Based on the Elaborated Social Identity Model of Crowd Behaviour, we tested in two experiments whether a forceful display of police power increases perceptions of illegitimacy of the police and the formation of resistance among protestors. In the high power condition, the police were dressed in riot gear (with helmets, armed with shields and batons). In the low power condition, the police were dressed in regular uniforms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe apply the dynamic dual pathway model of approach coping to understanding the predictors of future collective action among a sample of advantaged group allies and disadvantaged group members who were attending a protest. We propose that problem-focused approach coping (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhite Americans who participate in the Black Lives Matter movement, men who attended the Women's March, and people from the Global North who work to reduce poverty in the Global South-advantaged group members (sometimes referred to as allies) often engage in action for disadvantaged groups. Tensions can arise, however, over the inclusion of advantaged group members in these movements, which we argue can partly be explained by their motivations to participate. We propose that advantaged group members can be motivated to participate in these movements (a) to improve the status of the disadvantaged group, (b) on the condition that the status of their own group is maintained, (c) to meet their own personal needs, and (d) because this behavior aligns with their moral beliefs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
February 2019
Background: Mass gatherings are well-documented for their public health risks; however, little research has examined their impact on mental health or focused on young people specifically. This study explores risk and protective factors for mental health at mass gatherings, with a particular focus on characterising attendees with high levels of psychological distress and risk taking.
Method: Data collection was conducted in situ at "Schoolies", an annual informal week-long mass gathering of approximately 30,000 Australian school leavers.
We investigate the extent to which minority group members are surrounded by outgroup members in their immediate environment as a predictor of social dominance orientation. Using a large representative sample of New Zealanders, we found that minority group members in outgroup dense environments reported lower levels of social dominance orientation (Study 1). In studies 2 and 3, Asian Australian and Black American participants who were surrounded by outgroup members reported lower social dominance orientation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver centuries women have fought hard to obtain increasing gender equality, but despite these successes absolute equality remains an elusive goal. Theoretically, women's numerical strength makes them well-placed to take effective collective action, and millions of women engage in feminist collective action every day. In this article, however, we argue that women also face barriers to engaging in feminist collective action; barriers that are associated with the social construction and experience of what it means to be a woman.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPers Soc Psychol Bull
February 2013
People not only dehumanize others, they also dehumanize the self in response to their own harmful behavior. We examine this self-dehumanization effect across four studies. Studies 1 and 2 show that when participants are perpetrators of social ostracism, they view themselves as less human compared with when they engage in nonaversive interpersonal interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContact researchers have largely overlooked the potential for negative intergroup contact to increase prejudice. In Study 1, we tested the interaction between contact quantity and valence on prejudice toward Black Australians (n = 1,476), Muslim Australians (n = 173), and asylum seekers (n = 293). In all cases, the association between contact quantity and prejudice was moderated by its valence, with negative contact emerging as a stronger and more consistent predictor than positive contact.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPers Soc Psychol Bull
February 2012
Many people like eating meat, but most are reluctant to harm things that have minds. The current three studies show that this dissonance motivates people to deny minds to animals. Study 1 demonstrates that animals considered appropriate for human consumption are ascribed diminished mental capacities.
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