Journal of Social and Political Psychology

Adversarial Interaction in Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK

Peter Bull, Maurice Waddle — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0800

Politeness is a social norm but so too in certain contexts is impoliteness. One such situation is that of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the UK House of Commons. The event is notorious for its adversarial discourse, especially for the gladiatorial encounters between Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition. Their encounters form the focus of this paper, in which, through the reporting of previous studies, we explore five distinctive features of PMQs discourse: face-threats, personal attacks, the rhetorical use of quotations, equivocation, and traditional forms of address; in a sixth study, we also discuss the potential political functions of adversarial opposition. Adversarial questioning is the norm of PMQs; it is the expected role of opposition leaders to scrutinise government policies and actions, and to call the government to account. Thereby, PMQs adversarialism can be seen to reflect the underlying social norms and evaluations of this highly distinctive social setting.

Social Representations of European History by the European Youth: A Cross-Country Comparison

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0800

The present manuscript examines the way young Europeans represent Europe’s history. A study conducted in 11 European countries (N = 1406 students in social sciences) shows that the characters considered most important in the history of Europe are mostly men linked either to WW2, authoritarianism, or conquests and empires. Although these appear later in the rankings and despite some imbalance between countries, Europe’s history is also associated with religious figures, artists, scientists, and philosophers. These results show that the representations of the history of Europe currently shared by young Europeans correspond, in part, to historical narratives based on a specific set of experiences, events, and values supposedly common to the peoples of Europe that were promoted by European elites throughout the integration process. Further, these results suggest that beyond the negative narrative of war and the crimes of totalitarianism, the history of Europe is also embodied by positive characters transcending national boundaries and associated with a set of key elements of the EU identity: democracy, tolerance, solidarity, humanism, and the Enlightenment. Finally, we also highlight the near-total absence of characters unambiguously related to colonization and, especially, decolonization, and a strong overall under-representation of women.

Right vs. Left: Ideology and Psychological Motives in the Chinese Cultural Context

Rong Chen, Peter Beattie — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0800

This research examines the content as well as underlying psychological motives of ideology in East Asia. Adopting a mixed methods approach utilizing data from national samples in mainland China (N = 509) and Taiwan (N = 417), qualitative content analysis and correlation analysis results reveal that in both samples: (a) overall, participants had some understanding of the left-right ideological spectrum; (b) notwithstanding, most participants placed themselves at the Center; and (c) elective affinities between epistemic motives and political ideology exhibited the most consistent association. Findings shed light on the political psychology of ideology in authoritarian regimes as well as in new democracies. Findings were also discussed in the cross-cultural psychological context. Altogether, they contribute to our understanding of the nature of ideology beyond the West, which could be a first step toward reducing political polarization and avoiding conflict.

Who Believes the Country Belongs to Their Ethnic Ingroup? The Background Characteristics of ‘Owners’ and Their Support for Stricter Immigration Policies Across Three Western Societies

Lianne Straver, Borja Martinović, Tom Nijs, Wybren Nooitgedagt, Nora Storz — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0800

We examined if ethnic majority members with different background characteristics (national identification, political orientation, gender, education, and age) differ in the perception that their ethnic group owns the country they live in, and whether this can explain their opinions about stricter immigration policies. Using nationally diverse samples of Anglo-Australian (N = 475), Dutch (N = 599), and British participants (N = 1005), we found that ownership beliefs were consistently positively associated with support for stricter immigration policies. Further, we showed that ownership beliefs were stronger among higher national identifiers, men, right-wing, lower educated (United Kingdom only), and older people (Australia only), and ownership partially accounted for these groups’ stronger endorsement of stricter immigration policies. Our study underscores the relevance of ownership beliefs as a novel construct that can explain the relation between personal background characteristics and anti-immigration stance among ethnic majority populations in Western countries.

Shaping Citizenship: Dynamic Relations Between the Reified and the Consensual Universes in Defining the “Good Foreign Resident”

Tânia R. Santos, Paula Castro — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0800

A social and political psychology of citizenship can be furthered by the analysis of the values and representations through which citizenship is constructed in the text of laws and reconstructed during implementation and how these (re)constructions best serve some groups. This article views laws as facts from the reified/institutional universe whose texts operate a simplification process by prioritizing certain values from the plurality existent in the consensual universe and sees institutions in charge of law implementation as mediating systems operating re-complexification processes. Using this perspective, it (1) explores how the values and social representations prioritized in Portuguese foreign residency laws exclude/include certain groups and define rights and duties of “the good foreign resident/citizen”; (2) illustrates with interviews with experts from a mediating system (n = 6) the re-complexification of the laws in implementation. It highlights how the “worthiness” of foreign residents in Portugal depends upon three central values (work, study, and investment) keeping, however, some ambiguity of these values in the legal texts. Interviews illustrate how mediating systems re-signify the laws, amplifying the ambiguities by resorting to other values and representations. We discuss how the analysis of the dynamic relation between the reified and the consensual universes contributes to a better understanding of how macro-level factors interact with everyday citizenship.

Bridging the Divide: The Effect of Individuating Information on Attitudes Toward Political Outgroup Members

Jonah Koetke, Beverly G. Conrique, Karina Schumann — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0800

Liberals and conservatives in the United States exhibit intergroup bias toward those on the other side. In three preregistered experiments (N = 1,389), we examined the bias-reducing benefits of individuating members of the political outgroup by providing people with individuating information—information that provides knowledge about them beyond their group membership, such as their social roles, emotions, and personality. Studies 1 and 2 extended work on individuating information into this domain by testing its impact on a novel political outgroup member. Study 3 broke new ground by testing whether the benefits of learning individuating information can extend to additional members of the outgroup. Each methodology revealed that, compared to those who read non-individuating controls, participants who learned individuating information about a political outgroup member were less hostile and more empathic toward that outgroup member. The current studies thus identify a promising avenue for reducing interparty hostility.

When Politics Affects the Self: High Political Influence Perception Predicts Civic and Political Participation

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0700

The present research examines the relationships between political influence perception and political participation. Classic studies have linked participation to political interest. However, they did not consider that people may become interested in politics especially when they feel it impacts their lives. In this research, we assumed that political participation would be based on the belief that politics affects one's life. This hypothesis was tested among Polish (Study 1, n = 1000 and Study 3, n = 627) and British participants (Study 2, n = 476). We found positive links between political influence perception and various forms of participation (Study 1, Study 2). In Study 3, we experimentally manipulated thoughts about highly effective politics, which increased political influence perception and was further linked to an increased interest in politics and political participation. We discuss the role of the way people perceive politics in political participation.

‘I’m Going Home to Breathe and I’m Coming Back Here to Just Hold My Head Above the Water’: Black Students’ Strategies for Navigating a Predominantly White UK University

Lateesha Osbourne, Amena Amer, Leda Blackwood, Julie Barnett — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Twenty-four percent of Black and minority ethnic students in the UK report facing racial harassment at university, and one in twenty leave their studies due to this. But how do those who remain negotiate a hostile climate and what can we learn from their strategies? In our focus groups conducted with 16 Black students at a predominantly white institution, we found a sophisticated awareness of multiple strategies, and awareness of the social and psychological consequences of each. Our reflective thematic analysis focuses on three of these strategies: First, the experience and expression of two versions of the self, depending on context and audience; second, performing a strategic whiteness both for personal and collective motives; and third, accentuating and embracing Blackness. Our analysis highlights how these strategies were adopted, encouraged, and discarded over time as well as the tensions between strategies; for instance, when the performance of whiteness is received as ‘inauthentic’ by other Black students. Importantly, our research troubles the notion that there are positive and negative strategies and instead emphasises the complex relational processes at play. Thus, rather than emphasising ‘fitting in’, institutions should endeavour to support the range of strategies used by marginalised students who remind us that it is not that straightforward.

Political Orientation and Moral Judgment of Sexual Misconduct

Laura Niemi, Matthew Stanley, Marko Kljajic, Zi You, John M. Doris — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0700

In a series of studies in the U.S. (total N participants = 4,828) using both news articles (Studies 1-2) and constructed scenarios (Studies 3-4), we investigated how judgments of responsibility, blame, causal contribution, and punishment for alleged perpetrators and victims of sexual misconduct are influenced by (1) the political orientation of media outlets, (2) participants’ political orientation, and (3) the alleged perpetrators’ political orientation. Results indicated that participants’ political orientation, and the interaction between participants’ and alleged perpetrators’ political orientation, predicted moral judgments. Conservative participants were generally more likely inculpate and punish alleged victims in all four studies. Both conservative and liberal participants judged politically-aligned alleged perpetrators more leniently than politically-opposed alleged perpetrators. This political ingroup effect was ubiquitous across all tests of the dependent measures for conservative participants; whereas it was muted and unreliable for liberal participants. The findings collectively demonstrate that moral judgments about sexual misconduct are politicized at multiple psychological levels, and in ways that asymmetrically affect victims.

The Online Educational Program ‘Perspectives’ Improves Affective Polarization, Intellectual Humility, and Conflict Management

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 04:03:24 -0700

Solving the most pressing problems of our time requires broad collaboration across political party lines. Yet, the United States is experiencing record levels of affective polarization (distrust of the opposing political party). In response to these trends, we developed and tested an asynchronous online educational program rooted in psychological principles called Perspectives. In Study 1, using a large longitudinal dataset (total N = 35,209), we examined Perspectives users’ scores on affective polarization and intellectual humility at pre- and post-intervention. Studies 2 and 3 were longitudinal randomized controlled trials with government finance officers (N = 341) and college students (N = 775), respectively, and examined the effects of Perspectives on affective polarization, intellectual humility, and conflict resolution skills. Across these studies, we found that Perspectives users experienced small to medium-sized decreases in affective polarization and small to medium-sized increases in intellectual humility. In Study 3, we found that Perspectives led to small yet significant improvements in conflict resolution skills. These findings suggest promise for a brief and scalable intervention to improve affective polarization, intellectual humility, and conflict management.