1,720,990 research outputs found
Motivated prejudice: The effect of need for closure on anti-immigrant attitudes in the United States and Italy and the mediating role of binding moral foundations
No full textWhy do people have anti-immigrant attitudes? We proposed that individuals’ need for cognitive closure—an epistemic motivation associated with an aversion to change in established environments—is predictive of a dislike of immigrants through increased binding to powerful groups. In four studies, collected in both Italy (Study 1) and the United States (Studies 2–4), we found that there were effects of need for cognitive closure on anti-immigrant attitudes, as well as indirect effects through binding. These results were significant controlling for participants’ political orientation (Studies 2–4), when either dispositional measure (Studies 1–3) or an experimental induction (Study 4) of need for cognitive closure was used, and when both general attitudes toward immigrants (Studies 1, 2, 4) and attitudes toward immigrants’ economic impact (Studies 3 and 4) were assessed
Self-report empathy scales lack consistency: Evidence from exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis
No full textEmpathy is a construct with a long history of definitional variability, which is reflected in the variety of scales designed to measure it. A recent investigation involved a series of analyses to explore constructs assessed in the self-report of empathy and to illuminate the inconsistency in measurement across multiple scales. The current investigation was designed to extend this line of inquiry by focusing solely on cognitive and affective subscales of empathy. A sample of 855 undergraduates completed empathy questionnaires that contained both an affective and a cognitive subscale. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed poor fit for affective and cognitive empathy factors while an exploratory factor analysis revealed several factors that are not essential for empathy. To navigate current barriers for building a cohesive body of literature, future empathy researchers are encouraged to clearly define their conceptualization of empathy and carefully select a measure to best reflect their definition
Moving Toward Helping Behavior: The Roles of Sympathy, Helping Goal Attainability, and Locomotion Orientation
No full textWhy do some people help others in need, and some do not? One potential answer is sympathy, which reflects an other-focused desire to help others in need. Consequentially, we posit that sympathy toward a specific target joined with the attainability of successful helping forms a helping goal. In three experiments we found that helping behavior was highest when a helping goal was present, although there was a level of superficial helping when sympathy was high but attainability low. Moreover, locomotion mode, or the tendency to move forward, was associated with a higher importance placed on attainability
The Epistemic Bases of Prejudice
Full text linkIn the current research, we investigated the role of need for closure (NFC), or the general desire for epistemic certainty, on the experience of sympathy, or the desire to protect individuals in need—the lack of which constitutes a form of affective prejudice—towards Muslim immigrants in Italy. As a disadvantaged outgroup, these immigrants are especially in need of sympathy from natives and, given the tensions of the immigration debate, are at-risk for low sympathy. Conceptually, high NFC individuals can strongly adopt traditional cultural norms as a way to acquire their desired stable knowledge; this can make sympathy towards immigrants less likely. Consistent with past research on NFC and the binding moral foundations (i.e., the preference for traditional cultural norms) on prejudice towards outgroups, we proposed that individuals with a high NFC, and who endorsed the binding moral foundations, would be particularly likely to have decreased sympathy towards Muslim immigrants in Italy. In a sample of 186 Italian university students (43.9% female), we found that high NFC individuals had decreased sympathy towards these immigrants through the binding foundations, controlling for cultural identification and individuals’ proclivity to take others’ perspectives
Omerta in intragroup cheating: The role of ingroup identity in dishonesty and whistleblowing
No full textWhy are people willing to denounce or, contrarily, to keep silent on others' misconduct? We hypothesized that people would be more likely to cheat, and consequently less likely to blow the whistle, when among an ingroup (vs. outgroup). In two experiments, participants witnessed a same nationality or a different nationality group member cheating during a group task. Participants either had the opportunity to cheat themselves before witnessing this cheating act (Experiments 1 and 2) or did not have this opportunity (Experiment 2). In the ingroup condition, participants cheated more and denounced others' cheating less than in the outgroup condition (Experiments 1 and 2). However, when participants were not allowed to cheat themselves, they equally denounced ingroup and outgroup cheaters (Experiment 2). This provides evidence that cheating mediates the group effect on whistleblowing and is reminiscent of omerta, that is, the code of silence among criminals. We provide suggestions for future research
Perceived COVID-19 threat and reactions to noncompliant health-protective behaviors: the mediating role of desired cultural tightness and the moderating role of age
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis that requires individuals to comply with many health-protective behaviors. Following the previous literature, cultural tightness has been found to be a key mechanism to increase coordination in order to mitigate collective threats (e.g., COVID-19). In this study, we test a moderated mediation model to examine whether the perceived COVID-19 threat could intensify the extent of desired tightness (i.e., a personal desire for cultural tightness), moderated by age. Subsequently, we test whether this could intensify individuals’ emotional reactions to non-compliance with COVID-19 health protective behaviors. The study relies on a cross-sectional design, with a sample of 624 participants residing in central Italy (i.e., Lazio). The data were collected from February to October 2021. Questionnaires contained self-reporting measures of the perceived COVID-19 threat, desired tightness, and personal emotional reactions to non-compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures (e.g., wearing a mask). The results confirm that the perceived COVID-19 threat is associated with an increase in the desire for cultural tightness and that this relationship was moderated by age and, consequently, with intolerance for noncompliance with preventive behaviors. Additionally, both direct and indirect effects of the perceived COVID-19 threat on negative emotional reactions to noncompliance were significant; this indirect effect was larger at high (+1 SD) age than at low (−1 SD) age. Overall, this research provides some insight into how people can respond to the current pandemic threat, and how this may have implications for violating rules and regulations to keep contagion under control
The epistemic bases of prejudice: The role of need for cognitive closure
No full textSocial psychologists have long studied the factors that underlie prejudice, including rigid ways of viewing the world and a fear of outside influence. More recent research has focused on the need for cognitive closure, or the desire for epistemic certainty, and how this can lead to prejudice. Individuals who desire secure knowledge can turn to stereotypes that provide it; individuals under a need for cognitive closure can be more likely to accept these stereotypes and the resulting prejudicial attitudes. However, the need for cognitive closure can, paradoxically, be used to reduce prejudice, by substituting a prejudiced source of knowledge with a positive source. In the following review, we will trace the development of these ideas, build connections between literatures, and propose a new future direction
Addressing the effect of concern with Covid-19 threat on prejudice towards immigrants: The sequential mediating role of need for cognitive closure and desire for cultural tightness.
Full text linkThe link between threat and anti-immigrant prejudice is well-established. Relatedly, recent research has also shown that situational threats (such as concern with COVID-19 threat) increase anti-immigrant prejudice through the mediating role of desire for cultural tightness. This study aims to further our understanding of the psychological processes underlying the relation between concern with COVID-19 threat and increased negative attitudes towards immigrants by considering the mediational role of an individual epistemic motivation (i.e., the need for cognitive closure). A study was conducted on a large sample of Italian respondents covering all the Italian regions. Findings revealed that high concern with COVID-19 threat led to increased negative attitudes towards immigrants through the sequential mediating role of higher need for cognitive closure, leading in turn to higher desire for cultural tightness. Implications of these findings for a timely contextualized study of anti-immigrant prejudice will be highlighted
Direct and imagined contact moderates the effect of need for cognitive closure on attitudes towards women managers
Full text linkThis research investigated the relationship between individual preference for the need for cognitive closure (NCC) and attitudes towards women as managers and the moderating role of direct or imagined contact with women leaders. In two studies (total N = 369) collected in different countries and with different methods (Study 1: Italy, correlational; Study 2: U.S., experimental), it was found that the positive relationship between NCC and negative attitudes towards women as managers was moderated by the quality, but not the quantity of current or past direct contact experiences with women managers. In Study 1, employees with higher scores on NCC had more positive attitudes towards women managers when they had more positive work experience with women managers. In Study 2, those with higher NCC scores had less negative attitudes towards women as managers when they merely imagined (positive) contact with them (vs. a control group). These results advance the literature on the interaction between NCC and positive intergroup contact; theoretical and practical implications of NCC and positive intergroup contact are presented
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