Melissa Pavetich

• PhD Social Psychology
• Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University

Contact between group members enhances intergroup perceptions and attitudes. In a world where people spend more time online, people also engage in digital intergroup contact (mainly through social networking services). The potential outcomes of digital contact, particularly in relation to social well-being, are yet to be fully explored. Using a cor...

Meta‐dehumanization contributes to a vicious cycle of hostility. This study extends the literature by investigating antecedents and outcomes of meta‐dehumanization in the context of Muslim–non‐Muslim relations. Specifically, control over terrorism (COT) and threat were tested as predictors of meta‐dehumanization among non‐Muslim British nationals (...

A growing number of self-report measures aim to define interactions with social media in a pathological behavior framework, often using terminology focused on identifying those who are 'addicted' to engaging with others online. Specifically, measures of 'social media addiction' focus on motivations for online social information seeking, which could...

Meta-dehumanization, the perception your group has been given less than human qualities, contributes to a vicious cycle of outgroup dehumanization and hostility, such as hate crimes and support for discriminatory policies. Minimal research has investigated potential benefits of meta-humanization, or perceiving your group has been given dignified qu...

A growing number of self-report measures aim to quantify interactions with social media in a pathological behaviour framework; often using terminology focused on identifying those who are ‘addicted’ to engaging with others online. The measures of social media addiction report focus on motivations for online social information seeking, many of which...

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 were di...

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...

Published in the BPS Social Psychology Section journal: Social Psychological Review. Identifying challenges of funding a PhD programme as an international student and strategies to allocate funding.

The aim of this study was to investigate the degree to which Christians and nonreligious people would respond to a meta-stereotype about their own group or another group, by engaging in helping behavior towards a stigmatized group, specifically Syrian Muslim refugees. Christian (n = 60) and nonreligious (n = 48) participants were randomly assigned...