Suchergebnisse

AbstractNational identities are an important tool for collective political persuasion and mobilisation among political elites and lay people. Recent research on nationalism has shown that the negotiating of national identities, like any political deliberations and operations, increasingly occur on the Internet. In this study, we contribute to this research by examining the relational construction of Finnish identity online. More specifically, we focus on how the users of the largest discussion forum in Finland constructed Russia as a threat. A massive dataset spanning 12 years enables us to map the recurring patterns and temporal shifts in the discussions. We show that the construction of Russia as a threatening national other was used to both oppose and support Finland's alliance with the West, namely, becoming a member of NATO.

Multiculturalism is a controversial concept and a debated topic. To develop scientific analysis and inform political discussions, it is important to study how lay people evaluate it. Previous research has mostly regarded attitudes towards multiculturalism as unidimensional. This research often relies on the operationalisation offered by the Multicultural Ideology Scale (MIS), in which minorities' cultural maintenance and acceptance of cultural diversity are central. In this multimethod study, we take a critical perspective on such operationalisation and examine majority of Finns' responses to MIS in a survey and in focus group discussions. By approaching evaluation processes as social interaction, we challenge the unidimensionality assumption of attitudes towards multiculturalism. We show how cultural essentialism and nationalism are used in arguing for and against multiculturalism, and in negotiating its boundaries so that the majority can keep its dominant position. This conflicts with recognition and equality that are widely considered as cornerstones of multiculturalism. ; Peer reviewed

AbstractVicarious contact has often been used for studying prejudice-reduction in school contexts due to its relatively accessible application through written or audiovisual portrayals of positive intergroup contact. However, these interventions may sometimes prove ineffective, thus restricting their ecological validity and independent use in education. To contribute to the understanding of factors that might facilitate or mitigate the efficacy of vicarious contact in reducing ethnic prejudice among adolescents, the present study tested for the moderating effect of anti-prejudice motivation and friends' outgroup attitudes. Participants were Finnish secondary school students (N = 334; M = 13.38 years, SD = 0.53; 48% female; 19% ethnic minority) allocated into cluster-randomized intervention (N = 149) and control (N = 185) groups. Participants in the intervention group took part in 4 × 45-min teacher-led intervention sessions. A pretest-posttest design was employed to assess the outgroup attitudes three weeks before the intervention and the follow-up two weeks after. The results showed that adolescents' intrinsic, but not extrinsic, anti-prejudice motivation and the pre-intervention attitudes of their reciprocal classroom friends positively predicted post-intervention attitudes towards people from different ethnic and cultural groups. However, only extrinsic motivation moderated the intervention effect as the results indicated the intervention to have a detrimental effect on outgroup attitudes among adolescents with less motivation to be non-prejudiced in order to gain social acceptance. This attitudinal backlash among adolescents less susceptible to the social influence of others implies that motivational aspects should not be overlooked when developing school-based intervention programs, especially when social norms are used as a mechanism of attitude change.

National identities are an important tool for collective political persuasion and mobilisation among political elites and lay people. Recent research on nationalism has shown that the negotiating of national identities, like any political deliberations and operations, increasingly occur on the Internet. In this study, we contribute to this research by examining the relational construction of Finnish identity online. More specifically, we focus on how the users of the largest discussion forum in Finland constructed Russia as a threat. A massive dataset spanning 12 years enables us to map the recurring patterns and temporal shifts in the discussions. We show that the construction of Russia as a threatening national other was used to both oppose and support Finland's alliance with the West, namely, becoming a member of NATO. ; Peer reviewed

Social media is an important transmitter of anti-immigration political rhetoric. In this study, we examine the discussions posted in a Finnish online forum provoked by an MP's anti-multiculturalist Facebook post. We draw upon frame analysis and discursive social psychology to analyse the communicative processes that challenge and normalise anti-immigration political rhetoric. Using frame analysis, we study how forum users entered heated societal discussion on multiculturalism by framing the MP's anti-multiculturalist address as either hate speech or – more dominantly – as normal political conduct. Using discursive social psychology, we examine constructions of multiculturalism in these discussions. We demonstrate how anti-immigration political communication was normalised, multiculturalism was constructed as a threat and the proponents of multiculturalism were discredited. We argue that to understand the rise of anti-immigration political movements, it is important to examine everyday political deliberation online as part of a wider discursive landscape.

Among minority members, positive contact with the majority was previously found to improve not only the attitudes towards the majority but also the attitudes towards minority outgroups (the secondary transfer effect; STE). However, the role of negative intergroup contact and ingroups' social status in a receiving society in the development of the STE have not been yet examined. Therefore, in the present study we investigated the association between positive and negative contact with the national majority group (Finns) and mutual attitudes among high-status Estonian (n = 171) and low-status Russian (n = 180) immigrants in Finland. Two mediators of the STE were tested: attitudes toward the majority (attitude generalisation) and collective self-esteem (diagonal hostility). While positive and negative STEs emerging via attitude generalisation were expected to occur among both immigrant groups, the mediating effect of collective self-esteem was assumed only for members of the low-status group. Among members of both groups, the relationship between positive contact with majority members and attitudes towards the other immigrant group was positive and indirect, and occurred through more favourable attitudes towards majority members. The same mechanism was followed by negative contact, where the indirect effect was mediated by less positive attitudes towards Finns. As predicted, collective self-esteem mediated the effects of positive and negative contact with majority members on attitudes towards the other minority only among low-status Russian immigrants. The results call for the acknowledgement of different mechanisms underlying the development of the STE among minority groups enjoying different social status in host society. ; Peer reviewed

AbstractIn this article, we demonstrate how international social‐media discussions offer a platform for taking a stance on the war in Ukraine, redrawing national boundaries and legitimising their defence. We do so by analysing data that consist of comments triggered by a viral YouTube video depicting an encounter between an ageing civilian woman, labelled 'Babushka Z', and a Ukrainian soldier. Using a critical discursive psychological framework, we identify five interpretative repertoires: vulnerability, incapacity, national continuity, masculinised warriorship and righteousness. Our analysis illuminates how these repertoires draw on and reproduce intersecting categorisations based on gender, age and ethnic heritage. With the help of these categorisations, the repertoires build competing images of the actions of the figures in the video, which come to symbolise in various ways both patriotism and treason, heroism and cowardice. By aligning with competing historical‐national narratives, the commentors use these images to (de)legitimise the war and its actors.

This survey study utilized a person-oriented approach to explore the patterns of socio-political integration among Russian-speaking minority group members in three neighboring countries in the Baltic area: Estonia (n = 482), Finland (n = 252), and Norway (n = 215). Three profiles were obtained in all countries: critical integration, separation, and assimilation. In the whole sample, critical integration was the most common acculturation profile. After the profiles were established, they were examined vis-a-vis citizenship and integration context to see, whether and to what extent, the objective (i.e., citizenship) and subjective (i.e., perceived social status and sense of belonging) socio-political integration of Russian-speakers corresponded with each other. Critical integration and separation were the most common profiles among participants holding national citizenship of the country of residence, while foreign citizenship was not related to any specific profile. Separation was rare among participants holding dual citizenship, but it was the most common profile among participants with undetermined citizenship. Also, intergroup context was associated with socio-political integration: critical integration and separation were the most common profiles of Russian-speakers in Estonia, critical integration and assimilation profiles in Finland, and assimilation profile in Norway. The results are discussed in relation to previous variable-oriented research and official integration policies of the countries studied. ; Peer reviewed

In-group favoritism and prejudices relate to discriminatory behaviors but, despite decades of research, understanding of their neural correlates has been limited. A systematic coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies (altogether 87 original datasets, n = 2328) was conducted to investigate neural inter-group biases, i.e., responses toward in-group vs. out-group in different contexts. We found inter-group biases in some previously identified brain regions (e.g., the medial prefrontal cortex, insula) but also in many previously non-identified brain regions (e.g., the cerebellum, precentral gyrus). Sub-group analyses indicated that neural correlates of inter-group biases may be mostly context-specific. Regarding different types of group memberships, inter-group bias toward trivial groups was evident only in the cingulate cortex, while inter-group biases toward "real" groups (ethnic, national, or political groups) involved broader sets of brain regions. Additionally, there were heightened neural threat responses toward out-groups' faces and stronger neural empathic responses toward in-groups' suffering. We did not obtain significant publication bias. Overall, the findings provide novel implications for theory and prejudice-reduction interventions. ; Peer reviewed

In this study, we investigated how perceived ethnic discrimination is related to attitudes towards the national majority group and willingness to confront injustice to promote the social standing of a minority group. We examined this relationship via two mediating factors; national (dis)identification from and out-group (dis)trust of the national majority group. The Rejection-Disidentification Model (RDIM) was refined, first, to account for willingness to confront injustice as a consequence of perceived rejection, and second, intergroup (dis)trust was examined as an additional mediating mechanism that can explain attitudinal and behavioural reactions to perceived rejection simultaneously with national disidentification. The model was tested in a comparative survey data of Russian-speaking minority in Estonia (N = 482), Finland (N = 254), and Norway (N = 219). In all three countries, the more Russian-speakers identified as Russians and the more they perceived ethnic discrimination, the more negative were their attitudes toward the national majority groups and the more willing they were to engage in action to confront group-based injustice. Whereas disidentification from and distrust of national majority group accounted for the discrimination-attitude link to a large extent, both factors had demobilizing effects on willingness to confront injustice, making Russian-speaking immigrants more passive but hostile. The findings are discussed in relation to the risks involved in politicization of immigrants struggling with perceived inequalities. ; peerReviewed ; publishedVersion

In this study, we investigated how perceived ethnic discrimination is related to attitudes towards the national majority group and willingness to confront injustice to promote the social standing of a minority group. We examined this relationship via two mediating factors; national (dis)identification from and out-group (dis)trust of the national majority group. The Rejection-Disidentification Model (RDIM) was refined, first, to account for willingness to confront injustice as a consequence of perceived rejection, and second, intergroup (dis)trust was examined as an additional mediating mechanism that can explain attitudinal and behavioural reactions to perceived rejection simultaneously with national disidentification. The model was tested in a comparative survey data of Russian-speaking minority in Estonia (N = 482), Finland (N = 254), and Norway (N = 219). In all three countries, the more Russian-speakers identified as Russians and the more they perceived ethnic discrimination, the more negative were their attitudes toward the national majority groups and the more willing they were to engage in action to confront group-based injustice. Whereas disidentification from and distrust of national majority group accounted for the discrimination-attitude link to a large extent, both factors had demobilizing effects on willingness to confront injustice, making Russian-speaking immigrants more passive but hostile. The findings are discussed in relation to the risks involved in politicization of immigrants struggling with perceived inequalities.