Journal of Social and Political Psychology

Misperceptions in Protest Affect and Action Among Resident and Diaspora Activists: Online Versus On-the-Ground in the 2009–2012 Iranian Post-Election Protests

Mostafa Salari Rad — 2026-06-10

Although collective action is typically led by local actors, remote participation by diaspora members has become common with the rise of social media and digital connectivity. However, differences in modes of participation may lead residents and diaspora activists to represent protests differently or to misperceive each other’s experiences. Such gaps may be reflected in how protests feel and how protest actions are interpreted. This study examined these dynamics in the context of Iran’s 2009–2012 post-election protests. A sample of N = 1,254 respondents residing inside or outside Iran completed tasks assessing their own protest representations or predicting the other group’s experiences. Although the two groups responded similarly from their own perspectives, diaspora members predicted residents’ experiences as significantly less positive, while residents underestimated diaspora members’ action identification, perceiving them as lower-level actors focused more on the mechanics of protest (“how”) than on overarching purposes (“why”). Greater activism was associated with more positive and less negative affect in protest representations. Protest attendance and online information sharing were associated with less biased predictions of affective experiences and action construals. The findings highlight the mutual misperceptions between local and remote participants that can hinder transnational collective action even in the absence of actual differences in protest representations.

Toward a Kashmiri Cultural Psychology: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge and Mental Health

Mohammad Asif Sheikh — 2026-05-29

This paper presents a critical theoretical intervention addressing epistemic imbalance in mental health research and practice related to Kashmir. It (a) develops conceptual frameworks elucidating indigenous healing rooted in Sufi mysticism, communal networks, and culturally specific coping strategies; (b) identifies and theorizes culturally derived constructs essential for contextually appropriate mental health infrastructures and interventions, emphasizing epistemic justice and locally situated knowledge; and (c) demonstrates culturally grounded interventions that foreground indigenous epistemologies on their own terms, addressing the limitations and potential dominance of Western clinical models. By centering Kashmiriyat, the Valley’s indigenous cultural ethos that encompasses communal solidarity, shrine-centered spiritual practices, and historically rooted coping strategies guiding everyday communal and spiritual life, this work reconceptualizes resilience as collective and historically situated. The proposed framework enriches global psychological theory and offers innovative models of culturally congruent and socially transformative interventions for conflict-affected societies.

Collective Victimhood and Responsibility Attributions: The Lebanese Civil War Through the Lens of Social Identity

Sarah Zahreddine — 2026-05-29

Two studies examined how victimhood beliefs and responsibility attributions regarding the Lebanese Civil War vary by group membership (Lebanese Christians vs. Muslims) and by religious and national identification. We predicted ingroup-favoring patterns in victimhood beliefs and responsibility attributions, particularly among individuals high in religious identification and low in national identification. Study 1 (N = 405) assessed beliefs following exposure to a chronological war narrative, and Study 2 (N = 338) introduced event type (ingroup harm-doing vs. ingroup victimization). Across studies, religious identification amplified defensive patterns, especially in responsibility attributions, whereas national identification showed limited buffering effects. In Study 2, event type qualified both victimhood beliefs and responsibility attributions: highly religious participants showed ingroup-favoring responses following reminders of ingroup victimization and more symmetrical attributions following harm-doing. National identification played a limited role, mainly among low religious identifiers, and group membership did not significantly moderate outcomes. Despite persistent defensiveness, participants also acknowledged outgroup suffering, suggesting potential for inclusive victimhood in post-conflict Lebanon.

Perceptions and Acceptability of Environmental Public Policies in Paris: A Social Justice Lens

Ellora Frémaux Miguel — 2026-05-29

To effectively address current environmental challenges, public policies must provide solutions that are both adapted to and acceptable to the population. It is therefore essential to study the conditions that determine their acceptability. We conducted a quantitative study among Paris residents to explore their perceptions of local and concrete environmental public policies. The aim was to investigate the perceptions of Parisians (N = 699) regarding four environmental public policies implemented in the city of Paris. Specifically, the study examined the elements that most influence perceptions of fairness and the acceptability of these policies, in relation to their degree of coerciveness. Consistent with our hypotheses, the results show a significant relationship between perceived fairness and the acceptability of the policies. Moreover, participants seemed to place great importance on aspects of procedural justice and distributive justice, as well as the opportunity to improve the current socioeconomic system. This tendency was present regardless of whether the policy was coercive or voluntary. Contrary to our expectations, in our study, perceived limitations on residents' freedoms were not directly linked to the perception of fairness and acceptability for coercive policies. Similarly, perceived effectiveness was not particularly linked to perceptions of fairness and acceptability for less coercive policies. These findings have important implications for the design of local public policies.

On “Everyday Conspiracist Reasoning” and Its Radicalization: Putting the Psychology of Conspiracy Beliefs in Its Context

Florian Knasmüller — 2026-05-13

Social psychology explains the endorsement of conspiracy theories by drawing both on trait-like concepts such as conspiracy mentality and on structural factors. While each perspective is indispensable, an integrative framework that synthesises psychological dynamics and structural predictors and embeds them in the social and political contexts in which such beliefs arise remains underdeveloped. In this paper, we propose an approach that conceptualizes conspiracy beliefs through its tension between what we coined “everyday conspiracist reasoning” and “vocal conspiracism.” Everyday conspiracist reasoning describes interpretive frameworks embedded in everyday experiences within society, marked by deep mistrust and suspicion of hidden agendas. These frameworks offer a sense of psychological security in an increasingly unstable environment. However, when individuals face acute personal or societal crises, these everyday orientations may radicalize into vocal conspiracism, which is a more assertive, public, and all-encompassing belief in conspiracies. In these cases, conspiracy thinking can expand to shape an individual’s entire worldview. Political responses to crises and regressive group dynamics partly determine whether this progression intensifies or recedes, with the latter potentially reinforcing conspiracist interpretations.

Attitudes Toward Politics, Participation and Citizenship Competencies: A Study of Students From Commercially-Oriented Private Universities in Chile

Eduardo Guzmán-Utreras — 2026-03-26

Research on the relationship between attitudes towards politics, student participation, and citizenship competencies remains scarce in Latin America, with most studies focused on primary and secondary education, and even fewer conducted in public or private universities. This study examines that relationship, as well as the mediating role of student participation between attitudes towards politics and citizenship competencies. The sample consisted in undergraduate students (n = 489; mean age = 21.20 years; SD = 3.47) from commercially oriented private universities in Chile, which are characterized by low levels of student participation. Three separate questionnaires were administered to measure each variable. Using descriptive analyses and structural equation modelling (SEM), the associations among the variables were analyzed. Results showed that attitudes towards politics do not directly predict citizenship competencies, but are indirectly associated through student participation, which itself was found to be acceptably related to both constructs in a direct and independent manner. The findings suggest that engagement in academic university activities can function as a formative space that connects student’s attitudes towards politics with the emergence of the competencies required for active citizenship. This research highlights the importance of fostering participatory environments within these types of institutions to strengthen democratic capacities, while also suggesting the inclusion of personal variables and diverse university contexts in future studies.

Editorial Report and Acknowledgement of Reviewers, 2025

J. Christopher Cohrs — 2026-03-26

No abstract available.

Cross-Group Friends and Feeling Empowered in Intergroup Contact Programs: Mediating Pathways and Practical Strategies for Divided Societies

Nejla Asimovic — 2026-03-26

Structured intergroup programs provide a unique opportunity for youth in divided societies to come together and engage in shared activities. This research examines what makes such programs effective, drawing on cross-sectional survey findings from youth participants (N = 431) in an initiative that embeds intergroup contact within a sports program facilitated by the same global organization across Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Israel, and South Africa. Our hypotheses focus on the pivotal roles of cross-group friendships and empowerment in shaping intergroup contact intentions, ingroup-oriented reconciliation efforts, and self-efficacy development – outcomes crucial for bridging communities in divided societies. Using structural equation modeling, we find that program duration directly and indirectly predicts self-efficacy, whereas it predicts intergroup contact intentions and reconciliation efforts only indirectly through cross-group friendships and empowerment. Combining survey results with qualitative data, this paper highlights two important mechanisms for the success of structured intergroup contact programs and offers practical strategies for fostering them.

Responses to Belief-Conflicting Information: Justification of Support for Donald Trump

Cindy Harmon-Jones — 2026-03-26

These studies take a dissonance theory perspective to understanding why individuals support Donald Trump as president of the United States despite accusations that he has engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal activity. Participants from the US provided open-ended responses to questions that asked why they support Trump and how they justify their support given the allegations against him. Study 1 was conducted in 2019 two months before Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In this study, 7 categories of reasons for supporting Trump, and 3 categories of justification despite allegations, were identified. Study 2 was conducted in 2019 two days after a vote to impeach Trump. Study 3 was conducted in 2022 two days after Trump was arraigned for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol Building. Results from Studies 2 and 3 replicated the categories of support and justification. Across studies, the reasons given to justify support of Trump despite allegations of wrongdoing were stating that they disbelieved the allegation, claiming that others do similar misdeeds, and stating that they care about his policies, not his personal life. The current results suggest that individuals in a naturalistic context may choose a number of different strategies in response to information that conflicts with their important beliefs, including denying the veracity of information, increasing the importance of consonant information, directing attention to the immoral acts of others, and making cognitions irrelevant to the dissonant relationship. Study 3 provided evidence that some of these processes may be influenced by dissonance discomfort. These results are unlike those of most laboratory research on dissonance theory, in which participants are given only one dissonance reduction opportunity.

‘Those Who Before the Partition of Pakistan and India Were Citizens of This Country’: Negotiating Citizenship to Inform Nation-States

Rahul Sambaraju — 2025-12-19

In much of social psychology, citizenship has been examined and understood in terms of how it proceeds from nationhood and how various versions of nationhood can be mobilised to exclude others. In this paper, we deviate from this line of scholarship to identify and examine practices by which constructions of citizenship are developed to inform nation-formation. We examine how versions of territory, national belonging, and history are intertwined in the construction of citizenship through a discursive and rhetorical examination of debates on Indian citizenship at two momentous occasions for India: the drafting of India’s constitution (1946-50) and the Citizen Amendment Act 2019. Analysis shows that citizenship policies were evaluated in terms of whether they realised the rights and entitlements of Hindus to the territory of India outside of the Indian nation-state. The findings then show that belonging to a territory is a salient resource in negotiating citizenship, and this can in turn work to support or undermine the idea of a nation-state.