About
42
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Introduction
I do research on intergroup relations, anti-immigrant attitudes, empathy, cross-ethnic friendships, diversity, political activism, and the role of social contexts (parents, peers, school) in adolescent development.
Additional affiliations
December 2018 - December 2020
June 2017 - January 2024
March 2014 - March 2016
Education
September 2001 - June 2006
Publications
Publications (42)
Although intergroup attitudes are assumed to develop due to the influence of parents, there is no longitudinal evidence supporting this claim. In addition, research on socialization of intergroup attitudes has omitted possible effects of adolescents on their parents. We also know little about the conditions under which intergroup attitudes are tran...
This longitudinal study of adolescents (N = 517) examined the effects of parents and peers’ anti-immigrant attitudes as well as intergroup friendships on relative changes in adolescents’ anti-immigrant prejudice, controlling for the effects of socioeconomic background. It also examined whether the effects of parents or peers would depend on adolesc...
Although research has shown the effects of empathy manipulations on prejudice, little is known about the long-term relation between empathy and prejudice development, the direction of effects, and the relative effects of cognitive and affective aspects of empathy. Moreover, research has not examined within-person processes and, hence, its practical...
Despite ample research on empathy development, its social origins have been understudied, particularly in the context of peer relations. This two-wave study of Swedish adolescents (N = 318; MageT1 = 16.28, SD = .49; 55% females) examined longitudinal associations between youth friendships and empathy. The results showed that adolescents befriended...
Theories on empathy development have stressed the role of socialization in general and the role of parental support in particular. This 3-wave longitudinal study of middle adolescents (N = 678) aimed to contribute to the extant research on the socialization of empathy (a) by examining the relative contribution of perceived maternal and paternal nee...
In a sample of Italian adolescents (N = 754) and their parents (N = 469), we examined the levels of essentialist beliefs about nationality, the extent to which adolescents’ beliefs were shaped by parental beliefs and classroom ethnic diversity, and the implications of essentialist beliefs for attitudes and behaviors toward national outgroups as wel...
Although much research has been devoted to how political interest is related to different political outcomes, little is known about its influence on attitudes toward immigration. In line with deliberative theory, political interest should facilitate greater exposure to various perspectives via political discussions and other forms of political enga...
Although the effects of elections and measures of direct democracy on policy outcomes have been well researched, their indirect “educative value” has received less attention, particularly in relation to political engagement of young people. This study examined the activating effect of the national elections in Germany (2009), Czech Republic (2010),...
Ethnic minority youth show worse school adjustment than their ethnic majority peers. Yet, it remains unclear whether this gap can be explained by differences in family functioning and consequent identity commitments. This study examined (1) whether family functioning relates to identity commitments over time and (2) whether identity commitments imp...
Ethnic minority youth show worse school adjustment than their ethnic majority peers. Yet, it remains unclear whether this gap can be explained by differences in family functioning and consequent identity commitments. This study examined 1) whether family functioning relates to identity commitments over time and 2) whether identity commitments impac...
This longitudinal study (three waves across a school year) investigated the links between children's motivations to respond without prejudice and their ethnic outgroup attitudes at the between-person level (means and changes over time) and the within-person level (time-specific fluctuations). Participants were 945 ethnic majority students (MageW1 =...
Although previous research has shown that deliberative discussions have consequences for intergroup attitudes, very little is known about this impact during the formative adolescent years. In addition, the mechanism explaining the mechanism through which discussions affect intergroup attitudes is not clear. This 3-wave study of Swedish adolescents...
Although political radicalism is one of the major societal threats, we have limited understanding of how it is formed. While there are reasons to expect that harassment experienced in adolescence increase the propensity for radicalism, this relationship has not yet been investigated. This five-wave study of Swedish adolescents ( N = 892) examined t...
Although schools have been described as an important socialization context for the development of intergroup attitudes, longitudinal multilevel studies are still rare within this field. This 3-wave study (with annual assessments) of German adolescents (N = 1292; Mage = 13.86; 51.8% female) examined the role of school experiences (perceived multicul...
Although classrooms have been described as an important socialization agent for the development of intergroup attitudes, the role of classroom climate has rarely been investigated. This 5‐wave study of Swedish adolescents (N = 892, 51.1% girls, nested in 35 classrooms) examined the role of cooperative classroom climate for the development of youth...
Drawing on the concept of a gale of creative destruction in a capitalistic economy, we argue that initiatives to assess the robustness of findings in the organizational literature should aim to simultaneously test competing ideas operating in the same theoretical space. In other words, replication efforts should seek not just to support or question...
Although several studies have examined outgroup empathy, the link between trait empathy and outgroup attitudes has been underinvestigated. In the present study this link was investigated among two samples of ethnic Dutch preadolescents (N = 335, Mage = 10.83 years, SD = 0.94; 53% girls; N = 326; Mage = 10.53 years, SD = 1.03; 48% girls). It examine...
This study examined short- and long-term effects of ethnic classroom diversity for intergroup relations in adolescence. Using a five-year panel of Swedish majority youth ( M ageT1 = 13.40, M ageT5 = 17.30), we found only limited direct effects of classroom diversity on anti-immigrant attitudes. However, classroom diversity increased the likelihood...
This chapter brings together social and developmental research on ethnic majority youth reactions to growing diversity. It shows no general trend in youth attitudes towards immigrants in recent decades, suggesting that youth reactions may be determined by the proximal social environments they are embedded in. Therefore, this chapter reviews researc...
This 3-wave study of Swedish majority adolescents (N = 659; MageT1 = 13.41; MageT3 = 17.33) examined the effects of parents' and peers' attitudes on changes in youth attitudes toward immigrants as well as an interplay between parent, peer, and school context. The results of multilevel analyses revealed that within-person fluctuations in youth attit...
This 3-wave study of Swedish majority adolescents (N = 659; MageT1 = 13.41) examined the effects of parents’ and peers’ attitudes on changes in youth attitudes towards immigrants as well as an interplay between parent, peer, and school context. The results of multilevel analyses revealed that within-person fluctuations in youth attitudes were posit...
Although research has shown that school context has consequences for intergroup attitudes, few studies have examined the role of teacher qualities, such as teacher support. In addition, previous research has paid limited attention to the mechanisms that could help to explain teacher effects. This 5-wave study (2010-2015) examined the effects of per...
Tolerance Tolerance is commonly defined as putting up with ideas, persons, or practices that one disagrees with or dislikes. Theory and research have focused on one particular kind of tolerance, namely political tolerance, that concerns the willingness to extend civil liberties to disliked groups. Although difficult and complex, political tolerance...
Ethnic and racial intergroup attitudes are assumed to develop due to the influence of social contexts. However, there is still little longitudinal evidence supporting this claim. Hence, we know little about the relative importance of social contexts, the possible interplay between them as well as about the conditions and mechanisms that might under...
Facilitating positive youth development in times of diversity entails counteracting negative attitudes. Two longitudinal studies of Swedish majority youth show risks and protective factors for development of their negative attitudes towards immigrants. Risks: parents and peers’ negative attitudes towards immigrants. Protective factors: cross-ethnic...
Do adolescents learn tolerant or intolerant attitudes towards outgroups from their parents? Can having immigrant friends protect adolescents from the negative influence of parental anti-immigrant attitudes? How important is the influence of parents compared to peers or school climate? This chapter answers these questions and advises on how parents,...
The role of parents, peers, intergroup friendships and school in development of adolescents' tolerance and anti-immigrant attitudes. Mini-lecture for Forum för Levande Historia, Stockholm, October 2016.
Although the role of individual differences for political attitudes is undisputed, the psychological determinants of support for democratic values received limited attention. This study aimed at incorporating a variety of measures of stable individual differences and determining their relative effect on support for democratic values as well as at t...
In this chapter we explore how the Culture of Peace can be and in some cases is being actualized. First, noting that the United Nations resolutions on a Culture of Peace call for shifts in values, attitudes, and behaviors, we give attention to values that are supportive of peaceful attitudes and behavior. Second, we consider the nature and flexibil...
There is an oft-voiced proposition within evolutionary psychology that over the course of evolutionary time, natural selection favored human males who have killed over those men who have not. The implication is that killing has been favorably selected as a fitness enhancing strategy. Interestingly, the impetus for this proposition in large part ste...
Peace is much more than simply the absence of war. This so-called negative peace concept has been supplanted with more holistic and inclusive conceptions of positive peace that include such features as human rights, sustainable development, and access to justice. At a UNESCO congress in 1989, the idea of promoting a Culture of Peace that could prov...
Although it is assumed that support for democratic values, such as tolerance, develops as a result of social learning, concrete socializing circumstances are less obvious. The classical literature on political socialization pointed to parents as a direct determinant of youth civic formation. The present study aims at advancing this discourse by ass...
Although it is generally assumed that support for democratic values and beliefs develops as a result of social learning, the concrete socializing circumstances through which this occurs are less obvious. This study investigated the relationship between democratic family functioning and democratic values of adolescents. Adolescents' (N = 1,341, 16-...
Schwartz’s model of basic human values conceptualizes self-enhancing and selftranscendence
as opposing value dimensions. Self-enhancing values include striving for
power and achievement; hence, they are individual-centric, whereas self-transcendence
values include benevolence and universalism, which pertain to a concern for other people
and society...