priests.” Taking the example of women's ordination, I show that these two groups of priests maintain their anti‐ or pro‐women's ordination attitudes (respectively) via patterned, everyday identity work, in which they mobilize available cultural schemata. I highlight four areas in which their identity work differs: explicit identity talk, narratives of calling, clericalism and titles, and clothing. This identity work serves to summarize, communicate, and reinforce their personal identities, which in turn reinforce their existing attitudes towards women's ordination.     

A weight‐related growth mindset increases negative attitudes toward obese people

In implicit personality theory, people with entity views or a fixed mindset perceive characteristics (e.g., intelligence) as uncontrollable, whereas people with incremental views or a growth mindset perceive characteristics as controllable. In addition to other benefits, the literature sometimes suggests that having a growth mindset will protect against prejudice, which the current two studies examine in terms of negative attitudes toward obese people. Participants (total N = 501) were randomly assigned to complete a questionnaire assessing attitudes toward an obese or nonobese person and a self‐theory questionnaire also assessed ideas about body weight. People with a growth mindset, and not fixed mindset, were more likely to have negative attitudes toward obese individuals, pointing to a potential downside of growth mindset in the obesity domain.     

The Effects of Contact with Asians and Asian Americans on White American College Students: Attitudes, Awareness of Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Adjustment

On the basis of acculturation theory, explicating mutual influences between different cultural or ethnic groups coming into contact, this study focused "on the other side of acculturation" theory by examining the effects of intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans on the psychosocial experiences of White American college students. Participants (N = 315), undergraduates attending a public university located within the state of Massachusetts, completed a survey that assessed demographic and personal characteristics, acculturation (extent of intercultural contact with Asian people and Asian cultures), attitudes towards Asians and Asian Americans, awareness of institutional discrimination and blatant racial issues, and psychological distress. Results indicated that White American students' intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans contributed significant variance to the prediction of their attitudes towards this ethnic group and awareness of discrimination and racial issues, but not to psychological distress. This study provides implications for understanding mutual acculturative influences between different ethnic groups in the United States.     

The stereotype rebound effect: Universal or culturally bounded process?

Stereotype rebound occurs when people experience an increase in stereotype use following attempts to suppress them. Two studies were conducted to examine cultural variability in the rebound effect. We hypothesized that, due to their experience suppressing unwanted thoughts, people from collectivist cultures would be less likely to experience the rebound effect than would people from individualist cultures. In both studies, U.S. and Chinese participants wrote two stories about gay men that were coded for stereotype use. Participants in the suppression condition were instructed to not to use stereotypes in their first story. As predicted, in both studies, U.S. participants in the suppression condition showed an increase in stereotype use in the second story, but Chinese participants did not. Potential explanations for cultural differences in the stereotype rebound effect are discussed.     

All in this together? Group representations and policy support

The present research explored the relationship between how Canadians perceived the quality of intergroup contact with Americans and their support for different antiterrorism policies, considering the potential mediating role of intergroup representations specified in the Common Ingroup Identity Model. Canadian students (n = 360) completed questionnaires that assessed their perceptions of the quality of intergroup contact with Americans, group representations, and reactions to various policies tied to the war against terror. Specifically, we tested a model of how perceptions of the quality of intergroup contact, along the dimensions specified by the Contact Hypothesis, predict different representations of the two groups (Canadians and Americans), and then how these different representations predict reactions to antiterrorist policies. Structural equation modeling analysis supported the predictions, revealing the pivotal role of group representations for policy views.     

Consequences of discrepant explicit and implicit attitudes: Cognitive dissonance and increased information processing

Attitudes research has shown that evaluations assessed directly (explicit attitudes) and indirectly (implicit attitudes) can diverge for many reasons. However, only recently has work begun to examine the phenomenology of experiencing discrepant explicit and implicit attitudes, and a number of important questions remain unanswered. What are the consequences of explicit-implicit attitude discrepancies on information processing? What psychological states accompany these discrepancies, and can they account for behavior? In two experiments, the current work examined whether dissonance-related discomfort results from discrepant explicit and implicit attitudes and considered its role in directing subsequent information processing. Dissonance and additional information processing were observed in experimental conditions where explicit and implicit attitudes diverged (and increased dissonance-related discomfort accounted for greater information processing; Experiment 1), but they were eliminated by a manipulation that reduced dissonance (i.e., self-affirmation; Experiment 2). The role of cognitive dissonance in explicit-implicit attitude inconsistencies and information processing is discussed.