Jolanda Jetten

The University of Queensland | UQ · School of Psychology

Understanding the factors that influence support for wealth redistribution is essential to address growing economic divides around the world. We propose that perceptions of anomie—the belief that society’s social and political fabric is crumbling—can influence support for redistribution in opposing ways. When people see society as deteriorating, th...

This paper provides the first experimental test of whether two social identity model of traumatic identity change processes—(i) group membership gain, and (ii) group membership continuity—predict post-traumatic growth (PTG) and post-traumatic stress (PTS) via social identity revitalization. Participants ( N = 210, M age = 49.59 years) were adult fl...

Humanity is facing rapid declines in both biodiversity and cultural diversity. As effective conservation policies often require strong public support, it is critical to understand whether individuals view diversity loss through a moral lens and whether they value diversity for its own sake, independent from instrumental or individual‐centric concer...

Charitable giving is often seen as a flexible and efficient way to address societal issues. However, it has also been criticised for having the potential to undermine governmental responsibility for providing public services and leading to concentrations of power. Across three studies, we investigated whether high social class is linked to viewing...

OPEN ACCESS - Research highlights the long‐term collective effects of mass human rights violations (MHRVs) on survivors’ wellbeing. This multi‐method, multi‐context paper combines the social identity approach (SIA), transitional and social justice theories and human rights‐conceptualised wellbeing to propose a human rights understanding of trauma r...

In four studies, we provide the first empirical examination of how wealth relates to cosmopolitan identity and its consequences for charitable intentions. Study 1 demonstrated that wealth positively predicted cosmopolitan identity in a 60‐nation dataset ( n = 90,350). Study 2 replicated this finding with multi‐item measures in the United States, In...

This study investigates the adverse impact of community‐level wealth inequality in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and explores the role of community strength (i.e., community identification, cohesion, and identity continuity) in potentially mitigating these negative effects. Using geo‐targeted survey data from communities affected by the 2019...

This study investigates the identity processes among second‐generation Afghans living in Iran and evaluates the relevance of the social identity model of social change (SIMIC) to understand their unique experiences. We conducted 23 in‐depth interviews and analysed the data using grounded theory method. The findings show that Afghan youths' efforts...

We examined whether perceived national status threat—i.e., perceiving that one’s country’s status on the international scene is in decline—predicts increased desire for a strong conservative or progressive leader through greater national nostalgia and collective angst. A pilot study on strong leaders’ speeches from the 2017 French presidential elec...

Opposing social movements are groups that have conflicting objectives on a shared social justice issue. To maximize the probability of their movement's success, groups can strategically portray their group in a favourable manner while discrediting their opposition. One such approach involves the construction of victimization discourses. In this res...

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to both exacerbate and ameliorate existing socioeconomic inequalities. In this article, we provide a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary overview of the potential impacts of generative AI on (mis)information and three information-intensive domains: work, education, and healthcare. Our goal is...

Many lay people believe that the best way to develop a clear sense of ‘who you are’ is to shut yourself off from others and engage in introspection. Increasingly, however, empirical evidence points to the social aspects of identities and identity development. Building on this, we argue that a strong sense of personal identity is more likely to be d...

In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the threats to health posed by loneliness. One of the main strategies that has been recommended to address this is social prescribing (SP). This typically involves general practitioners (GPs) and other health practitioners directing clients who are experiencing loneliness and related conditions...

Introduction There have been few controlled evaluations of Social Prescribing (SP), in which link workers support lonely individuals to engage with community-based social activities. This study reports early outcomes of a trial comparing General Practitioner treatment-as-usual (TAU) with TAU combined with Social Prescribing (SP) in adults experienc...

Interpersonal objectification, treating people as tools and neglecting their essential humanness, is a pervasive and enduring phenomenon. Across five studies ( N = 1183), we examined whether subjective economic inequality increases objectification through a calculative mindset. Study 1 revealed that the perceptions of economic inequality at the nat...

Losing an election can be a huge blow. As a result, most elections are associated with a mixture of trepidation and optimism (outgroup vs. ingroup political party winning, respectively). However, we propose that levels of anxiety and future dread in the context of an election are enhanced when society is characterised by deep intergroup divisions a...

Generative artificial intelligence, including chatbots like ChatGPT, has the potential to both exacerbate and ameliorate existing socioeconomic inequalities. In this article, we provide a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary overview of the probable impacts of generative AI on four critical domains: work, education, health, and information. Our goal...

Scientific evidence regularly guides policy decisions¹, with behavioural science increasingly part of this process². In April 2020, an influential paper³ proposed 19 policy recommendations (‘claims’) detailing how evidence from behavioural science could contribute to efforts to reduce impacts and end the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we assess 747 pandem...

In the present research, we introduce and develop the concept of meta‐identification – perceptions of others’ identification with a group – and examine its capacity to shape group life. Across two cross‐sectional studies and three experiments ( N total = 3992), we investigate the relationship between participants’ meta‐identification in an intragro...

When and why does a racial majority group support racial equality? In answering this question, we focused on Malaysia, a multiracial country in which the Malay majority group’s special status as one of the country’s original inhabitants is institutionalized. Across Study 1 (N = 130) and Study 2 (N = 240), we examined the extent to which Malays’ end...

Do allies in collective action have a positive impact on political efficacy? Theoretical considerations and common sense might lead us to expect that advantaged group allies will be beneficial to the success of social movements. However, across five experimental studies, with samples from the United States and Germany (three pre‐registered, total N...

Around the world, we witness not only growing levels of economic inequality but also the rise of protests whereby people from different social classes are demanding a more equal society. Our research uses a person‐centered approach to examine subgroups of participants in a social movement against inequality on the basis of their social class, inten...

Educational institutions are imbued with an institutional meritocratic discourse: only merit counts for academic success. In this article, we study whether this institutional belief has an impact beyond its primary function of encouraging students to study. We propose that belief in school meritocracy has broader societal impact by legitimizing the...

There is some evidence that organizations with higher pay inequality have more problematic social dynamics. The present research examines whether pay inequality introduces pay‐based intergroup dynamics and shapes the stereotypes of the highest‐ and lowest‐paid employees in the workplace. In two studies (a cross‐sectional survey N = 413, and an expe...

Increasing religious diversity caused by immigration is often perceived as a threat to national majority members' (non)religious worldviews. However, defensive reactions to diversity are not inevitable. Building on the social identity approach and motivated identity construction theory, we argue that (non)religious worldviews that satisfy motivatio...

Economic inequality is fuelling climate change. The question, however, remains whether the degree to which people perceive their country as unequal influences their motivation to support climate policies. Across three studies ( N = 1,459), we investigated whether perceived inequality influences people’s support for structural climate policies over...

Background There have been few controlled evaluations of Social Prescribing (SP), in which link workers support lonely individuals to engage with community-based social activities. This study reports early outcomes of a trial comparing General Practitioner treatment-as-usual (TAU) with TAU combined with Social Prescribing (SP) in adults experiencin...

Growing evidence shows that choirs improve the well-being of people experiencing chronic mental health conditions; however, the impact of performances by “recovery choirs” (i.e., singers with mental health conditions) on their community audience members has not been examined. In three studies, we explored whether performances foster positive emotio...

Whether life transitions are anticipated or unforeseen, they can be challenging to navigate because the change process involves a period of uncertainty and adjustment. Specifically, transitions often require social identity change, whereby individuals leave one or more social groups behind and join one or more groups in the new environment. Such ch...

Amid a global pandemic and the climate crisis, there is an increasing need to understand how to promote largescale, coordinated action between different groups. Yet certain factors such as inequality can hinder cooperation. We aimed to establish how to orient groups toward a superordinate goal when they have unequal resources. Participants were div...

In recent decades, the economies of many countries have produced increasingly unequal outcomes for the rich and poor. This economic trend has attracted interest from members of the media, public and political classes as well as researchers who are interested in its societal implications. While this research has traditionally been the purview of eco...

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...

Imagine that you pledge to not go online for 24 hours. How would you feel? And is your unplugging experience affected by the extent to which you believe in conspiracy theories? In two studies, we invited participants to unplug for 24 hours from all digital media and online content (e.g., internet-based television, radio, digital newspapers, smart p...

There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of w...

This paper examines key processes from the social identity model of traumatic identity change in the context of the aftermath of a natural disaster. It focuses on the roles of (i) group membership gain, (ii) group membership continuity, (iii) social identity revitalisation, and (iv) the severity of natural disaster exposure on post-traumatic growth...

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...

Social and behavioral science research proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting the substantial increase in influence of behavioral science in public health and public policy more broadly. This review presents a comprehensive assessment of 742 scientific articles on human behavior during COVID-19. Two independent teams evaluated 19 sub...

This paper explains how contemporary psychological theorising can be brought to bear on the challenges of creating and sustaining high-reliability organisations (HROs). Building on a large body of theory and evidence in the social identity tradition, we argue that social identity processes are critical to the creation of HROs. In particular, (a) th...

Rationale The slow and insidious effects of income inequality on health means that their effects can be difficult to reveal, taking many years to become apparent. These effects can also be experienced differently according to subjective status and ethnicity making the relation between income inequality and health difficult to understand. Cardiovasc...

Objectives: This study empirically investigated how conceptualizing obesity as a disease (i.e., pathologizing obesity) affects beliefs about weight, and weight stigma and discrimination among health professionals. Design: An experiment that manipulated the pathologization of obesity was completed by a multi-nation sample of health professionals...

While the relationship between loneliness and psychological distress is well documented, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are less clear. One factor known to be related to loneliness as well as psychological distress, is social support, with some studies suggesting that support–both received and provided–can serve as a mechanism to reduc...

Aim This scoping review aims to examine what determinants of behaviours, beyond knowledge, are used as per the theoretical domains framework (TDF) in relation to the research design and findings in the selected studies related to healthcare professionals and medical cannabis (MC). Subject and methods The use of MC has been legalized in various cou...

Collective victimhood and collective resilience are two sides of the same coin. However, most literature to date has focused on the experiences and consequences of collective victimhood. In the present research, we focused on the experiences of Black Americans, a group that has a legacy of victimization and resilience. As a part of Black Americans'...

Background In social prescribing, link workers support individuals whose persistent health problems are exacerbated by loneliness by connecting them to community-based social activities. This approach is well established in the UK and is gaining attention in Australia. However, a major limitation of research to date has been a lack of theoretically...

Groups are only real, and only serve as a basis for collective action, when their members perceive them to be real. For a computational model to have analytic fidelity and predictive validity it, therefore, needs to engage with the psychological reality of groups, their internal structure, and their structuring by (and of) the social context in whi...

In this 28-country study (N = 6112), we assessed how subjective perceptions and objective indicators of wealth were associated with majority group members’ perceptions of realistic threat related to immigration. Subjective wealth was assessed by individuals’ perceptions of their personal wealth (current/anticipated) and of their country´s wealth, w...

This paper explores the social connectedness experiences among older migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia. Data were collected via two rounds of semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic and cluster analysis. Participants were 40 migrants aged 66-91 years, of German, Dutch, Romanian, Chine...

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...

The present research applied the social identity approach to examine how the perceived legitimacy of weight-based discrimination among ingroup members influences their experience of their higher-weight identity and their well-being, and the conditions under which this occurs. Specifically, we investigated whether portraying weight-based discriminat...

Cesario's analysis has three key flaws. First, the focus on whether an effect is “real” (an “effects flaw”) overlooks the importance of theory testing. Second, obsession with effects (a “fetishization flaw”) sidelines theoretically informed questions about when and why an effect may arise. Third, failure to take stock of cultural and historical con...

Can perceptions of economic inequalities trigger conspiratorial thinking? We provide evidence that high economic inequality may enhance conspiratorial thinking because, as a form of collective-level crisis, it undermines the social fabric of society and engenders anomie. We focus on the mechanism through which inequality should affect conspiratoria...

The present research examines why organizations with more unequal pay structures have been found to be characterized by a range of negative workplace outcomes. Drawing on the social identity approach, we propose that higher pay disparity can increase the comparative fit of pay categories whereby the organizational “haves” (the highest paid employee...

We examined how individuals who may be labelled ‘conspiracy theorists’ respond to discrimination against ‘conspiracy theorists’. In line with the Rejection-Identification Model (Branscombe et al., 1999), we hypothesized that perceived group-based discrimination against conspiracy theorists would strengthen identification with the ‘conspiracy theori...

Amid a global pandemic and the looming climate crisis, there is an increasing need to understand how to promote largescale, coordinated action between different groups. Yet certain factors – such as inequality between groups – can hinder cooperation. We aimed to establish how to orient groups towards a superordinate goal when they have unequal reso...

We examined how individuals that may be labelled “conspiracy theorists” respond to discrimination against “conspiracy theorists”. In line with the Rejection-Identification Model (Branscombe et al., 1999), we hypothesised that perceived group-based discrimination against conspiracy theorists would strengthen identification with the “conspiracy theor...

Background: Physical activity is often promoted as a way to prevent and combat anxiety and depression in adolescents. However, very little research has sought to establish whether the benefits of exercise arise from the excercise itself or from the social context in which it takes place. We explore the hypothesis that it is not physical activity o...

Why do people support strong leaders? We examined the link between social identity continuity – the sense that a nation’s past, present, and future are interconnected – and the wish for a strong national leader. Drawing on a multi-country data set (Study 1: N = 6112) and a sample from Australia (Study 2: N = 621), Studies 1 and 2 showed that identi...

The ways in which collective memories are constructed in the present is important in explaining how people choose to commemorate their nation's history. The present research focused on the context of Australia Day, a controversial national holiday that falls on January 26, which is a date that marks the beginning of colonization. We conducted field...

In Study 1, 239 Indonesian Muslims reported their religious identification, identity fusion and their willingness to engage in peaceful and violent collective action. Both religious identification and identity fusion were positively associated with peaceful collective action. In addition, when the role of identity fusion was controlled, identificat...

We examine how polarization within societies is associated with reduced confidence in national responses to the COVID‐19 crisis. We surveyed 4,731 participants across nine countries at Wave 1 (France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, UK and US) and then at Wave 2 (three months later) recontacted 840 participants from two cou...

Two pre-registered experiments (Total N = 822) explored the effect of economic inequality on social class stereotyping and the social mechanisms driving this relationship. In both experiments, participants were randomly assigned to a fictitious society with high or low levels of inequality and rated a wealthy and a poor individual on Vertical (i.e....

Previous literature highlights the crucial role of economic inequality in triggering a range of negative societal outcomes. However, the relationship between economic inequality and the proliferation of conspiracy beliefs remains unexplored. Here, we explore the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs as an outcome of objective country-level (Study 1a, 1...

COVID-19 has had significant negative consequences for well-being. As well as the primary effects of the virus itself, secondary effects have resulted from the social isolation caused by the lockdowns imposed to slow the spread of the virus. Recognising the toxic effects of isolation, researchers, practitioners and policy-makers are conscious of th...

We examined whether (the lack of) social support can explain why researchers have found lower rates of adherence to follow public health guidelines amongst people who perceived themselves as coming from lower social class backgrounds during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, we surveyed 5818 participants from 10 countries during the first wave of l...

Economic inequality has been found to have pernicious effects, reducing mental and physical health, decreasing societal cohesion, and fueling support for nativist parties and illiberal autocratic leaders. We start this review with an outline of what social identity theorizing offers to the study of inequality. We then articulate four hypotheses tha...

Even though the meritocratic ideal is rarely fully attained in educational institutions, students’, teachers’, and parents’ belief that schools are meritocratic engines that maintain the legitimacy of these educational institutions. In this article, we study the belief in school meritocracy beyond the educational context and explore its pernicious...

Previous literature highlights the crucial role of economic inequality in triggering a range of negative societal outcomes. However, the relationship between economic inequality and the proliferation of conspiracy beliefs remains unexplored. Here, we explore the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs as an outcome of objective country-level (Study 1a, 1...

How do global citizens respond to a global health emergency? The present research examined the association between global citizen identification and prosociality using two cross-national datasets—the World Values Survey (Study 1, N = 93,338 from 60 countries and regions) and data collected in 11 countries at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (Stud...

Research has linked economically unequal environments to lower prosocial behavior in adults. However, we know little about how inequality affects children’s prosociality. Here, 4- to 9-year-old children (N = 128) played a series of games with several puppets where points were awarded. The distribution of points was characterized by either high ineq...

Polarization in society may hold consequences beyond the undermining of social cohesion. Here we provide the first evidence highlighting the power of perceived moral polarization in society to drive support for strong leaders. Across two studies and four samples drawn from the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States (N = 1,664), we found e...

It is often assumed that, in Western societies, Christian values are embedded in national identities, yet, the association between religious identities and prejudice has seldom been studied in parallel to national identity. According to both the social identity theory approach and integrated threat theory, group identification is important for perc...

There is evidence that in more economically unequal societies, social relations are more strained. We argue that this may reflect the tendency for wealth to become a more fitting lens for seeing the world, so that in economically more unequal circumstances, people more readily divide the world into “the haves” and “have nots.” Our argument is suppo...

This study investigates contributors to social well-being from the perspective of older migrants in Australia. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 33 participants in the 66–91-year age group, from Chinese, Vietnamese, Dutch, and German heritage backgrounds. At the time of the study, they were clients of a community service prov...

Economic inequality has been linked to profound negative impacts due to its corrosive effect on social relations, and fairness is central to this. In line with social cure theorising, we propose that identification with (superordinate) groups can buffer against these effects. Study 1 ( N = 400) found that perceived fairness of inequality was negati...

This review argues that a distinctly positive form of social connection is made possible by the social identities that people derive from psychologically meaningful group memberships. These connections have important implications for mental health by virtue of their distinct capacity to furnish people with a sense of collective meaning, purpose, su...

Climate change-induced disasters (e.g., bushfires, droughts, and flooding) occur more frequently and with greater intensity than in previous decades. Disasters can at times fuel social change but that is not guaranteed. To understand whether disasters lead to status quo maintenance or social change, we propose a model (Social Identity Model of Post...

A growing body of research suggests that inequality can be stressful for all within a society. We consider this assertion by exploring whether there is evidence of physiological stress responses to different income and inequality conditions in a hypothetical society. The combined effect of inequality for different income groups on cardiovascular re...

Living together in culturally plural societies poses numerous challenges for members of ethnocultural groups and for the larger society. An important goal of these societies is to achieve positive intercultural relations among all its peoples. Successful management of these relations depends on many factors including a research-based understanding...

There is evidence that democracies are under threat around the world while the quest for strong leaders is increasing. Although the causes of these developments are complex and multifaceted, here we focus on one factor: the extent to which citizens express materialist and post-materialist concerns. We explore whether objective higher levels of demo...

Across two experiments, children aged 4–6 years (N = 120) played a series of games with six puppets where each accrued tokens to exchange for stickers. Children were high or low earners, experiencing high inequality in Experiment 1 and low inequality in Experiment 2. Prosocial behavior towards the puppets assessed how children treat those who direc...

We provide a meta-analytical review examining two decades of work on the relationship between individuals’ social identifications and health in organizations (102 effect sizes, k = 58, N = 19,799). Results reveal a mean-weighted positive association between organizational identification and health (r = .21, T = .14). Analysis identified a positive...