Catherine E Amiot

• PhD, University of Ottawa
• Professor (Full) at University of Quebec in Montreal

Despite sustained efforts of social movements worldwide, there has been a lack of progress on mitigating climate change. Recent research examined the psychological consequences of one‐off collective action failures, but there has been little research on how to overcome persistent failure to create social change. This qualitative research ( N = 26)...

Throughout the 21st century, economic inequality is predicted to increase as we face new challenges, from changes in the technological landscape to the growing climate crisis. It is crucial we understand how these changes in inequality may affect how people think and behave. We propose that economic inequality threatens the social fabric of society...

This study explores how providing assisted dying services affects the psychological distress of practitioners. It investigates the influence of professional norms that endorse such services within their field. Study 1 included veterinarians (N = 137, 75.2% female, M age = 43.1 years, SD age = 12.7 years), and Study 2 health practitioner students (N...

A focal point in the acculturation literature is the so-called “integration hypothesis,” whereby integration (high mainstream cultural engagement and heritage cultural maintenance) is associated with higher psychosocial adjustment, compared to other strategies. Yet, the vast majority of this literature is cross-sectional, raising questions about ho...

While pet ownership is normative in many occidental countries, whether humans’ proximal contacts with pets have implications for attitudes and behaviors toward other (non pet) animals, nature, and fellow humans, has received limited empirical attention. In a large representative sample, we investigate whether pet ownership and positive contact with...

Veterinarian work may take an emotional toll on practitioners and their mental health, potentially driving premature exit from the profession. Performing animal euthanasia is frequently identified as a potential risk factor for sustainable mental health. Yet, research has demonstrated mixed results between euthanasia performance and detrimental men...

Prior work has documented considerable diversity among health practitioners regarding their support for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). We examined whether their attitudes are characterised by different combinations of personal support, normative support by other health practitioners, and whether they are predisposed to vicariously experience other...

Social change movements may take years or decades to achieve their goals and thus require ongoing efforts from their supporters. We apply the insights of self-determination theory to examine sustained collective action over time. We expected that autonomous motivation, but not controlled motivation, would predict sustained action. We also examine w...

What are the things that we think matter morally, and how do societal factors influence this? To date, research has explored several individual-level and historical factors that influence the size of our ‘moral circles.' There has, however, been less attention focused on which societal factors play a role. We present the first multi-national explor...

People cooperate every day in ways that range from largescale contributions that mitigate climate change to simple actions such as leaving another individual with choice – known as social mindfulness. It is not yet clear whether and how these complex and more simple forms of cooperation relate. Prior work has found that countries with individuals w...

A narrative systematic review was conducted to review studies that examine mental health implications of involvement in assisted-death services among health practitioners. Qualitative and quantitative studies were included to understand health practitioners’ attitudes and experiences with assisted dying services, as well as to identify the mental h...

Human-pet relations are imbued with power imbalances, with many pets depending on humans for food and water, shelter, health care, and sheer survival. A majority of people report loving their pets and consider them to be integral family members; however, the care provided to pets varies widely and can be, in some cases, suboptimal. Yet, building mo...

Our eating behaviors are highly influenced by those of individuals surrounding us and the groups we belong to. The first goal of this experiment was to determine how social norms that encourage (pro-) vs. discourage (anti-) unhealthy eating influence people’s intentions and motivations to eat unhealthily. Since these norms can be conveyed by one’s...

While a great deal is known about the individual difference factors associated with conspiracy beliefs, much less is known about the country-level factors that shape people’s willingness to believe conspiracy theories. In the current article we discuss the possibility that willingness to believe conspiracy theories might be shaped by the perception...

Prior research has uncovered a beneficial role for social identities in promoting human well-being. Whether these benefits also arise from the tendency to identify with a highly superordinate category that includes other animals, has never been examined. Building on theories of social and superordinate identification and prior research on human-ani...

The question of pet ownership contributing to human well-being has received mixed empirical evidence. This contrasts with the lay intuition that pet ownership contributes positively to wellness. In a large representative sample, we investigate the differences that may exist between pet vs. non-pet owners in terms of their well-being during the COVI...

Happiness is a valuable experience, and societies want their citizens to be happy. Although this societal commitment seems laudable, overly emphasizing positivity (versus negativity) may create an unattainable emotion norm that ironically compromises individual well-being. In this multi-national study (40 countries; 7443 participants), we investiga...

Identity, injustice, and group efficacy are key motivations for collective action engagement. However, little work has examined factors that influence their emergence. Across 3 studies (Total N = 938), we test whether exposure to different actions (i.e., radical or conventional) and the perceived legitimacy and efficacy of those actions (“the means...

Introduction: The goal of the present study is to test whether social norms, given their power to justify behaviors, can protect the subjective well-being of group members when they engage in unhealthy eating. Method: A three-wave longitudinal study (before [T1], during [T2], and after the Christmas holidays [T3]) was conducted (N = 318). Results:...

Conducted among parents of young ice hockey players, this field experiment tested if making salient increasingly popular (i.e., dynamic) social norms that promote sportspersonship, learning, and having fun in sports, increases parents’ own self-determined endorsement of these behaviors and values, improves their psychological well-being, and impact...

Most social movements will encounter setbacks in their pursuit of sociopolitical change. However, little is known about how movements are affected after protestors fail to achieve their aims. What are the effects of failure on subsequent engagement in various conventional and radical actions? Does failure promote divergent reactions among protestor...

Most research on friendship has been grounded in Western cultural worlds, a bias that needs to be addressed. To that end, we propose a methodological roadmap to translate linguistic/anthropological work into quantitative psychological cross-cultural investigations of friendship, and showcase its implementation in Russia and Canada. Adopting an inte...

Compartmentalization (keeping identities separate) and integration (creating a single overarching identity) are two ways in which people can manage their multiple cultural identities. This study examined social network correlates of these two configurations among immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Canada (N= 137). Drawing on sociological th...

Extensive research has identified factors influencing collective-action participation. However, less is known about how collective-action outcomes (i.e., success and failure) shape engagement in social movements over time. Using data collected before and after the 2017 marriage-equality debate in Australia, we conducted a latent profile analysis th...

Abstract What does it mean to be happy? The vast majority of cross-cultural studies on happiness have employed a Western-origin, or “WEIRD” measure of happiness that conceptualizes it as a self-centered (or “independent”), high-arousal emotion. However, research from East�ern cultures, particularly Japan, conceptualizes happiness as including an in...

Objective The current exploratory study sought to examine dispositional optimism, or the general expectation for positive outcomes, around the world. Method Dispositional optimism and possible correlates were assessed across 61 countries (N = 15,185; mean age = 21.92; 77% female). Mean‐level differences in optimism were computed along with their r...

Collective action is volatile: characterized by swift, unexpected changes in intensity, target, and forms. We conduct a detailed exploration of four reasons that these changes occur. First, action is about identities which are fluid, contested, and multifaceted. As the content of groups’ identities change, so do the specific norms for the identitie...

The present research applies self‐determination theory (SDT) to the context of unhealthy eating. The extent to which each of the six types of motivations stemming from the SDT continuum applies to unhealthy eating is examined, as well as the contribution of each motivation for eating unhealthily in predicting psychological well‐being and frequency...

This paper introduces a model of the internalisation of normative social harmdoing: the MINSOH. This model seeks to explain how group members internalise harmful social norms such that they personally endorse their groups’ normative actions. To this aim, the MINSOH integrates two divergent yet complementary theoretical perspectives: self‐determinat...

The generalization of positive attitudes is a key consequence of intergroup contact. In this research, we examine how imagined contact with a specific individual animal (i.e., dog, cow) impacts on participants' positive attitudes toward this individual's animal subgroup (i.e., pets, farm animals) and also toward a more superordinate group (i.e., an...

There are many different ways that people can express their support for the animals that exist in factory farms. This study draws on insights from the social identity approach, and adopts novel methods (latent profile analysis [LPA]) to examine the qualitatively different subgroups or profiles that comprise broader community positions on this issue...

People deeply value their social bonds with companion animals, yet routinely devalue other animals, considering them mere commodities to satisfy human interests and desires. Despite the inherently social and intergroup nature of these complexities, social psychology is long overdue in integrating human-animal relations in its theoretical frameworks...

Our relations with other animals are ubiquitous in human life, yet the psychological structure of our connection with animals is just beginning to receive empirical attention. Drawing on theories of social identification and intergroup relations, we investigate the various ways that people identify with animals. Across 7 studies, we introduce the I...

Drawing on conservation of resources theory and self-determination theory, coworker support and work motivation were investigated as resources that should buffer or mitigate the negative consequences of career insecurity for professional musicians. We surveyed 200 professional musicians. Analyses revealed that only those musicians with low career i...

The nature of our relationships with nonhuman animals is complex and varies greatly across different types and species of animals. The goal of the current research is to investigate the differences that exist in our perceptions of animals based on their type, specifically by focusing on the phenomenon of compartmentalization. Two studies investigat...

Multiculturals encounter normative cultural conflicts (intrapersonal conflicts between their cultures’ norms). Yet, no research has examined how these conflicts are managed, nor their antecedents and repercussions. This paper examined how these conflicts are managed using two sets of conflict management strategies (active and agreeable) and tested...

It has been suggested that pets provide the opportunity for humans to develop more positive attitudes and relationships toward a wider range of animal types—including toward non-pet animals—this is called the “pets as ambassadors” hypothesis. In this study, we build both on research conducted on human–animal relations and in social psychology to in...

Whitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise...

Americans’ support for policies targeting Muslims was hotly debated during the 2016 presidential campaign. This study of U.S.‐born White Americans seeks to move beyond explanations of this political polarization as a matter of liberal versus conservative, Democrat versus Republicans by focusing on the content of the superordinate American identity,...

Both epidemiological studies and randomised controlled trials have shown that meat-eating can be harmful to human health. Meat-eating is also considered to be a moral issue, impacting negatively on the environment and the welfare of animals. To date, very little scientific research has aimed to reduce this dietary behavior. Therefore, the current r...

Globalization impacts the identities of millions. This research first investigates whether participating in a new cultural group predicts higher identification with it while remaining in one’s group of origin. Second, it tests whether the association between identification with the new group (following participation) and with the group of origin de...

Introduction. A substantial body of work has established that friendship is an important non-kin interpersonal relationship, with many positive outcomes. An issue with this literature is that it originated primarily in anglocentric Euro-American societies, when several studies have shown that the meaning of friendship varies across cultural setting...

Two two-wave studies were used to examine the proposition that identity centrality enhances the effectiveness of stressor acceptance in the face of group-based stressors. Study 1 was conducted in newly commencing psychology students (N=154). Stressor intensity, psychology student identity centrality, and attempted stressor acceptance were measured...

Important life transitions – such as migration – have the potential to enrich one's sense of self, but they are also demanding and challenging. The current research investigates how cultural identities change and become configured over time among newly arrived international students and the social factors that predict these longitudinal changes. A...

----- Full text accessible at : https://www.apa-hai.org/human-animal-interaction/haib/2017/volume-5-no-1/ ------ According to the pets as ambassadors hypothesis (Serpell & Paul, 1994), contact with pets can promote more positive attitudes toward animals in general and serve as a springboard toward concerns for a broader range of animals. Building o...

The current experiment was conducted among ice hockey fans, and brings together theories of intergroup relations and self and identity literature. It investigated if perceiving strong norms in favor of derogating against fans of outgroup teams, and engaging in these behaviors oneself, leads to an increased compartmentalization of these behaviors (i...

Human-animal relations is an emerging field of study in social psychology and a topic that is gaining increased social and theoretical attention. Contact theory was applied to the context of human-animal relations to examine whether greater contact with a certain subgroup of animals (i.e., pets) leads to more positive attitudes toward this particul...

This research integrates different social psychological theories to test whether human–animal similarity promotes affiliation with animals and lowers the need to affirm humans’ superiority relative to animals. On the basis of theories of intergroup relations, terror management theory, and work conducted in the field of human–animal relations, we ex...

We test if the motivating potential of active work and the demotivating consequences of high-strain work can be explained by the " quality " of motivation experienced. Study 1, an experiment (N=205), revealed active work maintained intrinsic motivation and identified regulation (compared to baseline). High-strain work decreased these motivations. M...

This research investigates how group members subjectively feel about their prosocial vs. harmful intergroup behaviors, and whether these behaviors can represent who they are more globally as a person. Three experiments tested how group norms (pro-merit/parity vs. pro-discrimination) and congruence with these norms predicted compartmentalization of...

This research integrates self-determination theory and the social identity approach to investigate the notion of collective (group level) self-determination, and to test how the agent of intergroup help (helping initiated by a group representative versus group members) shapes group members’ motives and support for intergroup helping. Study 1 (N = 4...

This work adopts a perspective that construes acculturation as a dynamic intergroup process, and social contact with members of the new community as a key mechanism underlying cultural adaptation. We argue that migrants’ initial self-reported mainstream cultural orientation constitutes an important antecedent of early social participation in the ne...

Objectives Research on passion has demonstrated the existence of two roads toward sports performance through the effects of deliberate practice (Vallerand et al., 2007, 2008). The first emanates from harmonious passion (HP) and contributes to both performance and psychological well-being. The second stems from obsessive passion (OP), and performanc...

Interactions with animals are pervasive in human life, a fact that is reflected in the burgeoning field of human-animal relations research. The goal of the current research was to examine the psychology of our social connection with other animals, by specifically developing a measure of solidarity with animals. In 8 studies using correlational, exp...

The present research examines perceived discrimination as a predictor of how multicultural individuals negotiate and configure their different cultural identities within the self. We focused on three multicultural identity configurations: having one predominant identity (categorization), compartmentalizing one’s different identities, and integratin...

Identity integration, and more specifically, the subtractive pattern of cultural identification, is investigated in this article. This pattern is hypothesized to occur when individuals integrate a new group identity of higher and legitimate status than their original identity, resulting in lower identification with the original group. The first stu...

Two correlational studies of activists examined the association between belonging to community organizations or groups and sustained activism within a particular domain. In Study 1 (N = 45) larger activist networks, controlling for activist identification and greater political knowledge, were associated with stronger activism intentions. In Study 2...

The goal of this study was to test how group power and its perceived stability affect group members’ individual feelings of collective hopelessness. Specifically, we applied postulates from the hopelessness literature to examine individual responses to group-level issues. We verified if perceiving that a disadvantaging intergroup (low power) situat...

This study explored the role of linguistic variables (fluency in both official languages, passing in both official languages and University affiliation) and identity variables (centrality and satisfaction towards the new cultural group) in the acquisition of a new cultural identity among international students in Canada. Two hundred and fifty four...

For human groups, contact, and especially cross-group friendship, can promote identification with a common ingroup. Turning to human-animal relations, we investigated how contact with different animals predicts higher identification with all animals and if pets can act as cross-group friends. Study 1 revealed that contact with animals in general wa...

Covering a topic applicable to fields ranging from education to health care to psychology, this book provides a broad critical analysis of the assumptions that researchers and practitioners have about causation and explains how readers can improve their thinking about causation. In virtually every laboratory, research center, or classroom focused o...

We are grateful to the editors for this stimulating opportunity to reflect on the nature of causality in our field, focusing on the social psychology of collective action and political behavior. Harré and Moghaddam in their introductory chapter of this volume identify a number of dimensions along which causality may be mapped, and we shall follow t...

We investigate the extent to which individuals' global motivation (self-determined and non-self-determined types) influences adjustment (anxiety, positive reappraisal) and engagement (intrinsic motivation, task performance) in reaction to changes to the level of work control available during a work simulation. Participants (N = 156) completed 2 tri...

This Special Issue on collective harmdoing aims to explore, from the perspective of the perpetrator, the association between harmdoing and well-being, and the processes through which people engage and disengage from harmdoing. We present 6 articles, comprising 3 theoretical analyses and 3 empirical articles, that represent a diversity of perspectiv...

It has been hypothesized that pets could act as ambassadors for other animals in extending our feeling of belonging (Paul & Serpell, 1994). The present research aimed to push further this hypothesis by empirically testing if pets could also act as ambassadors of nature itself. This effect could be explained by a mechanism whereby identification wit...

Many studies investigating human-animal relations have focused on the effect of our relationships with pets. A broader perspective could explore if these relationships are linked to our attitudes towards all animals – in other words, if pets act as ambassadors for all animals (Serpell & Paul, 1994). Pets could promote our feeling of belonging and i...

Objectives: The research investigating how one’s multiple cultural identities are configured within the self has yet to account for existing cultural identity configurations aside from integration, and for identifying with more than 2 cultural groups at once. The current research addresses these issues by constructing the Multicultural Identity Int...

How people come to develop a feeling of belongingness to a new social group and orchestrate this new group membership with pre-existing identities within the self-concept is a theoretically and socially relevant phenomenon that has received increased scientific attention in recent years. Models from different fields of psychology – including social...

Dans nos sociétés changeantes, les individus multiculturels sont souvent confrontés à différentes réalités concernant leurs cultures qui peuvent leur occasionner des conflits culturels normatifs (ou conflits entre les normes culturelles; Giguère et al., 2010). Ces circonstances sont intenses et difficiles à gérer pour les gens multiculturels étant...

Nonhuman animals are ubiquitous to human life, and permeate a diversity of social contexts by providing humans with food and clothing, serving as participants in research, improving healing, and offering entertainment, leisure, and companionship. Despite the impact that animals have on human lives and vice versa, the field of psychology has barely...

Understanding how neural processes involved in punishing and rewarding others are altered by group membership and personality traits is critical in order to gain a better understanding of how socially important phenomena such as racial and group biases develop. Participants in an fMRI study (n = 48) gave rewards (money) or punishments (electroshock...

As the various chapters of this volume attest, motivation is vital in driving and shaping interpersonal relationships. Although self-determination research has given careful consideration to the interpersonal aspects of motivation, it is only in the past 5 years or so that a self-determination theory perspective of intergroup processes has begun to...

Different cultural identities can be associated positively or negatively with each other and hence differently organised in the self. We hypothesize that, for recent immigrants, a negative association between cultural identities will be linked to opposing levels of needs satisfied (autonomy, competence, relatedness) by their cultural group. In cont...

Comment un individu arrive-il à émettre des actes discriminatoires de telle sorte qu’ils sont émis par choix et deviennent intériorisés? Alors que les normes sociales de nos groupes influencent leur intériorisation et endossement autodéterminé (Amiot & al., 2013), il reste à déterminer quels processus peuvent faciliter cette intériorisation. Le fai...

This experimental study (n = 115) investigates how group norms and individuals' congruence with these norms predicted internalization (i.e., self-determination) of an illegal behavior. We manipulated ingroup norms in favor of versus against illegal downloading of software, and assessed participants' behavioral intentions, their motivations for emit...

Bringing together self-determination theory, intergroup theories based on the social identity approach, and normative approaches, three studies conducted among hockey fans tested if social norms and social identity predict greater self-determined motivation to engage in derogatory behaviours against an outgroup team and higher frequency of these be...

Cette étude s’est intéressée aux processus favorisant l’émission et l’intériorisation de comportements discriminatoires. Il a été démontré que les normes sociales prônées par les groupes auxquels nous nous identifions influencent l’émission et l’endossement autodéterminé de ces comportements (Amiot & al., 2013). Il reste par contre à déterminer les...

Considerable research has explored the variables that affect the success of newcomer on-boarding, socialization, and retention. We build on this research by examining how newcomer socialization is affected by the degree to which newcomers’ peers and leaders provide them with positive feedback. We refer to newcomers’ perceptions of this feedback as...

The present research applies a self‐determination theory framework to capture the broad spectrum of reasons why individuals engage in harmful normative behaviors. This correlational study (N = 242) focused on harmful behaviors that were either supported by one's in‐group or not. Participants whose in‐group encourages them to engage in a harmful beh...

This article proposes that all psychologists—and all psychologies—are innately concerned with justice, and yet there is no consensually defined discipline of psychology, and no consensual understanding of social justice. Adopting an intergroup and identity-based model of what is and what should be, we will describe the mechanisms whereby identities...

Social identity is considered a key social psychological variable to understand intergroup behaviors. Given that social identity has been associated with divergent outcomes (e.g., individual well-being, helping behaviors, ingroup bias), we investigated which dimensions of social identification yield these divergent consequences. To this aim, the pr...

Objective This article tested whether hockey fans' selfdetermined and non self-determined motivation for engaging in derogatory behaviors against an outgroup team predicted the frequency of these behaviors, fans' psychological well-being, and the quality of their social identity as a fan of their team. The two psychological theories we employ in th...

Reports an error in "Self-Determination, Control, and Reactions to Changes in Workload: A Work Simulation" by Stacey L. Parker, Nerina L. Jimmieson and Catherine E. Amiot (Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Mar 4, 2013, np). There are errors in Hypothesis 2 (a) and Hypothesis 4 (a). Hypothesis 2 (a) should read,...

Understanding the experiences of multicultural individuals is vital in our diverse populations. Multicultural people often need to navigate the different norms and values associated with their multiple cultural identities. Recent research on multicultural identification has focused on how individuals with multiple cultural groups manage these diffe...

The objective of this experimental study is to capture the dynamic temporal processes that occur in changing work settings and to test how work control and individuals' motivational predispositions interact to predict reactions to these changes. To this aim, we examine the moderating effects of global self-determined and non-self-determined motivat...

Social identity is a key social psychological variable to understand intergroup behaviours. Over and above the different dimensions of social identity (e.g., quality or degree of identification), recent research has looked at different forms of social identity, such as the clarity of one's collective identity, the self-determined motivations underl...

Conducted during the merger between two hospitals, this longitudinal study (N = 149) revealed that at both Time 1 (i.e., questionnaire completed 12 months prior to the merger) and Time 2 (completed 1 year after the merger had been implemented), employees from the low-status premerger organization generally reported lower adjustment to the merger. W...

Newcomer turnover is a major cost to organizations, and the quality of new employees' experiences in the first few months is critical in determining whether they decide to stay or leave. In a study that focused on the first stage of newcomer socialization, we investigate the impact of perceptions of social validation from the team and the team lead...

We live in an ever-changing social world, which constantly demands adjustment to our identities and actions. Advances in science, technology and medicine, political upheaval, and economic development are just some examples of social change that can impact upon how we live our lives, how we view ourselves and each other, and how we communicate. Thre...

Bringing self-determination theory to understand why intergroup behaviors are emitted, two studies were conducted to investigate how group norms and individuals' congruence with these norms predicted self-determination to pursue two types of intergroup behaviors (parity and discrimination). Experiment 1 (N = 97) manipulated ingroup norms in favor o...

Social identity is considered a key social psychological variable to understanding intergroup behaviors. Given that social identity has been associated with both positive (e.g., well-being, helping behaviors) and negative consequences (e.g., ingroup bias, nationalism), it remains to be explained which dimensions of social identification yield these...