The Janus of Diversity: May the Ideology of Individual Diversity Rationalize Social Inequalities?

Some popular ideas about diversity today emphasize the uniqueness and potential in each individual and posit that all differences across individuals count the same as long as they are “true to themselves.” These ideas saturate current antidiscrimination discourses, but their impact on what might be perceived as discrimination has hardly been tested empirically. This article argues that the direction of that impact may not be taken for granted and advances two hypotheses. First, individual diversity (ID) ideology may direct attention to the alleged psychological attributes of minority group members, rather than to social inequalities and discrimination. Secondly, ID ideology may direct attention towards discrimination only if the target is seen as “authentically unique” (the prototype of ID). Both hypotheses were tested and supported in two studies addressing Greek participants’ perceptions of immigrant children’s difficulties. Study 2 further controlled for possible mediation effects. The discussion suggests that ID ideology might paradoxically rationalize inequalities and discrimination, as well as implicitly raise elitist expectations from minority group members.     

Personality Maturation during the Transition to Working Life: Associations with Commitment as a Possible Indicator of Social Investment

The social investment theory (SIT) proposes that personality maturation is triggered by transitions into age‐graded roles and psychological commitment to these roles. The present study examines the predictions of SIT by focusing on the transition from student life to working life. We analysed three‐wave longitudinal data and compared participants who made the transition into working life (N = 226), participants who combined education with work (N = 387), and participants who did not make the transition at all (N = 287). In contrast to the predictions of SIT, we found no differences in personality maturation between individuals who made the transition into working life and those who did this only partly or not at all. Psychological commitment to work did not explain individual differences in personality maturation for those who made the transition (partly) into working life after controlling for multiple testing. Therefore, the present study did not support the predictions of SIT. © 2019 The Authors European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Decision making in the prisoner's dilemma game: The effect of exit on cooperation and social welfare

The prisoner's dilemma game is a mixed‐motive game that offers two players the simultaneous choice between a cooperative and a defective alternative. An often neglected aspect of such a binary‐choice game, however, is that in many real‐life encounters, people can choose not only to cooperate or defect, but they also have a third option: to exit the social dilemma. Although in the literature a consensus has emerged that the addition of an exit opportunity benefits cooperation, there is only scant research into its effect on social welfare. In order to allow a direct comparison of cooperation rates and welfare levels across binary‐choice and trinary‐choice games, in this study, we used a design in which the same participants played similar games with and without an exit option (i.e., a within‐subjects design), and this in a range of structural variations. The findings of our study indicated that the aggregated outcome of both players is generally lower in games with an exit option than in games without an exit option. Moreover, our results showed that the efficiency of the exit option strongly depends on the specific outcome structure of the game (in terms of its endowment size, (a)symmetry, and level of noncorrespondence). In the discussion, it is argued that the implementation of an exit option as a strategy to increase social welfare should be critically assessed.     

Is the victim Max (Planck) or Moritz? How victim type and social value orientation affect dishonest behavior

Does the potential victim of dishonest behavior—a family or a bank, a pensioner or an insurance firm—affect the propensity to engage in such behavior? We investigate the effect of victim type—an individual person or an impersonal institution—on dishonest behavior and test whether it interacts with potential perpetrators' social value orientation (prosocial or proself). In a between‐subjects design, we allowed experimental participants (N = 368) to misreport private information in order to increase (decrease) their profit (loss) at the expense of either another participant or the experimenter's budget. Both prosocials and proselfs engaged in dishonesty, but proselfs did so much more. Furthermore, prosocials reduced their dishonesty when the victim was another person, rather than an institution, but proselfs did not. A direct implication is that the dishonesty of prosocials may be curbed by increasing the salience of the adverse effect their dishonesty has on other individual people but that such interventions will not be effective for proselfs. In contrast with recent results, we did not find a general effect of increased dishonesty under a loss (vs. gain) frame.     

“Get Off My Property”: A Personal Narrative Addressing Violence Against African Americans by Law Enforcement Post–Hurricane Katrina

Thousands of African American New Orleanians were displaced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It appeared that every African American suddenly became a suspect, “fair game” to be hunted, especially by the police. This autoethnography chronicles the author's personal background, experiences, and resulting emotions of her father's encounter with law enforcement post–Hurricane Katrina. Law enforcement–initiated interventions are explored. The article concludes with recommendations for members of the counseling profession and law enforcement. Miles de personas afroamericanas de Nueva Orleans perdieron sus hogares como consecuencia del huracán Katrina. Y de repente, cada persona afroamericana pareció convertirse en sospechosa, “presa legítima” para la caza, especialmente por parte de la policía. Esta autoetnografía documenta los orígenes personales y experiencias de la autora, así como las emociones resultantes de la interacción de su padre con las fuerzas policiales tras el huracán Katrina. Se exploran las intervenciones iniciadas por las fuerzas policiales. El artículo concluye con una serie de recomendaciones para los profesionales de la consejería y las fuerzas policiales.     

Does Cooperation in the Laboratory Reflect the Operation of a Broad Trait?

The Dictator Game, a face valid measure of altruism, and the Trust Game, a face valid measure of trust and trustworthiness, are among the most widely used behavioural measures in human cooperation research. Researchers have observed considerable covariation among these and other economic games, leading them to assert that there exists a general human propensity to cooperate that varies in strength across individuals and manifests itself across a variety of social settings. To formalize this hypothesis, we created an S‐1 bifactor model using 276 participants' Dictator Game and Trust Game decisions. The general factor had significant, moderate associations with self‐reported and peer‐reported altruism, trust, and trustworthiness. Thus, the positive covariation among economic games is not reducible to the games' shared situational features. Two hundred participants returned for a second session. The general factor based on Dictator Game and Trust Game decisions from this session did not significantly predict self‐reported and peer‐reported cooperation, suggesting that experience with economic games causes them to measure different traits from those that are reflected in self‐assessments and peer‐assessments of cooperativeness. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Socio-economic status and the developing brain in adolescence: A systematic review

Socioeconomic status is associated with differences in social, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes for adolescents. Correspondingly, the period reflects continued dynamic, complex, and adaptive brain development. Research demonstrates associations between the developing adolescent brain and SES; however, such research has not been systematically integrated. We undertook a systematic search of studies and review 21 papers that examined both SES and brain development or functioning as measured during adolescence or young adulthood in nonclinical populations (13–25 years old). Few studies focused on architecture and such findings were varied. The majority of studies focused on functioning with two themes emerging. First, studies demonstrate different activation in regions of interest to cognitive and behavioral tasks relative to SES. Second, when similar neurological activation is evident, they can be related to different behavioral observations relative to SES. There is also evidence of different neurological functioning associated with SES with regard to different conceptualizations and coding of SES. Further, some of the reviewed studies identified potential mediators to the relationship, such as parenting practices, stress, and IQ. Overall, the findings suggest it is important to consider SES and neighborhood context within neuroscience research and practice.     

Multicultural Competency Training of School Counselor Trainees: Development of the Social Class and Classism Training Questionnaire

The Social Class and Classism Training Questionnaire was developed to assess multicultural competency and training of social class and classism for school counselor trainees (SCTs). The authors analyzed the differences between accreditation status, social class backgrounds, and factors contributing to SCTs’ competence and training. Results showed that socially desirable responding, number of multicultural courses, and training level contributed most to perceived competence and training. This study provides insight into factors influencing SCTs’ competence and training of social class. El Cuestionario de Capacitación en Clase Social y Clasismo fue desarrollado para evaluar la competencia multicultural y capacitación en clase social y clasismo de consejeros escolares en formación (SCT, por sus siglas en inglés). Los autores analizaron las diferencias entre el estado de acreditación, la clase social de origen y otros factores que contribuyen a la competencia y capacitación de los SCT. Los resultados mostraron que las respuestas socialmente deseables, el número de cursos multiculturales y el nivel de capacitación contribuyeron en mayor medida a la percepción de competencia y capacitación. Este estudio ofrece una perspectiva de los factores que influyen en la competencia y capacitación en clase social de los SCT.     

公平感对社会认知的影响:经济因素的调节作用

目的及方法:基于中国综合社会调查2010年数据,采用多层结构方程模型,探究中国民众公平感对社会认知的作用,及经济因素在其中的调节效应。研究结果:第一,公平感越高,则社会冲突感越低,外在政治效能感越高,越倾向于对社会不平等进行内部归因,即对于社会的整体认知更加积极; 第二,经济因素能调节公平感与社会不平等内归因的关系,具体而言,经济水平越低,则公平感对于社会不平等的内部归因正向预测作用越大。     

Challenge your stereotypes! Human Library and its impact on prejudice in Poland

Human Library is a public event aimed at reducing stereotypes and prejudices, in the form of an interactive, contact‐based intervention. It employs the logic of a regular library yet with readers “borrowing” Living Books, which are real people representing various minority groups. Readers engage in 30‐min conversations, during which they can challenge their stereotypes and widen their scope of knowledge and understanding. This pre‐post intervention study examined the effectiveness of the Human Library (held in Wroc?aw, Poland) in reducing social distance towards Roma, Muslims, dark‐skinned, and transgender people, as well as in decreasing homonegativity. Also, we measured whether participation in the Human Library changes individual attitudes towards diverse workgroups. We found that the Human Library decreased social distance towards Muslims. Also, the more Living Books that the participants “read,” the bigger the shift in their social distance towards Muslims. Furthermore, we observed an increase in positive affective attitude towards working in diversified groups, as a result of participation in the event. The study serves as partial support for the effectiveness of the Human Library in altering one's attitude towards minority groups and diversity. The intervention is discussed as a promising but not yet entirely understood tool to improve intergroup relations.