1,721,451 research outputs found
The complexity of humanness: Strategies to promote social equality
No full textPeople tend to perceive others as less human than them and this legitimizes the most heinous forms of intergroup discrimination. One way to reduce this social inequality is to encourage people to perceive the various affiliations of others or themselves. We demonstrated that three social cognitive strategies used to reduce reliance on heuristic thinking and prejudice have much broader benefits than previously thought. This was accomplished in multiple lines of research. First, increasing the number of the categories simultaneously attributed to outgroup members (multiple categorization) or oneself (social identity complexity) promote the re-humanization of the outgroup. This effect was consistently showed using different measures, including fix format attributions of uniquely human traits, the ability to express uniquely human emotions, and the spontaneous generation of human characteristics to describe the outgroup. Second, besides increased humanness judgments, these two social cognitive strategies enhanced positive behavioral intensions to financially support outgroup members’ health and autonomy. Third, increasing not just the number but the complexity of the interrelation between others’ categories (counter-stereotypic categorization) lead to re-humanization of them. Fourth, this humanization effect was generalized to unrelated outgroup targets and explained by increased cognitive flexibility. Whereas the re-humanization of a specific outgroup target was explained by individualization of it and reduced threat from it. Overall, evidence suggests educational initiatives that challenging social categorization may reduce one of the current world-wide most urgent issue that is social inequality
Il ruolo delle categorie sociali multiple nel favorire l'inclusione nel gruppo umano
No full textNelle società moderne fondate sul diritto e la giustizia ugauli per ogni essere umano assistiamo quotidianamente a episodi di discriminazione sociale grave. La letteratura sulla deumanizzazione ha illustrato i fattyori psico-socaili che spiegano questa tendenza, invece, non esistono studi sui processi che possono favorire l'inclusione nell'ingroup umano. Nle presente studio abiamo ipotizzato che se l'aumento del numero di categorie sociali attribuite ai membri di un outgroup attenua differenziazioni e pregiudizi ingtergruppi attraverso la decategorizzazione, questo procersso socio-cognitivo, diminuendo la salienza dell'outgroup, possa aumentare l'appartenenza al gruppo umano. 216 studenti universitari italiani hanno compilato un questionario cartaceo confrontando i gruppi sociali reali di italiani (ingroup) e immigrati (outgroup) nelle condizioni di categorizzazione semplice, multipla condivisa, multipla mista e multipla non condivisa dai partecipanti. Le misure rilevate comprendenvano il pregiudizio socialer, la decategorizzazione e l'inclusione nel gruppo umano a livello simbolico e comportamentale. Queste ultime misure sono state implementate per catturare l'attribuzione di umanità agli altri e il riconoscimento del valore della vita umana degli altri. I risultati hanno confermato la diminuzione del pregiudizio e l'aumento dell'inclusione nel gruppo umano degli immigrati nelle condizioni di categorizzazione multipla vs semplice. questa evidenza è stata riscontrata sia a livello simbolico che comportamentale, infatti i partecipanti sceglievano di privarsi di un maggior numero di risorse a favore della salvezza di un più alto numero di vite di immigrati nelle condizioni di categorizzazione multipla vs. semplice. Infine, la condivisione totale, parziale o assente delle categorie sociali multiple attribuite agli immigrati non ha inciso sugli effetti pro-sociali evidenziati e il processo di decategorizzazione rilevato in tutte le condizioni di categorizzazione sociale multipla, può essere considerato un buffer contro la deumanizzazion
Le relazioni familiari nell'adolescenza dei figli. Processi d'influenza intergenerazionali e di gruppo [Parents and adolescents: intergenerational and group processes of influence]
No full textQuesta rassegna considera le relazioni familiari durante l’adolescenza dei figli secondo la nozione di influenza sociale. Dapprima si considerano gli studi che pongono enfasi sull’influenza unidirezionale sia dei genitori sui figli sia dei figli adolescenti sui genitori. Vengono poi considerati gli studi sull’influenza bidirezionale, mettendo in rilievo i processi sia espliciti che impliciti della trasmissione e rielaborazione della conoscenza da
una generazione all’altra. Infine, si esaminano gli studi sulla famiglia quale piccolo gruppo, in cui il processo di influenza tra le parti è reciproco e costante.This review addresses familiar relations during adolescence on the basis of the concept of social influence. First, we examine studies which emphasize the role of one-way influence both from parents to children and from children to parents. Then we consider studies on two-ways influence considering both explicit and implicit processes of transmission of knowledge between generations. Finally we analyse studies on the family as a social group characterized by a constant and reciprocal influence between generations
Showing mixed emotions can rehumanize aliens ... And real groups
No full textTo deny others’ humanity is one of the most heinous forms of intergroup prejudice. Given evidence that perceiving various forms of complexity in outgroup members reduces intergroup prejudice, we investigated across three experiments whether the novel dimension of emotional complexity, or outgroup members’ joint experience of mixed-valence emotions, would also reduce their dehumanization. Experiment 1 found that perceiving fictitious aliens’ experience of the same primary emotions (e.g., sadness) presented in mixed vs. non-mixed valence pairs led to reduced prejudice via attenuated dehumanization, i.e. attribution of uniquely human emotions. Experiment 2 confirmed these results, using an unfamiliar real-world group as an outgroup target. Experiment 3 used a familiar outgroup and found generally similar effects, reducing social distance through reduced dehumanization. These processes suggest that an alternate route to reduced dehumanizing of outgroups might involve presenting mixed valence emotions
Perceiving mixed valence emotions reduces intergroup dehumanisation
Full text linkTo deny others’ humanity is one of the most heinous forms of intergroup prejudice. Given evidence that perceiving various forms of complexity in outgroup members reduces intergroup prejudice, we investigated across three experiments whether the novel dimension of emotional complexity, or outgroup members’ joint experience of mixed-valence emotions, would also reduce their dehumanisation. Experiment 1 found that perceiving fictitious aliens’ experience of the same primary emotions (e.g. sadness) presented in mixed vs. non-mixed valence pairs led to reduced prejudice via attenuated dehumanisation, i.e. attribution of uniquely human emotions. Experiment 2 confirmed these results, using an unfamiliar real-world group as an outgroup target. Experiment 3 used a familiar outgroup and found generally similar effects, reducing social distance through reduced dehumanisation. These processes suggest that an alternate route to reduced dehumanising of outgroups might involve presenting mixed valence emotions
When and how Social Dominance predicts political engagement? Different motivations within the Italian context
No full textThere is a lot of evidence demonstrating a robust positive relationship between SDO and political conservative (vs. liberal) ideology. However, the question of how SDO affects political engagement has not been thoroughly researched. In the present research, we investigated the motivational processes that may explain the relationship between SDO and political engagement within the Italian context, considering the different socio-political situations of Northern and Southern Italians.
Previous research on the stereotype content model found Northern Italians are perceived as more competent than Southern Italians, and Southern Italians are perceived as more warm than Northern Italians. Thus, we reason that the motivational factors that drive political engagement of Northern Italians should be related to maintaining their high perceived efficacy, whereas those of Southern Italians should be more concerned with interdependence processes such as perceived corruption.
Evidence showed that for Northern Italians, perceived efficacy increased interest in politics which in turn explained the effect of SDO on political engagement. For Southern Italians, perceived corruption reduced interest in politics, which in turn explained the effect of SDO on reduced political engagement. These sequential mediation models were performed controlling for political identification. Implications of the present research will be discussed
Pulsing and excitable solitons in a semiconductor laser with saturable absorber
No full textCavity solitons (CS) are controllable localized light peaks on a low-intensity, homogeneous (or quasi-homogeneous) background and offer a variety of applications from optical memories to all-optical delay lines. A semiconductor laser (VCSEL) with an intracavity saturable absorber realizes a cavity soliton laser, where the CS sit over a zero-intensity background, and may behave as independent microlasers. © 2011 IEEE
The role of social identity complexity in humanization and political engagement
No full textOur societies are becoming increasingly multicultural, with examples of people with high motivation to cooperate among different social groups. However, intergroup prejudice and discrimination are still overt and very widespread. It is also true that people belong to a number of different social categories and groups and the higher overlap ascribed to their different memberships the lower the complexity of their social identity.
In the present study we controlled for social identity complexity, political engagement and orientation to social dominance and we assessed the extent to whether Arabs, considered by many Western countries as a threatening outgroup, is regarded as a part of the human group. Results showed that the higher the complexity of social identity and political engagement, the lower the orientation to social dominance an individual possesses, the more he/she tends to humanize Arab people and supports human policies towards them. Moreover, evidence showed that the more complex subjective representation of the interrelations among different self-definitions an individual has, the higher the motivation to engage in support of human policies in his/her own as well as in other countries. Thus, this evidence suggests that one’s own belongingness to multiple not overlapping social groups can be a potential strategy for improving people involvement not only in their country but in favor of the human community
If You Criticize Us, Do It in Concrete Terms: Linguistic Abstraction as a Moderator of the Intergroup Sensitivity Effect
No full textThis research examined whether linguistic abstraction in group-directed criticisms moderates the intergroup sensitivity effect. Study 1 (N = 76) showed that criticisms coming from an out-group member and formulated in concrete terms—which imply lower generalizability and stability of the information transmitted—provoked less negative reactions compared with out-group criticisms formulated in abstract terms. Linguistic abstraction did not affect reactions to in-group criticism. In Study 2 (N = 77), receivers of concrete criticism from an out-group representative attributed less hostile intentions and prejudice to the critic, and this mediated the impact of critic group membership and linguistic abstraction on negativity toward criticism. Participants also reported more favorable attitudes toward the out-group as a whole when out-group criticism was formulated in concrete terms. This research underlines that linguistic abstraction can facilitate or obstruct effective group communication, and has important implications for the development of communicative strategies aiming to promote social change
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