Emma Aurora Renström

Kristianstad University | HKR

Misogynistic attitudes have surged in the past few years and the “manosphere” – an online milieu promoting toxic and rigid masculinity norms – is often seen as an arena for spreading such ideas. Within the manosphere, manfluencers (i.e., male influencers who espouse misogynistic content and beliefs) are known for trying to persuade men to view wome...

In the present work, we addressed the relationship between parental leave policies and social norms. Using a pre‐registered, cross‐national approach, we examined the relationship between parental leave policies and the perception of social norms for the gender division of childcare. In this study, 19,259 students (11,924 women) from 48 countries in...

Gender is traditionally conceptualized as a binary construct, which is reflected in the use of binary‐gendered third‐person pronouns. Gender‐inclusive pronouns such as singular they challenge this conceptualization, which can evoke resistance against their use. Singular they can be used generically when gender is unknown (de‐gendering), or to speci...

Collective action is a powerful tool for social change and is fundamental to women and girls’ empowerment on a societal level. Collective action towards gender equality could be understood as intentional and conscious civic behaviors focused on social transformation, questioning power relations, and promoting gender equality through collective effo...

Background Gender stereotypes about women and men have a complementary structure, where women and men are seen as high/low in feminine characteristics and low/high in masculine characteristics. These stereotypes are related to representation within social roles, where beliefs about social role occupation influences which characteristics are associa...

The question of how people develop extreme, radical or even terrorist ideas and behaviors is one which is attracting more and more scientific attention. There are many factors that contribute to such extremist attitudes. This book focuses on one specific contributor which has received only little attention in the past: social exclusion. Recent rese...

Trust in climate scientists is critical for public awareness and engagement in mitigating climate change. Previous research has shown that right-wing political ideology is associated with lower trust in climate scientists, yet the predominant focus on Western countries raises questions about the universality of this relationship. Addressing this ga...

Climate mitigation constitutes an intergenerational moral dilemma; the decisions we make today will inevitably shape the prospects for generations to come. Yet, we still know little about the relationship between intergenerational altruism—our concerns for the well-being of future generations—and support for costly climate mitigation policies. In t...

This study explores how rising economic costs of climate mitigation policies differentially shape climate policy support among the political left and right. To this end, we randomly manipulate how much consumption costs increase as a result of four different climate mitigation policies and study how different cost scenarios influence policy support...

This study investigates prescriptive (how women and men should be) and proscriptive (how women and men should not be) gender stereotypes in Sweden and how these stereotypes relate to self‐ascribed gendered traits. In an online survey with students at three major universities ( N = 679) it was found that participants believed that the societal view...

Research on gender-fair language aims to identify language inclusive to a multitude of individuals, for example, increasing the visibility of women by using paired pronouns (he/she) instead of generic masculine forms (he). However, binary presentations like he/she might come with unwanted side effects and evoke what we label as normative gender bia...

Background Gender stereotypes about women and men have a complementary structure, where women and men are seen as high/low in feminine characteristics and low/high in masculine characteristics. These stereotypes are related to representation within social roles, where beliefs about social role occupation influences which characteristics are associa...

How does elite communication influence affective polarization between partisan groups? Drawing on the literature on partisan source cues, we expect that communication from in- or outgroup party representatives will increase affective polarization. We argue that polarized social identities are reinforced by partisan source cues, which bias perceptio...

Introduction How does threat motivate political choices? An extensive literature has noted the importance of threat in influencing political behavior. A growing literature in political psychology has used the concept of “mortality salience” to examine the role of existential threat in political decisions. Scholars have argued that inducing mortalit...

Climate change denial tends to be prevalent among right-wing populists, but the reasons for this are not clear. This study aimed to examine the association between climate change denial and attitudinal variables associated with contemporary right-wing populism. Specifically, we focused on the mediating role of trust, or lack thereof, in climate sci...

Why do some individuals feel hostility and express bias against supporters of other political parties? Drawing on intergroup threat theory, we examine the role of emotions as a mechanism by which perceived threats against the ingroup are a source of increased affective polarization. In two survey experiments performed in the multiparty contexts of...

This article aimed to explore individual level factors as predictors of misogynistic attitudes. Given that misogyny and activity on online forums related to so called incel-dom is growing and has been identified as a terrorist threat, it becomes important to better understand the underpinnings of misogynistic attitudes, also in a normal population....

Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identifi...

Previous research has shown that language in job adverts implicitly communicates gender stereotypes, which, in turn, influence employees’ perceived fit with the job. In this way, language both reflects and maintains a gender segregated job market. The aim of this study was to test whether, and how, language in organizational descriptions reflects g...

Languages differ in how grammatically salient gender is. We explored if grammatically gender-neutral pronouns in Finnish and Turkish, two grammatically genderless languages, are gender neutral or male biased, thereby activating male, rather than female, exemplars. We also tested whether differences in national level gender equality influence the ma...

Introduction Recently, the abortion issue has entered the spotlight in the USA, leading to potential radical actions. As the majority opinion on the abortion issue vary with state, some individuals will be in the numerical minority within their state, possibly evoking feelings of exclusion. Social exclusion can motivate a radicalization process. Th...

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflec...

What makes people affectively polarized? Affective polarization is based on the idea that partisanship can be a social identity leading to polarization in the form of intergroup distancing between the own party and the other parties. In this study, we argue that perceived threats from an outgroup can spur affective polarization. To investigate this...

This chapter describes and integrates different psychological perspectives on the topic of political participation. Political participation is broadly defined, ranging from peaceful actions to violence, and includes both online and offline processes. After an introduction of the field of political psychology, the chapter discusses the role of socia...

This paper explored how the source of exclusion (ingroup/outgroup) influences ingroup identification and political engagement. It is well documented that social exclusion has a negative impact on individuals' well‐being, but less is known how it affects identification with the ingroup, and subsequent behavior. In two studies, one survey (N = 193) a...

The electoral success of radical right parties throughout Western Europe is the biggest change to these formerly stable party systems. Several studies have identified that mainstream parties can shape the trajectory of radical right parties. Our aim is to contribute to this literature, and to investigate if and how radical right parties gain from m...

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, many governments tried to contain the spread of the virus by legally restricting social life and imposing national lockdowns. The Swedish government did not enforce a national lockdown, but instead appealed to the individual’s self-responsibility to follow specific containment recommendations developed by the...

What explains affective polarization among voters and societal groups? Much of the existing literature focusing on mass political polarization in modern democracies originates in the US, where studies have shown that, while ideological separation has grown, political conflict increasingly reflects social identity divisions rather than policy disagr...

The Swedish gender-inclusive pronoun hen can be used generically (referring to anyone), or specifically (referring to non-binary gender identities). Three studies tested evaluations and use of hen, and individual level predictors. In Study 1 (N = 2145) specific hen was slightly favoured over generic hen. In Study 2 (N = 297) hen was more negatively...

This article explores how emotions connected to the Government’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak in Sweden relates to behaviors to stop the spread of the virus, and which emotions functions as mediators in this relationship. The Swedish approach to handling the outbreak greatly differed from how many other Western European countries handled the s...

Gender-inclusive language, such as the Swedish pronoun hen, may aid in breaking a binary notion of gender and avoid sexism. The present study followed the implementation of a gender-inclusive third-person pronoun singular (hen) in Swedish in two surveys with representative samples in 2015 (at the time when hen was introduced in the official Swedish...

The current research addresses gender trouble (acts that question the naturalness of a binary gender system) in two parts of the recruitment situation: applicant attraction and evaluation. Experiment 1 (N = 1,147) investigated how different Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statements in an organization description influenced organizational evalua...

The Covid‐19 pandemic has significantly changed the lives of most people. It has been described as the most severe global health disaster of modern times by the United Nations. No doubt such a major crisis influences what citizens think of different policies, and how they become politically active, not to mention, the forceful emotional experiences...

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated ge...

This article focuses on how party identity can shape policy support or opposition to the controversial issue of legalizing cannabis in Sweden, which is strongly opposed by the public. In a survey experiment (N = 3612), we manipulated if a message that supported or opposed a policy proposal to legalize cannabis was presented by a representative of t...

This paper tests how gender stereotypes may result in biased student evaluations of teaching (SET). We thereby contribute to an ongoing discussion about the validity and use of SET in academia. According to social psychological theory, gender biases in SET may occur because of a lack of fit between gender stereotypes, and the professional roles ind...

This article aims to explore if social exclusion can constitute a pathway to radicalization, and if individual level of sensitivity of rejection moderates the effect of social exclusion. Humans innately seek belonging and meaning, and strive for re-establishing a sense of value and belongingness if faced with social exclusion. One way to achieve th...

Hen is a Swedish gender-neutral pronoun used for non-binary individuals and as a generic singular pronoun form. Hen was added to the Swedish Academy Glossary (SAOL) in 2015, and opponents of hen have argued that gender-neutral pronouns are difficult to process, and therefore should not be used. As of yet, this has not been empirically tested. This...

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly changed the lives of most people. It has been described as the most severe global health disaster of modern times by the United Nations. No doubt such a major crisis influences what citizens think of different policies, and how they become politically active, not to mention, the forceful emotional experiences...

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many governments tried to contain the spread of the virus by legally restricting social life or even by imposing national lock-downs. The Swedish government on the other hand, appealed to the individual’s self-responsibility to behave according to specific containment recommendations published by the Public Hea...

The gender-neutral third-person pronoun singular hen was recently introduced in Swedish as a complement to she (hon) and he (han). The initiative to add hen initially received strong criticism. In the present study, we analyzed 208 arguments from 168 participants with critical attitudes toward hen. We used Blaubergs’ (1980) and Parks and Roberton’s...

In the Western world, gender/sex is traditionally viewed as binary, with people falling into one of two categories: male or female. This view of gender/sex has started to change, triggering some resistance. This research investigates psychological mechanisms underlying that resistance. Study 1 ( N = 489, UK) explored the role of individual gender i...

As institutional forms of political engagement continue to decline, participation in protests steadily become more common. These trends are particularly strong among younger citizens. Previous research indicates that social factors can explain participation in political protests, and that younger citizens' participation in protests is more affected...

Are people more likely to become more politically active through social media when they observe that their friends are active? Previous research has shown that an individual's likelihood of engaging politically is influenced by observations of how friends act through social media, but relatively little is known about how such social influence throu...

In the social sciences, many quantitative research findings as well as presentations of demographics are related to participants’ gender. Most often, gender is represented by a dichotomous variable with the possible responses of woman/man or female/male, although gender is not a binary variable. It is, however, rarely defined what is meant by gende...

Different strategies of gender-fair language have been applied to reduce a male bias, which means the implicit belief that a word describing an undefined person describes a man. This male bias might be caused by the words themselves in terms of generic masculine or masculine forms or by androcentrism (the conflation of men with humanity). In two ex...

Clareus, B. & Renstrom, E. A. (2019). Physicians' gender bias in the diagnostic assessment of medically unexplained symptoms and its effect on patient-physician relations. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Nonspecific, functional, and somatoform (NFS) syndromes is an umbrella term for various diagnoses with medically unexplained symptoms. These s...

Previous studies on biased intergroup perceptions of outgroups’ irrationality mostly treated the target groups as opponents and rivals. In three studies, we extended this line of research and tested the hypothesis that individuals who challenge the existing social hierarchy exhibit more positive biases toward low-status outgroup members. We also hy...

Political engagement has changed during the past decade, as social media have become an important venue for political discussions and activity. Previous research has shown that an individual's likelihood of engaging politically is influenced by observations of how friends act through social media. However, still relatively little is known about how...

According to Social Role Theory, gender stereotypes are dynamic constructs influenced by actual and perceived changes in what roles women and men occupy (Wood and Eagly, 2011). Sweden is ranked as one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, with a strong national equality discourse and a relatively high number of men engaging in traditional...

Background and aims Pain is a prevalent problem in many countries. Women are more often on sick-leave for pain than men. Such gender differences have been explained through biological factors, different demands for on the job market, and home conditions. Fewer studies have focused on how gender stereotypes may bias the medical assessment of pain pa...

Purpose This study investigates the relationship between sick-listed patients’ return to work (RTW) expectancy and how they perceive that their physicians evaluate their ability and volition for RTW. Methods Hierarchical logistic regression controlling for sociodemographic factors and pain characteristics was carried out on cross-sectional data fr...

Social norms guide humans' everyday behavior, and previous research has shown that social norms consistently predict some forms of political participation. Failure to conform to norms may lead to deviation and possible rejection, which humans innately seek to avoid since it threatens their need for belongingness. Following an episode of rejection,...

A lot of research in the social sciences is more concerned with effects of adherence to gender stereotypes rather than actual sex differences. For instance, women and men vary greatly in gender traits and expressions, which in turn also varies with context. Moreover, there are also other gender identities that cut across or go beyond the traditiona...

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between sick-listed patients’ expectancy to return to work (RTW) with how they perceive that their physicians evaluate their ability and volition to RTW. Methods: Hierarchical logistic regression controlling for sociodemographic factors and pain characteristics was carried out on cross-sectional dat...

One reason why people avoid using social media to express their opinions is to avert social sanctions as proposed by the spiral of silence theory. We here elaborate on individual-level sensitivity to social rejection in relation to voicing political opinions on social media sites. Given the uncertainty about sharing political views in social media,...

It is a human fundamental to desire to be valued, loved and respected - to be significant. Social exclusion induce significance loss which elicits a 'quest for significance' - the search for opportunities to re-gain significance. The present article establishes this relation in a laboratory experiment (N = 71, mean age = 28, SD = 10.42, 65% women,...

Poster presentation on ongoing research into Social Role Theory in Sweden.

Much of identity formation processes nowadays takes place online, indicating that intergroup differentiation may be found in online communities. This paper focuses on identity formation processes in an open online xenophobic, anti-immigrant, discussion forum. Open discussion forums provide an excellent opportunity to investigate open interactions t...

Spectator violence is an issue that affects many football matches in Sweden and other countries. Different models have tried to explain why individuals participate in sports fandom and associated behaviors. However, often these models ignore social and individual factors that may impact if and why individuals participate in spectator violence. Outg...

Why do people engage in collective actions, such as demonstrations? We suggest that intentions to engage in protest activities come from the perception that the action is an efficient way to affect policy but is also dependent upon the level of others’ engagement. Specifically, lower support should spur intentions to engage if the individual believ...

Abstract In this report, we present the demographics of a community sample of 1184 Swedish adults (Mage = 48.72, SD = 12.17; 75.5 % women, 1.3 % other or undisclosed gender identity) who currently experience physical pain of various origins. Data was collected through an internet survey advertised through patient societies, social media, and health...