Online Signals of Extremist Mobilization.

Psychological theories of mobilization tend to focus on explaining people's motivations for action, rather than mobilization ("activation") processes. To investigate the online behaviors associated with mobilization, we compared the online communications data of 26 people who subsequently mobilized to right-wing extremist action and 48 people who held similar extremist views but did not mobilize (N = 119,473 social media posts). In a three-part analysis, involving content analysis (Part 1), topic modeling (Part 2), and machine learning (Part 3), we showed that communicating ideological or hateful content was not related to mobilization, but rather mobilization was positively related to talking about violent action, operational planning, and logistics. Our findings imply that to explain mobilization to extremist action, rather than the motivations for action, theories of collective action should extend beyond how individuals express grievances and anger, to how they equip themselves with the "know-how" and capability to act.

Examining the Contribution of Physical Cues for Same- and Cross-Race Face Individuation.

Face individuation involves sensitivity to physical characteristics that provide information about identity. We examined whether Black and White American faces differ in terms of individuating information, and whether Black and White perceivers differentially weight information when judging same-race and cross-race faces. Study 1 analyzed 20 structural metrics (e.g., eye width, nose length) of 158 Black and White faces to determine which differentiate faces within each group. High-utility metrics (e.g., nose length, eye height, chin length) differentiated faces of both groups, low-utility metrics (e.g., face width, eye width, face length) offered less individuating information. Study 2 (N = 4,510) explored Black and White participants' sensitivity to variation on structural metrics using similarity ratings. High-utility metrics affected perceived dissimilarity more than low-utility metrics. This relationship was non-significantly stronger for same-race faces rather than cross-race faces. Perceivers also relied more on features that were racially stereotypic of the faces they were rating.

Attitudes toward children: Distinguishing affection and stress.

BACKGROUND: Adults' views and behaviors toward children can vary from being supportive to shockingly abusive, and there are significant unanswered questions about the psychological factors underpinning this variability. OBJECTIVE: The present research examined the content of adults' attitudes toward children to address these questions. METHOD: Ten studies (N = 4702) identified the factor structure of adults' descriptions of babies, toddlers, and school-age children and examined how the resulting factors related to a range of external variables. RESULTS: Two factors emerged-affection toward children and stress elicited by them-and this factor structure was invariant across the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Affection uniquely captures emotional approach tendencies, concern for others, and broad positivity in evaluations, experiences, motivations, and donation behavior. Stress relates to emotional instability, emotional avoidance, and concern about disruptions to a self-oriented, structured life. The factors also predict distinct experiences in a challenging situation-home-parenting during COVID-19 lockdown-with affection explaining greater enjoyment and stress explaining greater perceived difficulty. Affection further predicts mentally visualizing children as pleasant and confident, whereas stress predicts mentally visualizing children as less innocent. CONCLUSIONS: These findings offer fundamental new insights about social cognitive processes in adults that impact adult-child relationships and children's well-being.

Timing is everything: Developmental changes in the associations between intergroup contact and bias.

Identifying developmental patterns in intergroup contact and its relation with bias is crucial for improving prevention strategies around intergroup relations. This study applied time-varying effects modeling (TVEM) to examine age-based changes in relations between contact and bias in a divided community that included 667 youth (M age = 15.74, SD = 1.97) from Belfast, Northern Ireland, a conflict-affected setting. The results suggest no change in the relation between contact frequency and bias; however, the relation between contact quality and bias increases from ages 10-14 and then levels off. Differences between Catholics, the historic minority group, and Protestants, the historic majority group, also emerged. The article concludes with implications for future research and interventions for youth growing up amid conflict.

A Race-Based Size Bias for Black Adolescent Boys: Size, Innocence, and Threat.

We adopted an intersectional stereotyping lens to investigate whether race-based size bias-the tendency to judge Black men as larger than White men-extends to adolescents. Participants judged Black boys as taller than White boys, despite no real size differences (Studies 1A and 1B), and even when boys were matched in age (Study 1B). The size bias persisted when participants viewed computer-generated faces that varied only in apparent race (Study 2A) and extended to perceptions of physical strength, with Black boys judged as stronger than White boys (Study 2B). The size bias was associated with threat-related perceptions, including beliefs that Black boys were less innocent than White boys (Study 3). Finally, the size bias was moderated by a valid threat signal (i.e., anger expressions, Studies 4A and 4B). Thus, adult-like threat stereotypes are perpetrated upon Black boys, leading them to be erroneously perceived as more physically formidable than White boys.

The role of honour in interpersonal, intrapersonal and intergroup processes.

In this article, we review research in psychology and other related social science fields that has adopted an honor framework to examine intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup processes taking a culture-comparative or individual differences approach. In the sections below, we will first review research on the role of honor in interpersonal processes focusing primarily on interpersonal aggression including in close relationships, non-aggressive ways of responding to threats (e.g., forgiveness), and reciprocity. Next, we move onto reviewing research on the role of honor in intrapersonal processes, specifically in the domains of emotional responses to honor-threatening situations, mental, and physical health. Finally, we review research emerging from social and political psychology and political science that have utilized the honor framework to understand and explain group processes and intergroup relations at different level of analyses (e.g., social groups, nations). Given the limited space, our goal was to emphasize major and emerging areas of research on honor and provide food for thought for future research.

Biological Essentialism Correlates With (But Doesn't Cause?) Intergroup Bias.

People with biological essentialist beliefs about social groups also tend to endorse biased beliefs about individuals in those groups, including intensified emphasis on the group, stereotypes, and prejudices. These correlations could be due to biological essentialism causing bias, and some experimental studies support this causal direction. Given this prior work, we expected to find that biological essentialism would lead to increased bias compared with a control condition and set out to extend this prior work in a new direction (regarding "value-based" essentialism). But although the manipulation affected essentialist beliefs and essentialist beliefs were correlated with group emphasis (Study 1), stereotyping (Studies 2, 3a, 3b, and 3c), prejudice (Studies 3a), there was no evidence that biological essentialism caused these outcomes (NTotal = 1,903). Given these findings, our initial research question became moot. We thus focus on reexamining the relationship between essentialism and bias.

Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them: The Ambivalent Effects of Existential Outgroup Threat on Helping Behavior.

Social comparison theories suggest that ingroups are strengthened whenever important outgroups are weakened (e.g., by losing status or power). It follows that ingroups have little reason to help outgroups facing an existential threat. We challenge this notion by showing that ingroups can also be weakened when relevant comparison outgroups are weakened, which can motivate ingroups to strategically offer help to ensure the outgroups' survival as a highly relevant comparison target. In three preregistered studies, we showed that an existential threat to an outgroup with high (vs. low) identity relevance affected strategic outgroup helping via two opposing mechanisms. The potential demise of a highly relevant outgroup increased participants' perceptions of ingroup identity threat, which was positively related to helping. At the same time, the outgroup's misery evoked schadenfreude, which was negatively related to helping. Our research exemplifies a group's secret desire for strong outgroups by underlining their importance for identity formation.

"They're Everywhere!": Symbolically Threatening Groups Seem More Pervasive Than Nonthreatening Groups.

The meaning of places is socially constructed, often informed by the groups that seem pervasive there. For instance, the University of Pennsylvania is sometimes pejoratively called "Jew-niversity of Pennsylvania," and the city of Decatur, Georgia, is disparagingly nicknamed "Dyke-atur," connoting the respective pervasiveness of Jewish students and gay residents. Because these pervasiveness perceptions meaningfully impact how people navigate the social world, it is critical to understand the factors that influence their formation. Across surveys, experiments, and archival data, six studies (N = 3,039 American adults) revealed the role of symbolic threat (i.e., perceived differences in values and worldviews). Specifically, holding constant important features of the group and context, we demonstrated that groups higher in symbolic threat are perceived as more populous in a place and more associated with that place than groups lower in symbolic threat. Ultimately, this work reveals that symbolic threat can both distort how people understand their surroundings and shape the meaning of places.

Personal willingness to receive a Covid-19 vaccine and its relationship with intergroup psychology: Evidence from the Philippines and Pakistan.

High levels of vaccine hesitancy are an obstacle to the successful management of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research, we identify psychological correlates of reluctance to personally receive a Covid-19 vaccine, with a focus on intergroup relations. Insights are based on two survey studies conducted in traditionally underresearched settings, the Philippines (N = 289) and Pakistan (N = 275). Results show that trust in vaccines, concerning both the vaccine's efficacy and the vaccine's safety, was associated with willingness to use the vaccine. Perceptions of trust were related to intergroup psychology, such that vaccine donations from political opponents rather than allies were trusted less. This meant that in the Philippines, there was a preference to use vaccines from the United States over those from China, although the pattern was less clear in Pakistan. Having said this, the highest levels of trust and willingness to use vaccines in both countries were for vaccines offered by the World Health Organization (WHO). Last but not least, a perception of global common fate of all humans in the face of the pandemic was positively associated with willingness to get vaccinated, even when controlling for concerns about the vaccine's efficacy and safety. Implications are discussed in relation to intergroup psychology and public health management.

What's in a Name? The Hidden Historical Ideologies Embedded in the Black and African American Racial Labels.

History can inconspicuously repeat itself through words and language. We explored the association between the "Black" and "African American" racial labels and the ideologies of the historical movements within which they gained prominence (Civil Rights and Black Power, respectively). Two content analyses and two preregistered experimental studies (N = 1,204 White American adults) show that the associations between "Black" and "bias and discrimination" and between "African American" and "civil rights and equality" are evident in images, op-eds, and perceptions of organizations. Google Images search results for "Black people" evoke more racially victimized imagery than search results for "African American people" (Study 1), and op-eds that use the Black label contain more bias and discrimination content than those that use the African American label (Study 2). Finally, White Americans infer the ideologies of organizations by the racial label within the organization's name (Studies 3 and 4). Consequently, these inferences guide the degree to which Whites support the organization financially.

Enjoying Each Other's Company: Gaining Other-Gender Friendships Promotes Positive Gender Attitudes Among Ethnically Diverse Children.

Gender segregation is ubiquitous and may lead to increased bias against other-gender peers. In this study, we examined whether individual differences in friendships with other-gender children reduce gender bias, and whether these patterns vary by gender or ethnicity. Using a 1-year longitudinal design (N = 408 second graders [Mage = 7.56 years] and fourth graders [Mage = 9.48 years]), we found that, across groups, gaining more other-gender friendships over the year led to (a) increased positive cognitive-based attitudes toward the other gender and (b) increased positive and decreased negative affect when with the other gender. We also tested the reverse pattern and found support for a bidirectional link. Girls and Latinx children often showed more gender bias than did boys and European American children. Implications for promoting positive relationships between girls and boys are discussed.

Person-Message Fit: Racial Identification Moderates the Benefits of Multicultural and Colorblind Diversity Approaches.

Although diversity approaches attempt to foster inclusion, one size may not fit all. In five studies, African Americans (N = 1,316), who varied in strength of racial identification, contemplated interviewing at a company with a multicultural or colorblind approach. Participants in the multicultural condition anticipated pressure to be prototypical group members relative to colorblind and control conditions. Only weakly identified participants reacted to this pressure, experiencing more anxiety and inauthenticity in the multicultural relative to colorblind (not control) company. Strongly identified participants experienced less anxiety and inauthenticity in the multicultural relative to colorblind and control companies. Inauthenticity among weakly identified participants was apparent in self-descriptions and linked with worse hiring outcomes in multicultural relative to colorblind and control contexts. Despite predictions, there were no self-stereotyping effects. Diversity approaches that make some group members more comfortable may prove simultaneously constraining for others, highlighting the complexity in how diversity approaches affect individuals.

What to Do? Predicting Coping Strategies Following Ingroup Members' Stereotypical Behaviors in Interracial Interactions.

The current studies examine how witnessing stereotype-confirming ingroup behavior affects black Americans' interactions with white Americans. Across three studies, black Americans indicated metaperceptual, emotional, and behavioral responses to witnessing a black person's stereotypically negative, stereotypically positive, or nonstereotypically neutral behavior during an interracial (vs. intraracial) interaction. Following an ingroup member's stereotypically negative (vs. stereotypically positive in Study 1, or nonstereotypically neutral in Studies 2-3) behavior during an interracial interaction, black Americans expressed greater metastereotypes, which increased intergroup anxiety, ultimately eliciting nuanced coping strategies: engagement/overcompensation, antagonism, freezing, or avoidance. Psychological resources attenuated anxiety's effect on engagement/overcompensation (Studies 2-3) and freezing (Study 3). Both patterns were stronger in interracial (vs. intraracial) interactions (Study 3). This research demonstrates the central role of metaperceptions in interracial interactions, highlighting how stereotypically negative behaviors of nearby ingroup members are impactful situational stressors that affect behavioral intentions in intergroup encounters.

A gentle reminder that mean does not imply modal behavior: Few are in-group biased in minimal groups.

Previous research reports that people organized into newly formed, arbitrary groups (i.e., minimal groups) are on average in-group biased. However, that people on average behave in a certain way does not imply that most people behave that way. Here, I report four studies (n = 224) demonstrating in-group biased average behaviors driven by a minority of about 30% participants. Further, only 14% reported allocating resources in a group-biased manner because they "favored the in-group." I investigate and discuss how methodological issues related to non-normally distributed data, not taking participants' intentions into account, and using fixed response matrices can lead to overestimations of how widespread in-group bias is in minimal groups.

Psychological Antecedents of Refugee Integration (PARI).

The successful management of refugee immigration, including refugee integration in host societies, requires a sound understanding of underlying psychological processes. We propose the psychological antecedents of refugee integration (PARI) model, highlighting perceived forcedness (i.e., coercion and loss of control from "push" factors) and ensuing perils (risks and potential suffering during migration) as distinctive factors of refugee (vs. voluntary) migration. According to our model, perceptions and subjective representations of forcedness and associated perils activate specific psychological processes relevant to refugee integration and thus moderate responses to the demands and stressors of the immigration situation. We conceptualize these distinctive influences for integration-relevant processes in both refugees and in residents. By pinpointing the unique features of refugee migration, PARI generates novel and specific hypotheses about psychological processes predicting refugee integration. For instance, refugees' memories of forcedness and associated perils should lead to a high level of preoccupation with the restoration of basic needs after arrival in a receiving country that interferes with integration-related activities. Conversely, residents' perceptions of forcedness and related perils may enhance empathy with refugees but may also magnify feelings of anxiety and threat. Implications for refugee integration are discussed for the domains of occupational work, education, and mental health.

The neural mechanisms of threat and reconciliation efforts between Muslims and non-Muslims.

To reduce the escalation of intergroup conflict, it is important that we understand the processes related to the detection of group-based threat and reconciliation. In the present study, we investigated the neural mechanisms of such processes using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Functional neuroimaging techniques may shed light on quick, automatic responses to stimuli that happen outside of conscious awareness and are thus increasingly difficult to quantify relying only on participants' self-reported experiences. They may further provide invaluable insight into physiological processes occurring in situations of sensitive nature, whereby participants-deliberately or not-may withhold their honest responses due to social desirability. Non-Muslim Western Caucasian participants watched short video clips of stereotypical Middle-Eastern Muslim males threatening their ingroup, offering reconciliation to the ingroup, or making a neutral statement. Threatening statements led to increased activation in the amygdala, insula, supramarginal gyrus, and temporal lobe. Reconciliation efforts led to increased activation in the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, and caudate. The results suggest that threat detection is a relatively automatic process while evaluating and responding to reconciliation offers requires more cognitive efforts. The implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

I Know (What) You Are, But What Am I? The Effect of Recategorization Threat and Perceived Immutability on Prejudice.

Learning one is similar to a stigmatized group can threaten one's identity and prompt disassociation from the group. What are the consequences of learning of a similarity to a stigmatized group when that similarity implies possible recategorization into the group? We investigated how learning of an immutable, recategorization implying similarity with an outgroup affects implicitly and explicitly assessed prejudice. In Study 1, White participants who believed they had above average genetic overlap with African Americans showed decreased prejudice on implicit but not explicit measures. In Study 2, straight/heterosexual participants who were led to believe they exhibited some same-sex attraction showed reduced implicitly assessed prejudice, but only if they believed sexual orientation was biologically determined. Thus, learning of an identity-implying similarity with an outgroup can reduce implicit prejudice if that group membership is believed to be immutable. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Short and Longer Term Impacts of Hate Crimes Experienced Directly, Indirectly, and Through the Media.

A longitudinal study ( N = 774) explored the short and longer term impacts of anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) hate crime experienced directly, indirectly, and through the media. In the short term, being a victim (direct) or personally knowing of a hate crime victim (indirect) was positively associated with vulnerability, emotional responses, and behavioral intentions after reading about a hate crime. Direct victims were also less empathic toward other victims and engaged in more victim-blaming. A structural equation model showed direct experiences (via personal vulnerability and empathy) and media experiences (via group-threat and victim-blaming) to be cross-sectionally associated with behavioral intentions. Media experiences also had lasting demobilizing impacts on actual behaviors, again serially mediated by group-threat and victim-blaming. The findings highlight the emotional and behavioral impacts of hate crimes on both direct victims and on the wider LGBT community. They also raise questions about media reporting of hate crimes and the role of victim-blaming.

Whose Side Are You On? Asian Americans' Mistrust of Asian-White Biracials Predicts More Exclusion From the Ingroup.

We investigated Asian Americans' perceptions of Asian-White biracials. Because the Asian/White boundary may be more permeable than other minority/White boundaries, we reasoned that Asian Americans are more likely than Black Americans to be skeptical of biracials, perceiving that biracials would prefer to identify as White and would be disloyal to Asians, consequently categorizing them as more outgroup. We further reasoned that Asian Americans' concerns about and exclusion of biracials would be predicted by greater perceived discrimination against Asian Americans, which increases the incentive for biracials to pass into the higher status racial group. Studies 1 and 2 provided correlational support for these theorized relationships among Asian Americans. Study 2 showed that perceived discrimination did not increase Black Americans' concerns about biracials' identity preferences and loyalty. Studies 3 and 4 provided causal evidence for the roles of perceived discrimination and biracial identity preferences, respectively, in Asian Americans' exclusion of biracials.