1,720,988 research outputs found
Sounding Strange(r): Origins, Consequences, and Boundary Conditions of Sociophonetic Discrimination
Full text linkTalking is an immediate and rich form of communication. Through vocal signals we provide information about ourselves and our social background. In six empirical articles, one review article, and a commentary, this special issue gathers an integrated collection of research covering the effects of vocal cues associated with minority membership, in particular, in relation to sexual orientation and migration status. People infer speakers’ nativity to the country and their sexual orientation by integrating vocal and visual cues. This diagnostic use of vocal cues can fuel intergroup conflict in two ways: It triggers discriminatory behaviors against those sounding strange(r) and language stigma triggers social anxiety among strange(r) speakers, resulting in selfstereotyping and social exclusion. The socionormative context plays a major role in containing the consequences of this phenomenon. This special issue prompts future development of social interventions to increase familiarity and normativity of acoustic social signals that deviate from the mainstream
Grounding Social Cognition in Space
No full textThe meaningfulness of links between space and social meaning is tackeld from a socio-cogntive perspective. We addressed the role of space in basic social-cognitive processes, such as group
membership definition (differentiation of in-group vs. out-group), stereotyping (the attribution of characteristics on the base of social membership), emergence of prejudice
(whether we prefer or dislike people because of their group membership), and creation of social status. We addressed the role spatial features play in these social phenomena, specifically focusing on three major spatial aspects, namely distance, verticality, and asymmetries in the horizontal axis. Each of these is linked to primarily one social aspect, namely social closeness, hierarchy, and agency, respectively. These links between aspects of the spatial environment and the social environment direct our cognition, behavior, feeling, and relations
Linguistic features influencing information diffusion in social networks: A systematic review
No full textThis review summarizes research empirically addressing the link between linguistic features and spread of information in online social media. N = 85 studies were selected for the review. Features that consistently had a positive effect on diffusion were information value, words pertaining to social connection, as well as engaging, concrete and powerful language style. Instead, effects of sentiment polarity (positive vs. negative), basic emotions, and morality vary in their relation with diffusion. We also noted whether the diffusion has been investigated as influence- or homophily-based, i.e., whether the sharing occurred as the result of the message exposure or simply because of inherent similarity between the users. This difference in sharing was considered in only n = 7 of the selected works, of which only n = 2 identified features that positively affect both processes
Immigrations, styles and topics: A study about Italian politics tweet
Full text linkImmigration has been one of the most relevant topics during the Brexit Referendum, United States presidential election, and Italian and European Parliament elections (e.g., Zappettini, 2019; Faris, Roberts, Etling, Bourassa, Zuckerman, & Benkler, 2017). In particular, during these events, the anti-immigration-politicalgroups gain consensus (Muis and Immerzeel, 2017). In this study, we investigate, with a text-Analysis of 1000 Italian political leaders' tweets, which topics are associated with negative or positive sentiment toward immigrants. The results show that negative messages are associated, in a logistic regression model, with a populistic communication style, and with conspiracy suspicions. Moreover, a network analysis reveals that anti-immigration messages are associated with security and justice topics, whereas pro-immigration messages are associated with the topics of civil rights, culture, and Europe. Stylistics elements of populist and conspiratorial communication and their relation with the diffusion of anti-immigration contents and related consequences on composition and transmission of values, in social media context, are discussed
BERTAgent: The Development of a Novel Tool to Quantify Agency in Textual Data
No full textPertaining to goal orientation and achievement, agency is a fundamental aspect of human cognition and behavior. Accordingly, detecting and quantifying linguistic encoding of agency are critical for the analysis of human actions, interactions, and social dynamics. Available agency-quantifying computational tools rely on word-counting methods, which typically are insensitive to the semantic context in which the words are used and consequently prone to miscoding, for example, in case of polysemy. Additionally, some currently available tools do not take into account differences in the intensity and directionality of agency. In order to overcome these shortcomings, we present BERTAgent, a novel tool to quantify semantic agency in text. BERTAgent is a computational language model that utilizes the transformers architecture, a popular deep learning approach to natural language processing. BERTAgent was fine-tuned using textual data that were evaluated by human coders with respect to the level of conveyed agency. In four validation studies, BERTAgent exhibits improved convergent and discriminant validity compared to previous solutions. Additionally, the detailed description of BERTAgent's development procedure serves as a tutorial for the advancement of similar tools, providing a blueprint for leveraging the existing lexicographical data sets in conjunction with the deep learning techniques in order to detect and quantify other psychological constructs in textual data
The indirect effect of a focus group for psoriatic patients on their caregivers
Full text linkPsoriasis is a chronic skin disease involving not only epidermic damages but also psychological distress for patients and their family caregivers. Little is known about the effects of a psychological support for psoriatic patients on their caregivers' well-being. The goal of the present study was to investigate the indirect effects of the participation in a dynamic focus group reserved for psoriatic patients on their caregivers in terms of quality of life. The study involved 52 psoriatic patients and 41 family caregivers. Patients' wellbeing was assessed using the dermatology quality of life index, hospital anxiety and depression scale. The impact of the disease on caregivers was assessed using the family dermatology life quality index (FDLQI). Data were analyzed with linear mixed models. The caregivers of psoriatic patients involved in the psychodynamic focus group reported levels of FDLQI that decreased over time, therefore showing an improvement in their quality of life in relation to the pathology of their relatives; the caregivers of patients who did not participate in the psychodynamic focus group, instead, had levels of FDLQI that were stable over time. The results provide preliminary evidence that the group setting of the Psychodynamic Focus Group may alleviate the negative impact of psychosomatic disease on the caregivers
Power to the people: A social identity perspective on organizational decentralization and employee well‐being
Full text linkOrganizational identification underpins a range of important outcomes in the workplace, including workers' well-being. Drawing on the social identity approach to health (SIAH), here we explore whether certain organizational forms-specifically, organizational decentralization-can boost organizational identification and, in this way, employee well-being. We test this possibility in four high-powered samples of workers in the UK, US and Italy (N total = 1960). Results confirm that workers are more likely to identify with an organization when they perceive power to be decentralized. Importantly, we find the expected indirect effects between increased decentralization perceptions and ratings of improved well-being (including job satisfaction, work engagement and reduced burnout) through organizational identification. These results were consistent across samples, proving the generality of the findings across different cultural contexts. Empirical and practical implications of shared decision-making power to increase workers' well-being are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement
- …
