Suchergebnisse

We examined the role of ingroup identification in people's responses to confessions by ingroup versus outgroup members. Across two studies, participants were exposed to ingroup or outgroup members who confessed to an offence against the ingroup or outgroup. The targets made their confessions either with remorse or with no remorse. Participants' levels of ingroup identification were also assessed. Across our studies, we found that participants felt more favorable toward an individual who confessed with remorse versus no remorse. We also found that participants felt more favorable toward an outgroup confessor compared to an ingroup one. Finally, we found that high identifiers were more willing to forgive an outgroup perpetrator who confessed to an offence against their own group with no remorse. Our results indicate that people's responses to ingroup versus outgroup confessions are partly influenced by their group membership and levels of identification.

We report on two studies investigating the motivations ("ingroup love" and "outgroup hate") underlying individual participation in intergroup conflict between natural groups (fans of football clubs, supporters of political parties), by employing the Intergroup Prisoner's Dilemma Maximizing-Difference (IPD-MD) game. In this game group members can contribute to the ingroup (at a personal cost) and benefit ingroup members with or without harming members of an outgroup. Additionally, we devised a novel version of the IPD-MD in which the choice is between benefiting ingroup members with or without helping members of the outgroup. Our results show an overall reluctance to display outgroup hate by actively harming outgroup members, except when the outgroup was morality-based. More enmity between groups induced more outgroup hate only when it was operationalized as refraining from help.

Our starting point is that there are gender differences in the use of language linked to masculine/feminine role identity, and not to alleged essentialist, intrinsic features. The research is a contribution to the understanding of links between linguistic behaviors and socio-psychological processes, as these relate to agency and ingroup/outgroup differentiation and to gender roles. We conducted our descriptive study on 441 parliamentary speeches delivered between 1976 and 2009 by four Italian politicians, differentiated by gender and political affiliation. We expected a higher degree of agency as well as higher ingroup/outgroup differentiation for male than for female politicians with a trend towards a lesser degree of gender differences in the later period (1994-2009) because of the feminine emancipatory processes in the Italian society and parliament. The indicators of high/low agency were: pronouns and verbs in the first person singular/plural, and conditional modal verbs. For the ingroup/outgroup differentiation, we used pronouns in the first and second person plural. We conducted a quantitative textual analysis and a qualitative contextual analysis. Our results confirm the hypothesis in part. We advanced some contextualist considerations to interpret the outcomes.

AbstractSubstantial research concludes that favoritism toward members of people's ingroup, or ingroup bias, motivates people to oppose public programs that assist needy outgroup individuals. I argue that a gap in the empathic capacity for ingroup and outgroup members motivates and maintains ingroup bias in helping behavior and is sensitive to contextual cues that trigger anxiety. Using a novel experimental design, Study 1 demonstrates that anxiety exacerbates the outgroup empathy gap. Study 2 replicates these findings with an explicit measure of outgroup empathy. Study 3 shows that the outgroup empathy gap causes individuals to become less supportive of helping needy outgroup members. These studies suggest that opposition to welfare programs may go beyond simple prejudice.

We report on two studies investigating the motivations ("ingroup love" and "outgroup hate") underlying individual participation in intergroup conflict between natural groups (fans of football clubs, supporters of political parties), by employing the Intergroup Prisoner's Dilemma Maximizing-Difference (IPD-MD) game. In this game group members can contribute to the ingroup (at a personal cost) and benefit ingroup members with or without harming members of an outgroup. Additionally, we devised a novel version of the IPD-MD in which the choice is between benefiting ingroup members with or without helping members of the outgroup. Our results show an overall reluctance to display outgroup hate by actively harming outgroup members, except when the outgroup was morality-based. More enmity between groups induced more outgroup hate only when it was operationalized as refraining from help.

2008/2009 ; The dissertation explored the themes of multiple identities and out-group attitudes among minority (autochthonous and immigrant) and majority groups on the Italo-Slovene borderland, considered a "natural laboratory" to study the effects of the entrance of Slovenia in European Union and in the Schengen area on ethnic and national identification, territorial attachments, intergroup dynamics and social integration processes. These issues were approached combining quantitative (415 questionnaires) and qualitative (56 interviews) measures. The research was grounded in the conceptual models developed in the field of social psychology, using as main theoretical frameworks the Social Identity Theory and the Self-Categorization Theory (Tajfel, 1982; Horsey & Hogg, 2000) and Social Identity Complexity Theory (Roccas & Brewer, 2002). It aimed to determine whether complex (vs. simple) ingroup identification in minority and majority members is related to outgroup orientation. Individuals with high social identity complexity were expected to be more inclusive and to show more outgroup acceptance (Brewer & Pierce, 2005). Furthermore, the study tested a new measure created to measure social identity complexity by assessing inclusion of others in the self. We argued that people who are exposed to more groups coexisting in a multicultural and plurilingual geographic region or who have been socialized in two cultures at the same time are more likely to exhibit a more complex social identity structure (Benet-Martínez, Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002; Berry, 2003; Miller, Brewer & Arbuckle, 2009). This was confirmed with our sample: mainly minority members, but also some majority respondents expressed a high level of social identity complexity. Slovene minority members frequently saw themselves as something else and more than merely "Slovenian" or "Italian", for instance, used more than one ethno-cultural label and self-categorization with different degrees of overlapping components, showing an effective integration expressed in combined ethnic and national identification (Berry, 2006) or showed hybrid identities. Following Bhabha's perspective (1996), it was suggested that hybrid identifications and other complex identity structures may have the potential to mediate similarities and differences between groups, transcending the binary oppositional positioning of "us" and "them", fostering inclusion and collaboration between groups. When ethnic identity and social comparison were primed, Slovene minority members of our sample expressed higher degrees of ethnic identification than majority members. Since they tended to adopt complex identification self-descriptions, it appeared clear that these forms of self-definition are strategies that help reducing uncertainty and maintaining the optimal level of distinctivity (Leonardelli & Brewer, 2001). They also expressed higher attachments to local territorial units rather than national ones. The results further revealed aspects of situational ethnicity among Slovene minority members. All the groups considered language and culture as the most important national identity markers and a requirement for acculturation. Most of the participants stated they did not perceive any significant effect of the socio-political changes of the last decades on their ethnic and national sense of self or on intergroup attitudes. Among the positive aspects mentioned there were pride and confidence related to one's sense of belonging, strenghtened awareness of European citizenship, increased attachment to Slovenia, more opportunities for inergroup contact and cooperation fostering mutual knowledge. The data suggested that perceived similarity with target group and complex identity structure are associated with lower social distance, higher percentage of intergroup contacts and more positive outgroup orientation. We concluded with some reflections on limitations of the study and potentials of complex multiple social identifications in intergroup bias reduction strategies. ; XXI Ciclo

This paper presents a qualitative study exploring the concept of esprit de corps in prison officers (POs), through the interpretative lens of Social Identity Theory. The study relies on semi-structured interviews conducted with 26 POs working in Italian correctional facilities. Thematic analyses on the resulting data enabled us to identify POs' esprit de corps as a complex and multidimensional construct that influences both their social identification with their professional group and their interpersonal relationships with members of their ingroup and outgroup. Findings from this study suggest that POs' esprit de corps is a fundamental component of day-to-day prison life, taking effect on the symbolic and relational levels, fostering loyalty and cohesion among ingroup members, and contrast with members of the outgroup. We conclude that examining esprit de corps as a construct can give an important contribution to our criminological and sociological knowledge.

Based on the application of a social psychology intergroup perspective to the analysis of people–place relationships, we conducted an experimental study in the context of a land use conflict revolving around the construction of a bridge over the Messina Channel (Italy). We aimed to analyze the relations between the salience of the identification with the ingroup defined by being pro- versus antibridge, outgroup infrahumanization, and the intention to mobilize in the conflict. In two community samples, from Reggio Calabria, where the structure should be placed ( n = 107), and from Sciacca, which is more than 200 kilometers away from it ( n = 100), the salience of ingroup identification influenced the intention to mobilize via the partial mediation of outgroup infrahumanization. The attitude toward the bridge and the distance from it did not moderate the paths that we have analyzed. Strengths, limitations, and implications for environmental psychology research are discussed.