1,720,993 research outputs found
Alternative systems: the interplay between criminal groups’ influence and political trust on civic honesty in the global context
No full textIndividuals’ endorsement of standards of civic honesty is necessary for democracies to flourish. A critical driver of civic honesty is the relationship of trust between individuals and institutions. Research has yet to systematically assess the contextual factors that may moderate this relationship. In this study, we examined the societal influence of organized criminal groups. Criminal groups operate as alternative systems of authority that erode the reliability of institutions’ moral standards. We employed a new indicator that quantifies their societal influence to test the hypothesis that the association between individuals’ political trust and civic honesty would weaken in countries more strongly affected by criminal groups. Multilevel evidence across 83 representative national samples (N = 128,839) supported this hypothesis. Moreover, the association between political trust and civic honesty was negative in contexts where criminal groups’ influence was more extreme. We discuss the implications of the findings and future research directions
Parents' math-gender stereotypes, children's self-perception of ability, and children's appraisal of parents' evaluations in 6-year-olds
No full textThis study investigated for the first time the relations between parents' math-gender stereotypes, parents' evaluations of children's math ability, children's math ability self-perception, and children's appraisal of parents' evaluations, addressing 253 Italian children as young as 6 years of age, their mothers, fathers, and teachers. Novel results revealed the specific role of mothers' math-gender stereotypes in relation to daughters, but not sons: Mothers' math-gender stereotypes predicted girls' math self-perception which, in turn, predicted girls' appraisal of both mothers' and fathers' evaluations of their ability. Importantly, children's appraisal of parents' evaluations was related more strongly with their own self-perception of ability than to parents' actual evaluations, thus supporting the projected appraisal versus the reflected appraisal model of the development of self-perception
How is weight stigma related to children's health-related quality of life? A model comparison approach
No full textPurpose. Obesity is a highly stigmatizing condition for both adults and children, and
both obesity and stigma experiences are negatively related with Health-Related Quality
of Life (HRQoL). However, the relations among these constructs have been modeled in
different and sometimes inconsistent terms in past research, and have been the object
of surprisingly few studies in pediatric populations. The present study addresses this
gap by comparing, in a sample of pre-adolescent children, four competing models (i.e.,
additive, mediation, moderation, and moderated-mediation models) accounting for the
role of stigma experiences in the concurrent relation between body weight and HRQoL.
Methods: A community sample of 600 children aged 8-to-11 years completed the
Perception of Teasing Scale to assess weight-based teasing experiences, and the
PedsQL 4.0 to assess HRQoL. Parent-reported height and weight were used to
calculate age- and gender-adjusted zBMI. Log-likelihood Test, BIC Difference, and
Wald Test were used for model comparisons. Results: The mediation model
outperformed both additive and moderation models, and was found to be equally
informative (but more parsimonious) as compared to the moderated-mediation
account. The same pattern of results was replicated for both global HRQoL and
domain-specific quality of life domains (i.e., physical, emotional, social, and scholastic).
Conclusions: The mediation model provided the best fitting and more parsimonious
representation of the relations between body weight, stigma experiences, and HRQoL,
meaning that an increased likelihood of experiencing weight-based teasing episodes,
rather than excess weight per se, is associated with reduced quality of life in middle
childhood
Societal Threat to Safety, Compensatory Control, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism
No full textWe analyzed directly and indirectly the relationships between societal threat to safety, perceived control, and the increase in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in two studies. In Study 1 (national sample of the Italian population, N=1,169), we performed a longitudinal analysis structured into three waves (January 2003, September 2004, and January 2005). A moderated regression analysis showed that RWA increased from 2003 to 2005 as a function of perceived societal threat to safety more among low- than among high RWA scorers. In experimental Study 2 (Italian university students, N=131) a moderated mediation model showed loss of perceived control to mediate the relation between societal threat to safety and the increase in RWA, but among low authoritarians only. Limitations, implications, and possible developments of this research are discussed
The geopolitics of civic honesty: the role of interpersonal and political trust amid varying degrees of mafia influence and state resilience
No full textCivic honesty—the moral standards that define citizens’commitment to the public good—serves a fundamental role in societal functioning. Prior research has emphasized the role of vertical trust (trust in institutions) and horizontal trust (trust in fellow citizens) in predicting the endorsement of such standards among citizens. However, this research has mainly focused on the political conditions typical of the Global North while neglecting environments where criminal organizations, such as mafias, challenge state sovereignty and its monopoly over governance functions. Using a mixed-effects multilevel model and an extended Johnson–Neyman method for multiple moderators, we analyzed the role of two crucial contextual factors (i.e., criminal groups’ influence and state resilience) on the relationships between trust and civic honesty across 84 countries (N = 132,602). Results revealed that vertical trust is positively associated with civic honesty in contexts where the influence of criminal groups is lower and state resilience is higher. However, this relationship reverses when the influence of criminal groups is stronger and state resilience is weaker, suggesting that, in these circumstances, trust in institutions may reflect trust in (and adherence to) a system that is corrupt. In contrast, horizontal trust was negatively associated with civic honesty only in states characterized by lower resilience. Policy implications and future research directions are discussed
When do two wrongs make a right? Schadenfreude and the legitimization of illegal attacks against corrupt national institutions
No full textThis research investigated the role of schadenfreude – feelings of joy at a target’s misfortunes – in people’s legitimization of illegal attacks against corrupt institutions with formal authority. Five experiments (Experiment 1 conducted in 2018, the others in 2024-25; Experiments 2-5 pre-registered) in the UK and Italy (N-total = 1,676) employed realistic scenarios involving cyberattacks and violent intimidation from criminal groups. Across studies, exposure to institutional corruption increased support for illegal retaliation, and schadenfreude consistently mediated this effect. In Experiments 2 and 5, heightened anger and disgust at the institution’s corrupt behavior, and in Experiment 3, reduced anger and disgust toward the illegal attacks themselves did not disrupt the link between schadenfreude and legitimization. Experiments 4 and 5 employed experimental approaches to mediation. Experiment 4 employed a manipulation-of-mediation-as-a-moderator design by altering the attackers’ group affiliation. Results provided experimental support for the hypothesized mediational role of schadenfreude, indicating that attacks perpetrated by a disliked outgroup are less likely to evoke schadenfreude and, in turn, legitimacy. Experiment 5 adopted a causal chain approach and manipulated the satisfaction elicited by the attacks. More satisfying attacks (vs. baseline) elicited stronger legitimization, even when controlling for general appraisals of deservingness. Collectively, the findings highlight the importance of positive moral affect elicited by the misfortunes befalling a target as a psychological mechanism underpinning support for illegal system-disrupting actions
On the relations between parents’ and children’s implicit and explicit academic gender stereotypes.
Full text linkAlthough parents may represent influential sources of children’s gender stereotypes, to date no study has directly investigated the relations between parents’ and children’s gender stereotypes regarding academic abilities. Aiming at filling this gap, in the present study parents’ and their young children’s gender stereotypes about math and language were assessed using both explicit and implicit measures for each member of the family. Sixty-eight Italian 6-year-olds, their mothers, and their fathers (a) performed an Implicit Association Test designed to assess implicit gender stereotypes about math and language, and (b) completed a measure of the relevant explicit stereotypes. Fathers’, but not mothers’, implicit stereotypes predicted children’s implicit and explicit stereotypes. Conversely, no predictive role emerged for parents’ explicit gender stereotypes about math and language. Results are discussed also in relation to the role of fathers as targets of interventions to prevent academic gender stereotypes within the family
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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