A contest study to reduce attractiveness-based discrimination in social judgment.

Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate reliable best practices that can be effective across contexts.

Mobilizing or Sedative Effects? A Narrative Review of the Association Between Intergroup Contact and Collective Action Among Advantaged and Disadvantaged Groups.

Academic Abstract: In this narrative review, we examined 134 studies of the relationship between intergroup contact and collective action benefiting disadvantaged groups. We aimed to identify whether, when, and why contact has mobilizing effects (promoting collective action) or sedative effects (inhibiting collective action). For both moderators and mediators, factors associated with the intergroup situation (compared with those associated with the out-group or the in-group) emerged as the most important.

Body Shame in 7-12-Year-Old Girls and Boys: The Role of Parental Attention to Children's Appearance.

Guided by the Tripartite Influence Model and Objectification Theory, we examined whether parents' attention to their children's appearance was related to higher body shame in girls and boys. In Study 1 ( = 195) and 2 ( = 163), we investigated 7-12-year-old children's metaperceptions about parents' attention to their appearance and its association with children's body shame. In Study 3, we examined the link between parents' self-reported attention to their children's appearance and children's body shame among parent-child triads ( = 70).

Proxemic Behaviors During Gay/Straight Interactions: An Automated Analysis Through Kinect Depth-Sensing Camera.

Through two experimental studies ( = 150), we investigated proxemic behaviors featuring gay/straight dyadic interactions. In doing so, for the first time, we relied on an IR depth camera and considered the interpersonal volume between the interactants, a novel feature that exhaustively captures interactants' proxemic behaviors. Study 1 revealed that the straight participants' implicit sexual bias - but not the explicit prejudice - significantly predicted their volume while interacting with a study accomplice who was presented as gay (vs.

Looking for your cross-group friends after the breakout? Children's intergroup contact behaviours before and after the onset of COVID-19.

While COVID-19 implications for prejudice have been investigated among adults in previous research, children's intergroup reactions to the pandemic and specifically how native children's contact behaviours with refugees might have changed after the pandemic has not been examined yet. Drawing on a unique longitudinal school dataset (N = 861, 5th graders, M reported at T1 = 10.38, SD = 0.

I love you too much to keep social distance: Closeness in relationships and (dis)engagement in preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although we are witnessing a new phase in the management of COVID-19, understanding what predicts adherence to preventive behaviors still remains crucial. In this study we focus on interpersonal relationships by specifically investigating whether engagement in preventive behaviors when in the presence of others may be a function of the type of relationship (in terms of closeness) one has with others. Because close others are often perceived similar to the self compared to strangers, we put forward that close relationships may inadvertently decrease COVID-19 risk perceptions which may ultimately decrease compliance with recommended behaviors when in their presence.

Violent Assault on a Chinese Man: COVID-19 Psychosocial Resource Loss Diminishes Right Wing Authoritarianism Variability in Societal Reactions.

We examined whether prejudice-related personality characteristics (i.e., right wing authoritarianism [RWA]) and COVID-19-driven psychological resource loss might predict perpetrator-directed punitive responding (i.

Empathy for a Black Woman Victim of Police Sexual Violence: The Roles of Crime-Related Stress and Stereotype Attributions.

Police sexual violence has been ranked as the second most common form of misconduct among police officers. Moreover, there is evidence that Black women are at heightened risk of being victims of such police violence. A report titled has brought international attention to the minimal empirical focus on such police violence toward Black women.

Effects of intergroup contact on explicit and implicit outgroup attitudes: A longitudinal field study with majority and minority group members.

A longitudinal field study tested the long-term effects (three years) of intergroup contact on both explicit and implicit outgroup attitudes. Participants were majority (Italian) and minority (immigrant) high-school students, who were tested at four waves from the beginning of their first year in high-school to the end of the third school year. Results revealed, first, a longitudinal association of quantity (but not quality) of contact with lower intergroup anxiety and more positive explicit attitudes, as well as bidirectional effects over time between explicit attitudes and intergroup anxiety, on the one hand, and quantity and quality of contact, on the other.

At the core of cyberaggression: A group-based explanation.

In this study, prototypicality of the aggressor was tested as a group-level factor predicting social media users' active participation in cyberaggression. Participants were exposed to a fictitious conversation, in which either a prototypical versus non-prototypical user posted an aggressive comment as a reply to a provocative comment. In line with self-categorization theory, we hypothesized that bystander participants would post an aggressive comment and rate the aggression as acceptable to a greater extent in the prototypical than in the non-prototypical condition.

Correction: Truth and lies in your eyes: Pupil dilation of White participants in truthful and deceptive responses to White and Black partners.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Reducing prejudice toward Syrian refugee children: A vicarious contact intervention among Turkish elementary school children.

We conducted an experimental intervention to test the effectiveness of vicarious contact in the relationship between Turkish and Syrian elementary school children; the participants were Turkish children. We used a mixed-methods approach, investigating effects by using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Participants in the experimental condition were asked to read stories on positive contact between Turkish and Syrian children over the course of six weekly sessions.

"I forgive myself": The association between self-criticism, self-acceptance, and PTSD in women victims of IPV, and the buffering role of self-efficacy.

The effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) concerning specifically posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology have been widely demonstrated, but the consequences of abuse are not the same for all victims. We know little about the psychological processes that limit these adverse consequences. Therefore, we explored the association between self-criticism felt by abused women and their PTSD, and we investigated self-acceptance as the underlying process explaining this relationship.

Truth and lies in your eyes: Pupil dilation of White participants in truthful and deceptive responses to White and Black partners.

In the present study, we examined the pupillary response of White participants who were asked to tell the truth or lie to White or Black partners. Research on cues to deception has assumed that lying is more cognitively demanding that truth telling. In line with this assumption, previous studies have shown that lying is associated with greater pupil dilation, a behavioral cue that typically manifests itself under conditions of stress or cognitive effort.

Comparing story reading and video watching as two distinct forms of vicarious contact: An experimental intervention among elementary school children.

Research has shown that vicarious contact, that is observing an interaction between ingroup and outgroup members, can improve intergroup relations. Although vicarious contact has been operationalized in different ways, mainly via story reading or video watching, an experimental comparison of these different strategies is still missing. We conducted a school intervention with the aim of comparing the two most used forms of vicarious contact, namely story reading and video watching.

Personality traits and oral device: a new challenge to increase compliance with MAD therapy for OSAS and snoring.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is a respiratory syndrome and oral devices can be used for its treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the opinions of a generic subject about being treated by a dentist for a general health problem and the association between personality traits and the predisposition to use a MAD for the treatment of OSAS and snorting. One hundred and forty-eight participants were enrolled in the study and were asked to fill in the questionnaires.

I (dis)like the way you (dis)like them: The role of extended contact on social distance and attitudes towards the ingroup.

While extended intergroup contact has been commonly studied in the context of prejudice reduction, less is known about its implications for processes related to the ingroup. Through three correlational and one experimental studies (total N = 897) conducted in two different intergroup contexts (Turkey and United Kingdom), we investigated whether extended intergroup contact relates to social distance and attitudes towards ingroup members as a function of outgroup attitudes. We also investigated ingroup identification and perceived ingroup morality as potential mediators in these associations.

Support for rejection and reception policies toward asylum seekers in Italy: The role of conservative ideologies and legitimizing myths.

Based on Social Dominance Theory (SDT), this study investigates the relationships between ideologically conservative attitudes (social dominance orientation, SDO; right-wing authoritarianism, RWA), legitimizing myths (false belief in asylum seekers as bogus; perception of in-group threats), and citizens' support for restricted reception and rejection of asylum policies. A sample of 539 people living in Italy filled in an anonymous questionnaire administered using a cross-sectional design. The results support the expectations, showing that people high in SDO and RWA were more likely to hold the belief that asylum seekers are making false claims and to perceive that the latter pose a threat to the in-group, which in turn increased support for both of restrictive policies.

Intergroup fears and concerns among minority and majority groups: Implications for contact and attitudes.

Aims: Driven by the literature on pluralistic ignorance, our research investigates fear of appearing racist, being rejected, discriminated, and disinterest in intergroup contact as antecedents of contact and outgroup attitudes, focusing on attributional differences between the majority and minority group perspectives.

Methods: Questionnaires were distributed in schools in Northern Italy. Participants were 400 Italian and 141 immigrant high-school students.

Secondary transfer effect among children: The role of social dominance orientation and outgroup attitudes.

Research has provided evidence that the effects of intergroup contact on prejudice reduction are not limited to the outgroup one has contact with (primary outgroup). Rather, they extend to secondary outgroups uninvolved in the contact situation (secondary transfer effect; Pettigrew, 2009, Social Psychology, 40, 55). We aimed to provide the first empirical evidence for the emergence of the secondary transfer effect among children.

Out-group threats and distress as antecedents of common in-group identity among majority and minority group members in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

The aim of the present study was to examine the role of out-group threats in fostering one-group perceptions directly and indirectly via post-traumatic stress symptoms in the aftermath of a natural disaster. We also tested whether these relationships differ depending on the ethnic group of belonging (majority vs. minority).

Valence matters: Positive meta-stereotypes and interethnic interactions.

Two experimental studies were conducted that aimed at testing whether the activation of positive meta-stereotypes among high-status group members involved in conflictual relationships with the low-status group is beneficial for intergroup relations. Results revealed that the activation of positive meta-stereotypes led Italian high-school students (high-status group) to anticipate greater enjoyment of an upcoming interaction with an African immigrant (low-status group) by increasing positive feelings about contact and concerns about being accepted. Initial prejudice emerged as the moderator, with the effects of positive meta-stereotypes present among those with average- to high-levels of prejudice.

Strengthening Purity: Moral Purity as a Mediator of Direct and Extended Cross-Group Friendships on Sexual Prejudice.

The present research investigated whether enhanced perceptions of moral purity drive the effects of intergroup cross-group friendships on the intentions to interact with homosexuals. High-school students (N = 639) reported their direct and extended cross-group friendships with homosexuals as well as their beliefs regarding the moral character of the sexual minority. Participants further reported their desire to interact with homosexuals in the future.

Negative intergroup contact and support for social policies toward the minority outgroup in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

In this field study, we tested whether negative intergroup contact experienced by majority (Italian) survivors in the aftermath of the earthquakes that struck Northern Italy in 2012 was associated with policy attitudes toward minority (immigrant) survivors. Results revealed a negative association between negative contact and support for social policies aimed at favoring immigrant survivors. Moreover, social policies toward immigrant survivors mediated the effect of negative contact on social policy attitudes toward the minority group as a whole.

'And the best essay is…': Extended contact and cross-group friendships at school.

We conducted one experimental intervention based on extended contact principles aimed at fostering the formation of cross-group friendships within educational settings. Italian school children took part in a school competition for the best essay on personal experiences of cross-group friendships with immigrants, to be written in small groups. This manipulation was intended to favour the exchange of personal positive cross-group experiences, thus capitalizing on the benefits of extended contact.