More Royalist Than the King? Immigration Policy Attitudes Among Naturalized Citizens

Social psychological research has analyzed immigration attitudes mostly from the perspective of natives without an immigrant background. Nevertheless, an increasing number of migrants obtain national citizenship and take a stance towards immigration policies. By studying immigration policy attitudes reported by naturalized citizens, this article develops a dual-pathway model of immigrant political incorporation featuring pathways of either absorption or transformation. Based on a unique sample of immigrants who just accomplished the naturalization procedure (N = 566), we investigate participants' preferences for permissive or restrictive immigration policies as a function of their naturalization motives and expectations about how immigrants should acculturate in the receiving society (i.e., acculturation orientations). Our findings provide evidence for both processes of political absorption and transformation. On the one hand, belongingness motives underlying naturalization were connected to orientations towards host culture adoption, which in turn predicted support for restrictive immigration policies. On the other hand, instrumental motives were connected to orientations towards heritage culture maintenance, which in turn predicted support for permissive immigration policies. To conclude, we discuss the social psychological dynamics involved in the transition from national outsiders to national insiders and highlight the effects of naturalization on power relations between national majority and immigrant minority groups.     

Gender Attitudes and Public Opinion Towards Electoral Gender Quotas in Brazil

Research on public opinion towards affirmative action shows that citizens often support the principle of equality while simultaneously rejecting policies that promote it in a pattern described as the “principle-policy puzzle.” The scholarship also shows that ideology and prejudice towards the targeted group explain the puzzle with respect to racial affirmative action. In this article, we use unique survey questions included in the 2014 round of the AmericasBarometer in Brazil to show that citizens tend to support electoral gender quotas while rejecting gender-based egalitarianism in a reversed version of the “principle-policy puzzle.” We argue that a different type of gender attitudes, namely benevolent sexism, shapes support for gender quotas as well as for the principle of equality. While benevolent sexists tend to reject gender equality based on views about gender complementarity and stereotypes about women's purity, they also support quotas as policies to foster such values. Our findings suggest that even though the political and scholarly debates can provide sound normative reasons for the adoption of quotas across different contexts, public support for them often relies on paternalistic views and expectations about the role of women in politics.     

Exploring the relationships between pedestrian behaviours and traffic safety attitudes in six countries

The majority of cross-cultural research on traffic safety has investigated driver behaviour, yet in most low- and middle-income countries, where the weight of the road fatality burden is felt, motorisation rates are significantly lower than in higher-income countries. As such, this approach necessarily excludes large parts of the populations in those settings. In order to investigate the link between traffic safety attitudes and road user behaviours, this study used a self-report measure of pedestrian behaviour, applying it in six countries; Bangladesh, China, Kenya, Thailand, the UK, and Vietnam. Focus was on the relationships between a respondent’s attitude towards risky or rule violating on-road behaviours (of other road users, or more generally, not specific to pedestrians), and the extent to which they reported performing three types of risky pedestrian behaviours (i.e., intentional rule violations, errors in judgement or memory, and aggressive behaviours). Data from a sample of 3,423 individuals was subjected to a series of regression models, revealing significant links between attitudes and pedestrian behaviours in all countries, in all three behavioural factors, after controlling for age, gender, and exposure to the road environment. Differences were found between countries in the strength of these relationships, with weaker connections between attitudes and behaviours in Kenya, and stronger connections in China (with other countries in-between the two). Results are discussed in terms of the need to understand the relationships between social cognitive constructs in the specific country in which a road safety intervention is intended to be implemented.     

Integrated mindfulness-based intervention: Effects on mindfulness skills,cognitive interference and performance satisfaction of young elite badminton players

ObjectivesMindfulness- and acceptance-based interventions (MABI) in sport settings need further development and validation to fulfil the desired outcomes related to sport performance. The current study aimed to design and implement a MABI integrated into the badminton training of young elite players (MBI programme), and to investigate its impact on sport performance-related outcomes.DesignTwo stages: (a) design and implementation of the MBI programme, and (b) evaluation using a mixed methods approach.MethodParticipants were young elite badminton players, assigned either to the 8-week MBI programme (n = 18; M_age = 16.22), or the 8-week placebo programme (n = 11; M_age = 16.64). Participants completed pre- and post-intervention measures of mindfulness skills, cognitive interference, and performance satisfaction. Social validation interviews were conducted with MBI participants to collect their overall perceptions of the programme.ResultsMANCOVA indicated a large intervention effect on the main outcome variables (partial η² = 0.58). The results of univariate ANCOVAs showed that post-intervention awareness, performance worries and task-irrelevant thoughts differed significantly across the groups. In addition, follow-up t-tests provided additional information regarding changes from pre- to post-intervention among the MBI and control groups separately. Social validation data gave further insights into what athletes had retained and applied from the MBI programme.ConclusionsContrasting results highlighted the need to better explore mindfulness mechanisms in MABI and the way they are inter-related, in order to strengthen changes in sport performance-related outcomes.     

Asian and Non-Asian Attitudes Toward Rape,Sexual Harassment,and Sexuality

The purpose of this study was to explore potential differences between Asian and non-Asian university students in attitudes toward coercive and noncoercive sexual behavior. Four hundred women and men (205 Asian, 195 non-Asian) were assessed on attitudes towards rape, sexual harassment, and general sexual behavior. Length of residency in Canada for Asian respondents was examined to determine whether Westernization might attenuate differences. Analysis revealed that Asian students were significantly more conservative in attitudes toward sexual behavior. Asian students were also more tolerant of rape myths and more accepting of sexual harassment. Asian respondents demonstrated a decrease in tolerance for rape myths and sexual harassment as length of residency in Canada increased. Women were less conservative than men from the same background on almost all items.     

Perception of genetic risk among genetic counselors

A mailed survey of female prenatal genetic counselors, obstetric nurses, and high school biology teachers was conducted to determine if these groups hold different attitudes toward genetic risk and to investigate the extent to which any differences result from the effect of different professional experiences. In this study, the participants were 166 genetic counselors, 116 obstetric nurses, and 78 biology teachers (n = 360). Survey participants completed a written questionnaire designed to assess their numeric estimate of the empiric risk for birth defects/genetic problems, their subjective perception of this risk, and their personal use of prenatal diagnosis. Genetic counselors were found to be less likely than the other groups to consider the frequency of birth defects/genetic problems as rare and were 10 times more likely than nurses and 8 times more likely than teachers to have had prenatal diagnosis. Furthermore, more than half of the prenatal diagnosis procedures had by genetic counselors were not medically indicated. These results suggest that genetic counselors have an increased perception of genetic risks relative to nurses or teachers. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed, and the potential role of discordant risk perception in creating biases in the genetic counseling process is explored.     

The Role of Rape Myth Acceptance and Psychopathy in Sexual Assault Perpetration

Perpetrators of sexual aggression consistently report higher scores on measures of psychopathy and acceptance of rape myths relative to nonperpetrators. However, less is known about psychopathy among nonincarcerated individuals and the relation between the two constructs has not been empirically examined among college perpetrators. To address this gap, both constructs were measured in a sample (N?=?308) of college men. Rape myth acceptance was positively correlated with psychopathy, and perpetrators scored higher on both constructs. Myths transferring responsibility to victims were related to Factor 1 psychopathy (i.e., callous and manipulative traits). The myth that “rape is trivial” was associated with Factor 1 and Factor 2 (i.e., impulsive and antisocial behavior), possibly suggesting that this myth is related to a larger tendency to excuse aggressive behavior. Although both constructs distinguished perpetrators when considered individually, rape myth acceptance did not explain unique variance in the presence of psychopathy.     

Mothers', fathers' and children's perceptions of parents' expectations about children's family obligations in nine countries

Children's family obligations involve assistance and respect that children are expected to provide to immediate and extended family members and reflect beliefs related to family life that may differ across cultural groups. Mothers, fathers and children (N = 1432 families) in 13 cultural groups in 9 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and United States) reported on their expectations regarding children's family obligations and parenting attitudes and behaviours. Within families, mothers and fathers had more concordant expectations regarding children's family obligations than did parents and children. Parenting behaviours that were warmer, less neglectful and more controlling as well as parenting attitudes that were more authoritarian were related to higher expectations regarding children's family obligations between families within cultures as well as between cultures. These international findings advance understanding of children's family obligations by contextualising them both within families and across a number of diverse cultural groups in 9 countries.     

The Mobilizing Effect of Right‐Wing Ideological Climates: Cross‐Level Interaction Effects on Different Types of Outgroup Attitudes

The present research investigated a multilevel person‐context interactionist framework for the relationship between right‐wing ideologies and prejudice across two large, representative samples (Study 1: European Social Survey: N = 56,752; Study 2: World Values Survey: N = 74,042). Across three different operationalizations of right‐wing ideology, two contextual levels (regional and national) of right‐wing climate, and three types of outgroup attitudes (i.e., age‐, ethnicity‐, and gender‐based), the analyses consistently revealed cross‐level interactions, showing a strong association between right‐wing attitudes and negative outgroup attitudes at the individual level in contexts with a low right‐wing climate, whereas this relationship is weaker and often even absent in contexts with a high right‐wing climate. These cross‐level interactions remained significant after controlling for statistical artefacts (i.e., restriction of range and outliers). The authors propose norm setting as the mobilizing mechanism through which a right‐wing climate develops and curbs the influence of individual right‐wing social‐ideological attitudes on outgroup attitudes.