L. Vezzali

• Ph.D.
• University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Awe is a self‐transcendent emotion generating a range of benefits at the individual and at the societal level. Yet, research within the domain of intergroup relations is scarce. Across three studies—two experimental and one cross‐sectional (total N = 2113)—we explored whether, how and for whom awe is negatively related to prejudice towards sexual m...

Objectives: One pressing social issue involves how the ethnicity of a citizen group that commits violence influences societal reactions to these illegal acts. In an incident involving violence committed by Black or White American militia members, we examined the interactive effects between the severity of violence and participants’ ideological atti...

In two cross‐sectional and two experimental studies across both advantaged and disadvantaged group members ( N total = 1980 from two national contexts, UK and Italy), we explored if perceptions of group relative prototypicality may explain the association of positive and negative contact with collective action. Specifically, across studies, we inve...

Although the relationship between intergroup contact and prejudice has received pervasive scholarly attention, research on secondary transfer effects (STEs)—whereby positive contact experiences with primary outgroups promote tolerance toward uninvolved secondary outgroups—is still in the early stages. In particular, only a few studies have explored...

The increase in migration and cultural diversity across various Western regions has highlighted the need to promote harmonious coexistence between those who migrate from other countries and the native populations. Promoting social harmony is the primary objective in both acculturation and intergroup contact research. Particularly relevant to this a...

Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate rel...

The Justification-Suppression Model posits that people are motivated to justify their prejudice-driven treatment of others with a nonprejudiced cause. Notably, individuals have utilized COVID-19—related stress to justify their assaults on Chinese people. We examined factors that might predict people employing similar pandemic-related stress attribu...

The secondary transfer effect (STE) of intergroup contact posits that contact with one social group may reduce prejudice not only towards contacted but also non‐contacted groups. Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to facilitate intergroup contact on a large scale, but its effectiveness in generating the STE of intergroup contact has not been st...

The present study ( N = 1019, 51% females) explores the role of positive and negative extended contact as predictors of willingness for future cross‐group interactions in the context of the relationship between heterosexuals and sexual minorities in China. Results revealed that positive extended contact was more prevalent and more strongly associat...

Ample research has investigated the relationship between team cohesion and on-field behaviour, while the association between the first and off-field prosocial behaviour has been almost overlooked. To fill this gap, we conducted a study in a sample of Italian Rugby Union athletes to examine whether: (a) team cohesion is associated with off-field pro...

Objective: Outgroup empathy deficit research suggests that White U.S. citizens—especially those most prone to prejudice—should report minimal empathy for Black victims of police violence. We propose that this oft-cited phenomena is not inevitable, and the police-related experiences of those White individuals must be considered. To address this issu...

Virtual reality (VR) expands the opportunities for meaningful intergroup contact, surpassing the perceived naturalism and emotional salience of other online contact experiences. By embodying an avatar of ingroup characteristics, one can interact with outgroup members in a shared virtual space while maintaining a high sense of body ownership and cop...

Prejudice toward people with a disability remains an unchallenged global problem. This cross‐sectional study investigated online intergroup contact involving university students without disability ( N = 107), participating within a social program aimed at fostering the social inclusion of people with a disability. We tested two separate path models...

Social norms are important predictors of youth attitudes and behaviours. There is substantial evidence that positive and meaningful intergroup contact supported by inclusive norms can have a range of benefits beyond prejudice reduction. The present research explores whether perceived peer inclusion norms and perceived norms of equality in school ar...

In a multiethnic country like China, ethnic membership is an important dimension of social construction, and interethnic contact is a necessary component of social interactions. Family is the context where ethnic socialization takes place and where parents play a relevant role. The present study focused on the Hui‐Han interethnic context. Measures...

A field study was conducted to test whether contact with immigrant parents would lead Italian teachers to display more positive attitudes toward immigrant children. The participants were 128 Italian pre-school and elementary school teachers of a Northern Italian region. Analyses conducted with structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that qualit...

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is a respiratory syndrome and oral devices can be used for its treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the opinions of a generic subject about being treated by a dentist for a general health problem and the association between personality traits and the predisposition to use a MAD for the treatment of OSAS an...

Alexithymia, that is, difficulties in recognizing, communicating, and processing one's own emotions, is associated with poorer interpersonal relations. Emotional processes are key drivers and mechanisms of prejudice and its reduction, and alexithymia is thought to influence individuals' empathic responses. This research examined the relationship be...

In this narrative review, we examined 134 studies of the relationship between intergroup contact and collective action benefiting disadvantaged groups. We aimed to identify whether, when, and why contact has mobilizing effects (promoting collective action) or sedative effects (inhibiting collective action). For both moderators and mediators, factor...

We are currently living in a time of several existential threats: the global pandemic COVID‐19, climate change, and the ‘refugee crisis’ caused by violent conflicts and humanitarian catastrophes in Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. These threats do not only affect our well‐being but also our sense of control and security, as well as identities and w...

Focusing on the "Game of Thrones" saga, we investigated among fans (N = 338) whether social dominance orientation (SDO) is associated with morality attributed to characters of TV fictions and, in turn, individuals' worldviews. We further considered the distinction in SDO-Dominance (SDO-D) and SDO-Antiegaliatarianism (SDO-A). Results revealed that S...

The present research aims to probe the associations of one-group perceptions with collective action intentions among majority group members, by relying on a non-WEIRD sample, that is, from a tribal context in Nigeria. Considering their role in contact and collective action literatures, moral convictions, outgroup attitudes, and feelings were tested...

We conducted a cross-sectional study investigating whether sport identification predicts different forms of collective action intentions aimed to redress the unfavourable condition faced by disadvantaged individuals. In doing so, moral perceptions (moral convictions, moral violation and moral obligation) were tested as mediators. Participants were...

Guided by the Tripartite Influence Model and Objectification Theory, we examined whether parents’ attention to their children’s appearance was related to higher body shame in girls and boys. In Study 1 (N = 195) and 2 (N = 163), we investigated 7-12-year-old children’s metaperceptions about parents’ attention to their appearance and its association...

Throughout history, individuals and communities have come together to challenge injustice in the local community and across the globe. In recent years, we have seen communities rally together to advocate for changes in policy and practice to address injustices faced by marginalized and disenfranchised groups of people. For instance, communities hav...

Through two experimental studies (N = 150), we investigated proxemic behaviors featuring gay/straight dyadic interactions. In doing so, for the first time, we relied on IR depth camera and considered the interpersonal volume between the interactants, a novel feature that exhaustively captures interactants’ proxemic behaviors. Study 1 revealed that...

While COVID‐19 implications for prejudice have been investigated among adults in previous research, children's intergroup reactions to the pandemic and specifically how native children's contact behaviours with refugees might have changed after the pandemic has not been examined yet. Drawing on a unique longitudinal school dataset (N = 861, 5th gra...

In line with current developments in indirect intergroup contact literature, we conducted a field study using the imagined contact paradigm among high‐status (Italian children) and low‐status (children with foreign origins) group members (N = 122; 53 females, mean age = 7.52 years). The experiment aimed to improve attitudes and behavior toward a di...

A resurgent climate of nationalism, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia in many parts of the world has drawn attention to the risk of bullying victimization among racial, ethnic and/or religious minority youth. However, no attempt has yet been made to synthesize the literature on this topic to derive better understanding and guide f...

We tested, in three studies, whether the generalization of contact effects from primary to secondary outgroups—the secondary transfer effect (STE)—occurs for collective action. The results supported a serial mediation model: contact with immigratants by advantaged group members (Italians: Study 1, N = 146, 121 females, Mage = 28.31 years; Study 3,...

We examined whether prejudice-related personality characteristics (i.e., right wing authoritarianism [RWA]) and COVID-19–driven psychological resource loss might predict perpetrator-directed punitive responding (i.e., support for criminal charges) to a COVID-19–related attack on a Chinese victim by a White male. Across two studies, participants com...

Slum tourism, referring to trips, leisure, and other activities conducted by wealthy people in spaces inhabited by disadvantaged populations, is highly controversial. On the one hand, there is the risk of exploitation and dehumanization of slum dwellers; on the other hand, it can help fighting stereotypes and stigmatization. We explore the images o...

Although we are witnessing a new phase in the management of COVID‐19, understanding what predicts adherence to preventive behaviors still remains crucial. In this study we focus on interpersonal relationships by specifically investigating whether engagement in preventive behaviors when in the presence of others may be a function of the type of rela...

Police sexual violence has been ranked as the second most common form of misconduct among police officers. Moreover, there is evidence that Black women are at heightened risk of being victims of such police violence. A report titled Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women has brought international attention to the minimal empir...

In youth sport, there is a well-documented relationship between the coach-created motivational climate (mastery vs performance) and the individual motivational orientation (task vs ego) of athletes (e.g., Duda, et al., 2014). A mastery climate, focused on commitment rather than performance, not only favors individual task orientation and enjoyment...

Goal orientations (task vs ego) are fundamental to understanding youth athletes’ experiences with sport (Duda, et al., 2014) and are highly impacted by parents, peers, and especially coaches (Atkins et al., 2015) who foster a motivational climate based on their own goal orientation. A strong negative association between task orientation and antisoc...

A longitudinal field study tested the long‐term effects (three years) of intergroup contact on both explicit and implicit outgroup attitudes. Participants were majority (Italian) and minority (immigrant) high‐school students, who were tested at four waves from the beginning of their first year in high‐school to the end of the third school year. Res...

Research has proposed different models of how contact situations should be structured to maximize contact effects, focusing in particular on the role of categorization during contact. We conducted two experimental field interventions ( Ns = 247 and 247) to test models that integrate different levels of categorization. Each of the tested models was...

This research investigated the relationship between individual preference for the need for cognitive closure (NCC) and attitudes towards women as managers and the moderating role of direct or imagined contact with women leaders. In two studies (total N = 369) collected in different countries and with different methods (Study 1: Italy, correlational...

A growing amount of empirical evidence shows that sexual objectification can be elicited within the context of romantic relationships, leading to adverse consequences for women's well‐being. However, most of this research assessed women's self‐reported perceptions of being objectified by their romantic partner, while scant and not converging resear...

Non-consensual dissemination of sexual materials – or sexts – via technology represents a crime with psychological and social consequences for the victims, mostly women. Commonly, non-consensual dissemination of sexts results from sexting, i.e., the practice of sharing sexually explicit materials via mobile and internet technologies. The literature...

Non-consensual dissemination of sexual materials (NCSM) represents a crime with several consequences for the victim, mostly women. Commonly NCSM results from sexting, i.e., the practice of sharing sexually explicit materials via mobile and internet technologies. So far, literature has provided inconsistent results on the implication of sexting, and...

By relying on literature on counter-stereotypes and media contact, we investigated whether media exposure is associated with counter-stereotypical gender perceptions. Focusing on the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, we recruited samples ( N = 2,228) from eight competing countries (China, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Spain, England, US) across thre...

A large corpus of research has investigated extended contact and its psychological mechanisms. However, research taking into account the valence of extended contact, as well as the psychological mechanisms underlying the effects of negative extended contact, is lacking. We examined the associations of Chinese people with rural origins’ (N = 1287) p...

We conducted a vicarious contact intervention with the aim of promoting bystanders' intentions to react to stigma-based bullying among schoolchildren. Participants were Italian primary schoolchildren (N = 117 first to third graders); the out-group was represented by foreign children. Vicarious contact was operationalized with story reading, creatin...

In this theory-driven experimental field intervention, we used vicarious intergroup contact, a popular prejudice-reduction strategy, to fight stigma-based bullying. We focused on the role of peer norms, manipulated by asking participants to work individually or collectively in reinforcing activities following vicarious contact (operationalized as s...

While considering the role of group-level factors as predictors of collective action, research has overlooked the role of group prototypes in determining willingness to engage in collective action. To begin to investigate this area, we conducted two correlational studies ( Ns = 141 and 98) in high schools examining the association between prototypi...

Indirect forms of intergroup contact have been shown to reduce prejudice. However, little is known about the factors that can contribute to implementing these methods as interventions in real‐life settings. In this study, we examined whether the students' perception of the facilitator's engagement in carrying out a school‐based vicarious contact in...

In this study, prototypicality of the aggressor was tested as a group‐level factor predicting social media users’ active participation in cyberaggression. Participants were exposed to a fictitious conversation, in which either a prototypical versus non‐prototypical user posted an aggressive comment as a reply to a provocative comment. In line with...

Outgroup dehumanisation, the denial of full humanity to outgroups relative to ingroups, is pervasive in many contemporary societies. The aim of the present work is to review effective strategies aimed at fostering outgroup humanity attribution. After presenting the main models of humanity attribution, we differentiate two types of strategies. Outgr...

“BeSport” è la crasi tra “benessere” e “sport”, due termini che vengono spesso adoperati congiuntamente, poiché nell’immaginario collettivo che essi siano, in qualche modo, legati: lo sport, infatti, modella il corpo, ci rende più sani fisicamente e più energici. Questo è sapere comune a tutti e ampiamente condiviso. Ciò che forse non tutti sanno è...

A field study was conducted with majority and minority group members to test whether the effects of optimal contact conditions and of intergroup contact generalize across situations, and extend to the support of intergroup equality in terms of agreement with social policies benefitting the minority group. Participants were 163 Italian and 129 immig...

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the education system to a rapid and unprepared transition to distance learning, inducing many teachers to organize lessons via information and communication technologies (ICTs), albeit often without sufficient technological and organizational support. Our study aims to evaluate teachers' and students' experience wit...

Negative affect associated with autobiographical events fades faster over time than positive affect. This Fading Affect Bias (FAB) has been established in the individual and interpersonal domains. Two studies tested the FAB in intergroup relations with Muslims (N= 76 White British non-Muslim) and opposite gender (N = 242 women and men) as target ou...

This prepost test experimental study examined the effectiveness of an intervention providing information about peers with sensory disability, intellectual disability, and behavioral difficulties (cognitive intervention), an intervention using imagined contact with peers with these disabilities (behavioral intervention), and an intervention combinin...

We aimed to validate a long and a short version of the popular SDO6 scale for children, by testing their reliability and factorial structure, as well as divergent and criterion validity. Italian fourth- and fifth-graders (N = 271; 49.45% female) were administered the Child SDO6 scale, composed of 16 items, along with a series of personality and int...

The secondary transfer effect (STE) constitutes the generalization of the effects of intergroup contact from the outgroup one has contact with to uninvolved outgroups. In this article, we provide a review of the research on the STE. After presenting evidence on the robustness of the phenomenon, we discuss relevant mediating processes and outline a...

Disasters can impact upon individuals, families, and communities in multiple ways. Research has mainly focused on risk and protective factors relating to the child (individual level) and the family (interpersonal level), not taking into account the processes at the level of social groups. The present review aims to (a) review psychological research...

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the education system to a rapid and unprepared transition to distance learning, inducing many teachers to organize lessons via information and communication technologies (ICTs), albeit often without sufficient technological and organizational support. Our study aims to evaluate teachers' and students' experience wit...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239512.].

We conducted an experimental intervention to test the effectiveness of vicarious contact in the relationship between Turkish and Syrian elementary school children; the participants were Turkish children. We used a mixed-methods approach, investigating effects by using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Participants in the experimental...

Various studies have found that reading books about positive interactions between ingroup and outgroup characters, known as media vicarious contact, can reduce prejudice. Focusing on the fantasy saga of The Hunger Games, we examined the effects of negative vicarious contact on collective action across two studies. Specifically, we tested whether re...

The secondary transfer effect (STE), defined as contact with a primary outgroup improving attitudes towards a secondary outgroup uninvolved in contact, has mainly been studied with reference to direct contact and considering attitude generalization as the main mediating mechanism. Using a majority (422 Italians) and minority (130 immigrants) adoles...

In the present study, we examined the pupillary response of White participants who were asked to tell the truth or lie to White or Black partners. Research on cues to deception has assumed that lying is more cognitively demanding that truth telling. In line with this assumption, previous studies have shown that lying is associated with greater pupi...

Today, physical and psychological barriers can reduce opportunities for the type of direct face-to-face intergroup contact first identified by Gordon Allport (1954). Consequently, social psychological researchers have identified, developed and tested a burgeoning array of different forms of indirect contact, including, extended contact, Electronic-...

Introduzione La pandemia da Covid-19 ha colpito in maniera particolare i bambini, i quali, a causa delle misure di distanziamento sociale, hanno precocemente interrotto la frequenza scolastica, con potenziali conseguenze sia in termini di apprendimento, sia di interazione con i pari. Per ovviare a questo problema si è ricorsi alla didattica a dista...

The effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) concerning specifically posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symp-tomatology have been widely demonstrated, but the consequences of abuse are not the same for all victims. We know little about the psychological processes that limit these adverse consequences. Therefore, we explored the association betw...

In a longitudinal two-wave study we examined the effects of positive and negative intergroup contact on outgroup attitudes in participants who perceived positive, negative, or ambivalent group stereotypes. We focused on stereotype-consistent contact, occurring when the valence of participants’ contact matches the valence of the perceived group ster...

This survey experiment examined the role of prejudice and moral licensing as two moderators of the secondary transfer effect (STE) of positive and negative intergroup contact. We collected a quota-randomized sample of 299 majority Finns (52.6% female; experimental condition: n = 118, control condition: n = 181) in order to test whether moral creden...

Objectives In multiethnic countries, enhancing the sense of community and preventing ethnic segregation represents a major challenge. In this study we aimed to test the effects of different forms of intergroup contact in fostering sense of community among majority and minority ethnic groups in China, by focusing on the sense of the community at the...

Research has shown that vicarious contact, that is observing an interaction between ingroup and outgroup members, can improve intergroup relations. Although vicarious contact has been operationalized in different ways, mainly via story reading or video watching, an experimental comparison of these different strategies is still missing. We conducted...

The demand for an increasingly differentiated education, which takes into account the individual differences of children to stimulate effective learning, accompanies the introduction of new technologies at school. Amongst these, the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), which allows multimodality and sharing of contents, is one of the most widespread tools...

While extended intergroup contact has been commonly studied in the context of prejudice reduction, less is known about its implications for processes related to the ingroup. Through three correlational and one experimental studies (total N = 897) conducted in two different intergroup contexts (Turkey and United Kingdom), we investigated whether ext...

Based on Social Dominance Theory (SDT), this study investigates the relationships between ideologically conservative attitudes (social dominance orientation, SDO; right-wing authoritarianism, RWA), legitimizing myths (false belief in asylum seekers as bogus; perception of in-group threats), and citizens’ support for restricted reception and rejecti...

The present study investigated whether the associations of positive and negative intergroup contact with behavioral intentions (intentions to have contact with the outgroup in the future) are moderated by social dominance orientation (SDO), by considering the perspective of both majority and minority group members in China. Participants were 325 Ha...

Aims: Driven by the literature on pluralistic ignorance, our research investigates fear of appearing racist, being rejected, discriminated, and disinterest in intergroup contact as antecedents of contact and outgroup attitudes, focusing on attributional differences between the majority and minority group perspectives. Methods: Questionnaires wer...

This research examined the role of contact meta‐perceptions on positive intergroup contact and outgroup attitudes. Specifically, perceptions of the ingroup's and outgroup's desire for intergroup contact were simultaneously tested as predictors of intergroup contact and outgroup attitudes. Three correlational studies were conducted in three distinct...

Recent research on intergroup contact has shown how interactions with outgroup members may both decrease and increase motivations to achieve social equality. Similarly, social identity theory has identified the conditions that lead individuals to challenge unequal social systems. Integrating these two major theories, the current study examined the...

Using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in educational environments has become widespread in latest years. Since research underlined the important role played by metacognition and self-regulation abilities in fostering learning outcomes, the relationship between these aspects appears to be particularly worthy of investigation. In thi...

Introduzione Il pregiudizio nei confronti di bambini stranieri è una realtà che non si può sottovalutare neanche alla scuola primaria. Per tentare di comprendere e ridurre questo complesso fenomeno, appare necessario indagare quali variabili psicologiche siano predittive di un atteggiamento che considera l’altro da sé come diverso, inferiore e, per...

Basandosi sulla letteratura sull'ignoranza pluralistica, la ricerca indaga la paura di apparire razzisti, di essere rifiutati e il disinteresse per il contatto tra gruppi come antecedenti del contatto e atteggiamenti verso l'outgroup, con particolare attenzione alle differenze di attribuzione tra le prospettive del gruppo maggioritario e minoritari...

A growing body of research has shown that imagined intergroup contact can improve outgroup attitudes. The aim of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of a multifaceted form of imagined contact in counteracting bullying in school children, and additionally to test the underlying processes of this effect. Two hundred and fifteen Italian...