Feeling anxious and being engaged in a warming world: climate anxiety and adolescents' pro-environmental behavior.

BACKGROUND: Climate anxiety is increasingly prevalent among adolescents worldwide. Are climate-anxious adolescents prone to engage in pro-environmental behavior? Or might the association between climate anxiety and pro-environmental be curvilinear, such that high levels of climate anxiety become 'paralyzing'? And do these associations depend on whether adolescents believe that, with effort, the worst impacts of climate change can still be prevented? METHODS: We addressed these questions in three studies (two preregistered; combined N = 2,211), conducted across two countries. We used cross-sectional and longitudinal methods, and various measures of climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. We performed Bayesian regression analyses comparing two models that tested competing hypotheses. The first model included a linear effect of climate anxiety on pro-environmental behavior, and the second model included both a linear and a curvilinear (i.e. inverted U-shaped) effect of climate anxiety on pro-environmental behavior. Next, we added environmental efficacy to the best fitting model and explored its moderating effects. RESULTS: Adolescents reported low-to-moderate levels of climate anxiety. Across the board, we found evidence for a small, positive, and mostly linear (rather than curvilinear) association between climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. While Study 1 supported a curvilinear association (Bayes Factor (BF) = 18.87), Studies 2 and 3 mostly supported a linear model (BFs range 6.86-12.71), except for weak support (BF = 1.62) for a curvilinear association between climate anxiety symptoms and public sphere pro-environmental behavior. Adolescents' environmental efficacy moderated this link for public sphere (e.g. activism), but not private sphere (e.g. recycling), pro-environmental behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Climate-anxious adolescents are prone to engage in pro-environmental behavior. We found limited evidence for 'eco-paralysis' (i.e. a passive state of pro-environmental behavioral stasis) at high levels of climate anxiety. Our results are consistent with the possibility that supporting adolescents' environmental efficacy will help climate-anxious adolescents engage in public sphere pro-environmental behavior.

Collective nostalgia as a balm for the distressed social identity.

Group history provides the experiential building blocks that shape social identity. When contemporary events are perceived as having created (or creating) a discontinuity with that history, collective nostalgia is likely to be elicited. Importantly, collective nostalgia is functional-it consolidates social identity, motivating group members to support a return to the group's "true" state of existence. However, no group is a monolith. Factions within a group may have differing opinions on what aspects of the past best represent core features of the ingroup. Variations in the content of the collective nostalgia can cleavage members' responses. Herein, we review research demonstrating the powerful role collective nostalgia and its contents play in intra- and intergroup relations, especially in the socio-political domain.

Collective nostalgia: Triggers and consequences for collective action intentions.

Global trends surveys suggest that collective nostalgia for one's country is widespread. Moreover, research indicates that collective nostalgia is used by populist radical-right parties to mobilize their voters against immigration. We focused on antecedents of collective nostalgia and its consequences for collective action in the context of national identity. In particular, we hypothesized that collective nostalgia for the country's past is triggered by a sense of collective discontinuity and subsequently engenders collective action intentions to protect the national ingroup and limit the presence of immigrant outgroups. We tested this hypothesis in a three-wave longitudinal cross-lagged panel study (N = 1489) among native Dutch majority members. The results were consistent with the hypothesis. The findings highlight the relevance of collective nostalgia as an emotional response to collective discontinuity that drives collective action intentions aimed at protecting ingroup continuity. We discuss implications of the findings for the literature on collective nostalgia and group dynamics as well as the broader literature on collective action and provide directions for future research.

The Different Faces of Social Tolerance: Conceptualizing and Measuring Respect and Coexistence Tolerance.

In the theoretical literature on tolerance a distinction is proposed between coexistence and respect tolerance. In three studies with four national samples of Dutch majority members, we demonstrate that these two forms of tolerance can be distinguished empirically in relation to different immigrant target groups. The findings of all studies further show that the more principled respect tolerance was negatively associated with prejudice towards immigrants, and positively associated with the acceptance of concrete minority practices, above and beyond prejudice. However, the positive association between respect tolerance and acceptance of practices was weaker for people who were more strongly concerned about the continuity of their national cultural identity. Overall, the more pragmatic coexistence tolerance was found to have no independent association with prejudicial feelings and with the acceptance of minority practices. The findings indicate that stimulating respect tolerance might be particularly helpful for improving intergroup relations in culturally diverse societies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11205-021-02724-5.

Social identity continuity and mental health among Syrian refugees in Turkey.

PURPOSE: Building upon social psychological work on social identity and mental health, this study among Syrian refugees in Turkey examined the importance of multiple group memberships and identity continuity for mental health and well-being. METHOD: A survey study was conducted among the very difficult to reach population of Syrian refugees (N = 361). With path analysis in AMOS the associations were examined between multiple group memberships, social identity continuity and mental health and psychological well-being. RESULTS: Indicate that belonging to multiple groups before migration was related to a higher likelihood of having preserved group memberships after migration (i.e., sense of social identity continuity), which, in turn, predicted greater life satisfaction and lower levels of depression. Multiple group membership, however, was also directly related to higher depression. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are discussed in relation to the importance of multiple group membership and feelings of identity continuity for refugees.

Longing for the country's good old days: National nostalgia, autochthony beliefs, and opposition to Muslim expressive rights.

Four studies tested the prediction that feelings of national nostalgia (i.e. nostalgia on the basis of one's national ingroup membership) result in more opposition towards expressive rights for Muslim immigrants, because they strengthen the belief that a place belongs to its original inhabitants, and that they are therefore more entitled (i.e. autochthony). Study 1 found that national nostalgia can be distinguished from personal nostalgia, and that national (rather than personal) nostalgia was related to more opposition to Muslim rights via stronger endorsement of autochthony. This latter result was replicated in another survey study (Study 2) and in an experiment (Study 3) in which national nostalgia was manipulated. Study 4 provided preliminary evidence that the salience of autochthony increases opposition to Muslim rights.

The multicultural jigsaw puzzle: category indispensability and acceptance of immigrants' cultural rights.

This research introduces and examines the relatively novel concept of category indispensability. It is examined whether the perception of subgroup indispensability for the identity of a superordinate category is associated with majority members' acceptance of minority rights. We investigated the role of perceived national category indispensability of immigrants for native's acceptances of immigrants' expressive cultural rights. The general hypothesis tested is that higher perceived category indispensability of immigrant groups is associated with higher acceptance. Results from four studies provide support for this hypothesis among native Dutch participants living in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the relationship was found to be mediated by a sense of common dual belonging and by deprovincialization beliefs.

How a tolerant past affects the present: historical tolerance and the acceptance of Muslim expressive rights.

Three studies, conducted in The Netherlands, examined the relationship between a tolerant representation of national history and the acceptance of Muslim expressive rights. Following self-categorization theory, it was hypothesized that historical tolerance would be associated with greater acceptance of Muslim expressive rights, especially for natives who strongly identify with their national in-group. Furthermore, it was predicted that the positive effect of representations of historical tolerance on higher identifiers' acceptance could be explained by reduced perceptions of identity incompatibility. The results of Study 1 confirmed the first hypothesis, and the results of Study 2 and Study 3 supported the second hypothesis. These findings underline the importance of historical representations of the nation for understanding current reactions toward immigrants. Importantly, the results show that a tolerant representation of national history can elevate acceptance of immigrants, especially among natives who feel a relatively strong sense of belonging to their nation.

Mobilizing opposition towards Muslim immigrants: national identification and the representation of national history.

This research, conducted in the Netherlands, investigates whether people who do not feel strongly committed to their national in-group (i.e., lower identifiers) can be mobilized against expressive rights of Muslim immigrants when specific historical representations of the nation are made salient. Three experimental studies were conducted to examine whether a national identity presented as rooted in Christianity results in comparable levels of opposition towards Muslim expressive rights for lower and higher identifiers. Results in all three studies show that higher identifiers were more likely to oppose Muslim rights than lower identifiers when a tolerant or neutral historical national identity was salient. Yet, no differences in levels of opposition between lower and higher identifiers were observed in the Christian condition. These findings underline the importance of historical representations of the nation to understand the relationship between national identification and opposition to ethnic out-groups.