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Tightening social norms is thought to be adaptive for dealing with collective threat yet it may have negative consequences for increasing prejudice. The present research investigated the role of desire for cultural tightness, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, in increasing negative attitudes towards immigrants. We used participant-level data from...
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The present research investigates whether employees felt more alienated from their work during the COVID-19 pandemic than before it, and examines the causes and consequences of this increase in work alienation. To do so, two longitudinal studies using data collected before (T1; October 2019 [Study 1] and November 2019 [Study 2]) and during the firs...
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... A second study by Mula et al. [6] utilized much better methods and valid measures. However, its relevance to nationalism is only indirectly implied. ...
The rise of nationalism and populism in Europe has created significant political and policy challenges. Understanding and addressing these challenges will require attention to the psychological mechanisms and social dynamics that have engendered and promoted these societal shifts. This article presents the results of two new empirical studies that attempt to shed light on the relationships between nationalism, religiosity, national and religious identification, threat perception, and sentiment toward different groups. Informed by identity fusion theory and moral foundations theory, Study 1 collected and analysed survey data on these topics. Study 2 utilized the results of Study 1 to construct a system dynamics model in which causal propositions and links are added to the variables, creating an artificial society within which hypotheses about these dynamics can be tested. Both the survey and the simulation suggest that nationalism and religion are affected by the same variables. As such, religion might not be a cause of nationalism (or nationalism the cause of religion), but they could be correlated because of mutual causation.
... Moreover, they appear inconsistent with work in political psychology linking conservatism to increased threat sensitivity, including pathogen aversion (Hibbing, Smith, and Alford 2014;Jost et al. 2017) and progressivism, to decreased compliance and decreased conformity (Jost et al. 2018). They also do not explain why conservatives in some countries, and some conservative populations, were concerned about COVID-19 and prolockdowns (Brouard, Vasilopoulos, and Becher 2020;Chen, Frey, and Presidente 2021;Choma et al. 2021;Dryhurst et al. 2020;Gelfand et al. 2021;Mula et al. 2022;Pavlovic, Todosijevic, and Stanojevic 2020). ...
... Most existing studies link concern about COVID-19 to political progressivism or related variables (Burkova et al. 2021;Calvillo et al. 2020;Clinton et al. 2021;Collins, Mandel, and Schywiola 2021;Gadarian, Goodman, and Pepinsky 2021;Pennycook et al. 2022;Stroebe et al. 2021) but some studies link concern about COVID-19 to political conservatism (Dryhurst et al. 2020;Mula et al. 2022;Pavlovic, Todosijevic, and Stanojevic 2020). The Dual Foundations Theory predicts that the former relationship is driven by low-SDO progressives' empathic concern while the latter relationship is driven by high-RWA conservatives' threat sensitivity. ...
... This is supported by the fact that most studies on unidimensional ideology find less concern among conservatives than progressives in studies conducted in the US, with its unique political climate (for example, particularly strong polarization and Donald Trump who downplayed the threat). When we consider a more diverse sample of populations, the relationship is more mixed (Brouard, Vasilopoulos, and Becher 2020;Chen, Frey, and Presidente 2021;Choma et al. 2021;Dryhurst et al. 2020;Gelfand et al. 2021;Manson 2020;Mula et al. 2022;Passini 2022;Pavlovic, Todosijevic, and Stanojevic 2020;Pennycook et al. 2022;Samore et al. 2021). ...
Political conservatives' opposition to COVID-19 restrictions is puzzling given the well-documented links between conservatism and conformity, threat sensitivity, and pathogen aversion. We propose a resolution based on the Dual Foundations Theory of ideology, which holds that ideology comprises two dimensions, one reflecting trade-offs between threat-driven conformity and individualism, and another reflecting trade-offs between empathy-driven cooperation and competition. We test predictions derived from this theory in a UK sample using individuals' responses to COVID-19 and widely-used measures of the two dimensions – ‘right-wing authoritarianism’ (RWA) and ‘social dominance orientation’ (SDO), respectively. Consistent with our predictions, we show that RWA, but not SDO, increased following the pandemic and that high-RWA conservatives do display more concerned, conformist, pro-lockdown attitudes, while high-SDO conservatives display less empathic, cooperative attitudes and are anti-lockdown. This helps explain paradoxical prior results and highlights how a focus on unidimensional ideology can mask divergent motives across the ideological landscape.
... First, given the fundamental role of cultural tightness in motivating COVID-19 preventive behaviors, tightening social norms may be one of the most effective ways to coordinate attitudes and behaviors among students when they confront urgent and collective threats from the COVID-19 pandemic [65,66]. Despite this perspective and our findings, we and other scholars would like to recommend that gov-ernments and HEIs adopt balanced strategies that emphasize both togetherness and social order in regions with tight cultures (e.g., the "United and determined, we shall prevail" and "When an epidemic breaks out, a command is issued", an anti-COVID slogan adopted frequently on many university campuses in China) [67]. Second, due to the pro-social nature of COVID-19 preventive behaviors and the mediation mechanism of NAM variables in bridging cultural tightness and preventive behaviors, educational authorities and HEIs should strengthen students' perceptions of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of not complying with COVID-19 prevention requirements on the wellbeing of others through educational intervention, thus activating their personal moral obligations to better adhere to specific restrictions and increase voluntary efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the long run. ...
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has imposed greater challenges and more stringent requirements on higher education institutions (HEIs). However, limited empirical research has been devoted to identifying external and internal factors that may promote individual preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic within the higher education context. This study proposed and examined an extended norm activation model (NAM) concerning the relationships among cultural tightness, original NAM components, and COVID-19 preventive behaviors. An online survey was conducted with a sample of 3693 university students from 18 universities in Beijing, China. The results showed that cultural tightness was positively associated with respondents' COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Three original NAM variables, namely, awareness of consequences, the ascription of responsibility, and personal norms, played a chain mediating role in the relationship between cultural tightness and COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications regarding the findings of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.
... For instance, in response to negative feedback from ingroup peers, Dutch young people showed more displaced aggression toward innocent Moroccan targets than toward ingroup targets [18]. Also, the recent crisis of COVID-19 appears to have worsened attitudes toward immigrants [19] and increased violence against women [20]. ...
... The second factor is an exclusive attitude toward the otherraces. Because an exclusive attitude toward an other-races population is positively related to concern regarding the COVID-19 threat (e.g., Yamagata et al., 2020;Adam-Troian and Bagci, 2021;Mula et al., 2022), mask-free other-races faces should be rated less attractive if this factor is in effect. In particular, we predicted a negative correlation in that people who report higher PVD scores should perceive mask-free other-races faces as less attractive relative to others who report lower PVD scores, because of the association between infection-avoidance tendencies and strong exclusionary attitudes toward persons from abroad (Yamagata et al., 2020). ...
Recent studies provide mixed results regarding whether the perception of facial attractiveness is increased or decreased by partial occlusion with a sanitary mask. One set of studies demonstrated that occluding the bottom half of a face increased facial attractiveness. This effect is thought to occur because the occluded area is interpolated by an average facial representation that is perceived as attractive. However, several groups of studies showed that partial occlusion can increase or decrease perceived attractiveness depending on the attractiveness of the original (unoccluded) face, due to regression to the mean. To reconcile this inconsistency, we propose that the occluded area is interpolated not by an average facial representation, but by a template of moderate attractiveness, shaped by the distribution of each viewer’s experience. This hypothesis predicts an interaction between occlusion and the attractiveness of the original face so that occluded attractive faces are rated as less attractive, while occluded unattractive faces are rated as more attractive. To examine this hypothesis, the present study used attractiveness-rating tasks with mask-free versus masked faces in own-race and other-races categories. Viewers were familiar with own-race faces and unfamiliar with other-races faces. If moderate-attractiveness interpolation were the explanatory factor, the interaction between the occlusion and the attractiveness of the original face should be found only in the rating of own-race faces. Consistent with this hypothesis, the interaction between the occlusion and the attractiveness of the original faces was significant only for the own-race faces. Specifically, wearing a sanitary mask decreased the facial attractiveness of attractive faces in the own-race, while it increased the attractiveness regardless of the level of facial attractiveness in other-races. These findings suggest that the occluded area of own-race faces is interpolated by a facial template of moderate attractiveness. The other-races template could be developed using familiar exemplars such as celebrities. Thus, interpolation by such a template should result in elevated attractiveness relative to that by an own-race template. Accordingly, the apparent inconsistency in the literature regarding the effect of partial occlusion on physical attractiveness can be explained in terms of differences in the template involving interpolation of the occluded area.
... Harrington & Gelfand, 2014) since this might help reduce the uncertainty elicited by the threat at hand. This, in turn, might lead to increased negative attitudes towards outgroup members (see Mula et al., 2022) whoas in the case of immigrantsmay be perceived as disturbing the social order (Jackson et al., 2019) or competing with the ingroup of natives in terms of access to resources (cf. Scheepers et al., 2002;Stephan & Stephan, 2000). ...
... Gelfand et al., 2021). Drawing from available evidence (e.g., Bianco et al., 2021;Jackson et al., 2019;Mula et al., 2022) on the link between ecological threats and intergroup attitudes, the current study showed that desire for cultural tightness could be a mediator between perceived COVID-19 threat and negative attitudes towards immigrants. That is, under situational threats, people's desire for tight cultural norms increases (Gelfand et al., 2011(Gelfand et al., , 2017 and elicits restriction of intergroup boundaries and rejection of different, potentially threatening, outgroups Inbar et al., 2016;Jackson et al., 2019;Sorokowski et al., 2020) such as immigrants. ...
... Ecological threats thus enhance the need to have certain knowledge, refusing ambiguity. Going beyond available evidence (e.g., Bianco et al., 2021), this study highlighted that a related consequence of such increase in individual's need for cognitive closure can be a higher desire for cultural control and coordination, as that provided by tight cultures (Gelfand et al., 2011), ending in more negative attitudes towards different others (Mula et al., 2022). Specifically, our findings supported the expected sequential indirect path through increased individual need for cognitive closure and, in turn, higher desired cultural tightness. ...
The link between threat and anti-immigrant prejudice is well-established. Relatedly, recent research has also shown that situational threats (such as concern with COVID-19 threat) increase anti-immigrant prejudice through the mediating role of desire for cultural tightness. This study aims to further our understanding of the psychological processes underlying the relation between concern with COVID-19 threat and increased negative attitudes towards immigrants by considering the mediational role of an individual epistemic motivation (i.e., the need for cognitive closure). A study was conducted on a large sample of Italian respondents covering all the Italian regions. Findings revealed that high concern with COVID-19 threat led to increased negative attitudes towards immigrants through the sequential mediating role of higher need for cognitive closure, leading in turn to higher desire for cultural tightness. Implications of these findings for a timely contextualized study of anti-immigrant prejudice will be highlighted.
... The study of (adolescents') prejudice toward immigrants in Italy is relatively recent (e.g., Albarello et al., 2020;Albarello & Rubini, 2022b): available contributions show that Italians tend to refuse immigrant groups (Alivernini et al., 2019c) perceived as culturally and religiously more different from the ingroup (e.g., Albanians, Moroccans; Kosic et al., 2012;Mancini & Panari, 2010); also economic competition or threat to ingroup's resources seem to underlie their prejudice toward immigrants (Mancini et al., 2020). Recent research showed that, due to COVID-19 pandemic, prejudice toward highly stigmatized and discriminated outgroups such as immigrants has increased as a reaction to such situational threat Mula et al., 2022). Addressing adolescents' prejudice toward immigrants in Italy is thus a timely issue that deserves empirical attention. ...
According to social learning theory, classrooms are essential socialization contexts for intergroup attitudes, but analyses of contextual factors net of the impact of individual variables affecting prejudice toward immigrants are very limited. This study was conducted on a large sample of Italian adolescents (N = 2904; Mage = 13.70; females = 48.5%; 168 classrooms). It examined the role of classroom contextual factors affecting adolescents’ prejudice toward immigrants, relying on the combination of groups’ warmth and competence, and their antecedents (i.e., competition and status). Multilevel structural equation analyses revealed that classroom contextual factors (i.e., classroom socio-economic status-SES; classroom open to discussion climate; classroom educational achievements) indirectly affected, at the class level, adolescents’ perceived warmth and competence of immigrants through the mediating role of perceived competition (and status) of immigrants. These findings suggest that interventions targeting the classroom context can help to hinder prejudice in adolescence at the class level.
... Intergroup threat was conceived as a factor that might increase the denial of human rights to migrants (cf. Albarello et al., 2022;Mula et al., 2022), leading to various adverse Conceptual multiple step mediation model of the effect of intergroup threat (dummy coded as D 1 and D 2 ) on inalienability of human rights to migrants through in-depth exploration of identity in the educational domain, identification with the human group, and fraternalistic relative deprivation. D 1 , no-threat (0), realistic threat (1); D2, no-threat (0), symbolic threat (1). ...
... So far, few empirical studies have been conducted to understand the associations between pandemic-related variables such as COVID-19 threat/concern and attitudes towards minority group members using both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs (e.g. Adam-Troian & Bagci, 2021;Mula et al., 2022). Drawing on various theories such as the pathogen prevalence (e.g. ...
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 age reported at T1 = 10.38, SD = 0.68) collected before the onset of the pandemic (T1, pre‐lockdown), after the onset of the pandemic (T2, post‐lockdown), and 6 months after the post‐lockdown (T3, follow‐up) in Turkey, we examined how children's contact behaviour (positive and negative contact), contact motivation (self‐efficacy and volition), as well as behavioural tendencies (approach and avoidance) have shifted during this period (2.5 years). We observed a consistent pattern of improvement in contact behaviours demonstrated by increases in positive contact variables and decreases in negative contact variables particularly from T1 to T2. The change in some positive contact variables was stable for 6 months, while negative contact and avoidance rapidly regressed to the baseline during the normalization period (T3). The boosting effect of the pandemic was particularly pronounced among children who displayed greater prejudice towards refugees before the pandemic. Findings contribute to the growing research literature delineating the potential benefits of COVID‐19 at the collective level.
... Intergroup threat was conceived as a factor that might increase the denial of human rights to migrants (cf. Albarello et al., 2022;Mula et al., 2022), leading to various adverse Conceptual multiple step mediation model of the effect of intergroup threat (dummy coded as D 1 and D 2 ) on inalienability of human rights to migrants through in-depth exploration of identity in the educational domain, identification with the human group, and fraternalistic relative deprivation. D 1 , no-threat (0), realistic threat (1); D2, no-threat (0), symbolic threat (1). ...
Introduction
This study ( N = 141, M age = 20.15) aimed at deepening knowledge on the factors that can lead young adults to deny the inalienability of human rights to migrants by examining whether, under realistic and symbolic intergroup threat (versus no-threat), the denial of human rights to migrants increases. In doing so, the role of fraternalistic relative deprivation in mediating this relation was examined. Also, two potential positive factors were considered: in-depth exploration of personal identity in the educational domain and identification with the human group. Intergroup threat was expected to enhance perceived relative deprivation, thus reducing the attribution of human rights to migrants. Such relation was expected to be mediated by those factors expressing complex views of self and others (in-depth exploration of identity in the educational domain and identification with the human group).
Method
Realistic and symbolic threat were experimentally manipulated through a written scenario. In the no-threat condition, no scenario was presented.
Results
Showed significant effects of intergroup threat on the attribution of human rights to migrants, on perceived fraternalistic relative deprivation, on in-depth exploration of identity in the educational domain and identification with the human group. More specifically, intergroup realistic threat, but not symbolic threat, reduced the attribution of human rights to migrants and identification with the human group. Symbolic threat, but not realistic threat, increased the perception of fraternalistic relative deprivation, whereas both realistic and symbolic threat reduced in-depth exploration of identity in the educational domain, and identification with the human group. As shown by the sequential mediation analysis, and as expected, the effect of intergroup threat in reducing attribution of human rights to migrants was mediated by in-depth exploration of identity in the educational domain, identification with the human group, and fraternalistic relative deprivation. Implications of findings concerning the processes underlying identification with the human group and its beneficial effects in terms of humanization of a stigmatized outgroup were highlighted by stressing the intertwined nature of personal identity and social identity processes. The importance of complex views of self and others in helping to create inclusive generations of adults was also highlighted.
