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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
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August 2009 - December 2016
Publications
Publications (42)
Despite growing recognition of the need for cross-national or cross-cultural validation of measures in social psychological research, tension persists between proponents of measurement invariance and practitioners frustrated with stringent standards and ambiguous recommendations. This article critiques common applications of measurement invariance...
The current research offers a cross-cultural examination of transgender prejudice, with a particular focus on the role of gender. Analyses of a survey conducted in 23 countries (with N’s ranging from 485 to 1,098) representing both Western and non-Western societies showed that there is greater bias toward transgender women (vs. men) overall, among...
This article critically assesses the role of measurement invariance techniques in psychology and cross-national research. Despite growing awareness of the need for cross-cultural equivalence in social psychological studies, tension exists between proponents of measurement invariance and practitioners who may find recommended standards overly strict...
Despite growing recognition of the need for cross-national or cross-cultural validation of measures in social psychological research, tension persists between proponents of measurement invariance and practitioners frustrated with stringent standards and ambiguous recommendations. This article critiques common applications of measurement invariance...
We examined whether gay men (Studies 1–2) and lesbian women (Study 1) who harbor internalized stigma due to their sexuality will desire a romantic relationship that reflects conventional, complementary gender roles where one partner is stereotypically feminine and the other is stereotypically masculine, in terms of both personality traits and divis...
Despite the fact that gay men and lesbian women face significant economic disparities compared to their heterosexual counterparts, people appear to believe that the opposite is true, a phenomenon which has been dubbed the “myth of gay affluence.” In the current research (Ntot = 2,162), we address the consequences of this belief. Specifically, we hy...
Background
The COVID‐19 pandemic in Italy represents a unique threat in terms of psychological distress. This cross‐sectional study aims to investigate the psychological health of Italian healthcare professionals during the COVID‐19 outbreak. We assessed participants’ current psychological distress and coping strategies in the midst of the COVID ou...
Despite the fact that women face socially and politically sanctioned disadvantages every day, a large percentage of women and men report that gender discrimination is no longer a problem. Across three studies, which together include over 20,000 participants from 23 countries, we test the hypothesis that denial (vs. acknowledgement) of gender discri...
Beliefs that justify or rationalizing existing inequalities appear to serve a ‘palliative function’, insofar as they are associated with better subjective well-being and physical health. We review the most recent work on the relationship between system-justifying ideologies and subjective well-being, with a particular focus on (1) system justifying...
Background–The pandemic of COVID-19 in Italy represents a unique threat in terms of psychological distress, especially among healthcare professionals. This study represents a first attempt to investigate both the psychological states and coping strategies of Italian healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak. Importantly, we assessed psy...
Dominant accounts of sexual prejudice posit that negative attitudes toward nonheterosexual individuals are stronger for male (vs. female) targets, higher among men (vs. women), and driven, in part, by the perception that gay men and lesbian women violate traditional gender norms. We test these predictions in 23 countries, representing both Western...
Although leader role expectations appear to have become relatively more compatible with stereotypically feminine attributes like empathy, women continue to be highly underrepresented in leadership roles. We posit that one reason for this disparity is that, whereas stereotypically feminine traits are appreciated as nice “add-ons” for leaders, it is...
Across three studies, we examine the correlates of subjective well-being and mental and physical health among members of a historically disadvantaged group, namely, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Results show those who minimize (vs. acknowledge) the extent to which their group is the target of discrimination report bett...
The present research investigated social and biological intergroup hierarchy beliefs in the US and South Korea, representative Northern European-heritage and East Asian cultures, respectively. We hypothesized that individual-orientation (the emphasis on individuals and individual achievements) and group-orientation (the emphasis on groups and effic...
The present research links a nonsocial, contextual influence (construal level) to the tendency to endorse genetic attributions for individual and social group differences. Studies 1 to 3 show that people thinking in an abstract (vs. concrete) mind-set score higher on a measure of genetic attributions for individual and racial group differences. Stu...
Decades of research have shown that education reduces individuals' prejudices toward people who belong to different groups, but this research has focused predominantly on prejudice toward ethnic/ racial groups, immigrant groups, and general nonconformists. However, it is not clear whether education reduces other prejudices against groups along diff...
Two studies evaluated the lay belief that women feel particularly negatively about other women in the workplace and particularly in supervisory roles. We tested the general proposition, derived from social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; 2004), that women, compared to men, may be more supportive of other women in positions of authority, whe...
Across two studies, we find evidence for our prediction that experimentally increasing feelings of physical safety increases conservatives’ socially progressive attitudes. Specifically, Republican and conservative participants who imagined being endowed with a superpower that made them invulnerable to physical harm (vs. the ability to fly) were mor...
We examine how feelings of power affect gender identification and the endorsement of sexism. Participants wrote essays about a time when they felt powerful or powerless (Studies 1–3) or about an event unrelated to power (Studies 2–3). Then, they reported how much they identified with their gender group. When primed with high power, women reported l...
In an attempt to explain why the gender gap in leadership positions persists, we propose a model centered on legitimacy. When women hold powerful positions, they have a harder time than men eliciting respect and admiration (i.e., status) from subordinates. As a result, female power-holders are seen as less legitimate than male power-holders. Unless...
Construal level theory posits that that when people are thinking abstractly (vs. concretely) they rely more on their core and consistent attitudes and values. However, past research has been mixed on whether abstract thinking causes liberals and conservatives to become more or less polarized. In the current research, we examine how identity salienc...
Moral foundations theory contends that people's morality goes beyond concerns about justice and welfare, and asserts that humans have five innate foundations of morality: harm and fairness (individualizing foundations) and in-group loyalty, deference to authority, and purity (binding foundations). The current research investigates whether people's...
Whereas much social psychological research has focused on the conditions that lead to political conservatism, the current research suggests that instilling a sense of intergroup interdependence can increase political liberalism and, in turn, foster concern for universal welfare. Using both correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) methodol...
This research investigated cultural differences in stigmatization of out-groups representing Goffman's distinction between “tribal stigma” and “blemishes of character.” We hypothesized that “group-oriented” (vs. individual-oriented) cultures would be more likely to stigmatize nonnormative groups, including tribal out-groups (people of a different r...
Myrdal (1944) described the "American dilemma" as the conflict between abstract national values ("liberty and justice for all") and more concrete, everyday prejudices. We leveraged construal-level theory to empirically test Myrdal's proposition that construal level (abstract vs. concrete) can influence prejudice. We measured individual differences...
Basic Tenets of the Uncertainty-Threat Model and Metaanalytic EvidenceAddressing Criticisms, Limitations, and Unresolved IssuesTesting the Uncertainty-Threat Model of Political ConservatismSummary and DiscussionConclusion
References
A consequential ideology in Western society is the uncontested belief that a committed relationship is the most important adult relationship and that almost all people want to marry or seriously couple (DePaulo & Morris, 2005). In the present article, we investigated the extent to which the system justification motive may contribute to the adoption...
Previous research on system justification theory suggests that beliefs that rationalize inequalities are related to subjective
well-being. We examine how “complementary” (hostile and benevolent) justifications of gender inequality may serve a palliative
function for both men and women. Using multilevel modeling and data from 32 countries (N’s = 362...
The Antidemocratic PersonalityPsychological Aspects of the Authoritarian SyndromeIs Authoritarianism Related to Political Orientation?Is Working-Class Authoritarianism Associated with Economic Liberalism?Overview and Aims of This ResearchMethod
ResultsGeneral DiscussionReferences
Ideology has re-emerged as an important topic of inquiry among social, personality, and political psychologists. In this review, we examine recent theory and research concerning the structure, contents, and functions of ideological belief systems. We begin by defining the construct and placing it in historical and philosophical context. We then exa...
A large research literature on procedural justice demonstrates that people are more accepting of decisions that they do not
feel are advantageous or fair when those decisions are arrived at using just procedures. Recently, several papers (Skitka,
Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 28:588–597, 2002; Skitka and Mullen, Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 28:1419–1429, 2002)...
More than 60 years ago, psychologists identified a potential threat to democracy from within, namely the “antidemocratic personality” arising from the “authoritarian syndrome.” It was soon discovered that the problem of authoritarianism was especially acute among those who were low in education and income, and that it was associated with intoleranc...
The authors propose that the high levels of support often observed for governmental and religious systems can be explained, in part, as a means of coping with the threat posed by chronically or situationally fluctuating levels of perceived personal control. Three experiments demonstrated a causal relation between lowered perceptions of personal con...
In this research, we drew on system-justification theory and the notion that conservative ideology serves a palliative function to explain why conservatives are happier than liberals. Specifically, in three studies using nationally representative data from the United States and nine additional countries, we found that right-wing (vs. left-wing) ori...
Three studies are conducted to assess the uncertainty- threat model of political conservatism, which posits that psychological needs to manage uncertainty and threat are associated with political orientation. Results from structural equation models provide consistent support for the hypothesis that uncertainty avoidance (e.g., need for order, intol...
We examine people's reactions to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, most of whom are minorities living in poverty, and we do so in terms of system justification theory. We propose that the social system was indirectly threatened for the public when inadequate relief efforts exposed governmental shortcomings, called into question the legitimacy of ag...
