Samuel Pehrson

• University of St Andrews

Cultural threat has emerged as a consistent predictor of anti-immigrant and anti-minority attitudes across many different national contexts. We examine this issue in the context of Northern Ireland using representative survey data, suggesting that Protestant and unionist communities experience a higher level of cultural threat than Catholic and nat...

We examine experiences of collective self-objectification (CSO) (or its failure) among participants in a 'multicultural' St Patrick's Day parade. A two-stage interview study was carried out in which 10 parade participants (five each from ethnic majority and minority groups) were interviewed before and after the event. In pre-event interviews, all p...

In this study, we examined the relationship between national identification and anti-immigrant prejudice in a multilevel analysis of ISSP survey data from 37,030 individuals in 31 countries. We argue that this relationship depends on how national groups are defined by their members. Across the 31 national samples, the correlation between national i...

Social dominance orientation (SDO) is conceived as an individual's level of support for group-based hierarchy in general that causes support for more specific group hierarchies. According to social dominance theory, group differences in SDO underpin ideological and behavioural group differences related to specific group hierarchies. Using represent...

In a sample of young people in Northern Ireland (N = 819), we examine the relationships between the quality of experience with police officers and police legitimacy. We examine potential pathways through which experiences may either support or undermine the legitimacy of the police, and thus cooperation and compliance with them. We find evidence th...

Populist attitudes have been shown to predict voting behavior. These attitudes consist of a belief that everyday citizens are better judges of what is best for their own country than politicians and that the political elites are corrupt. As such, a clear “us” (pure and good everyday citizens) and “them” (the evil political elite) rhetoric is presen...

Populist attitudes have been shown to predict voting behaviour. These attitudes consist of a belief that everyday citizens are better judges of what is best for their own country than politicians and that the political elites are corrupt. As such, a clear ‘us’ (pure and good everyday citizens) and ‘them’ (the evil political elite) rhetoric is prese...

People define the membership of their national groups in a variety of more or less inclusive ways. This has implications for how immigrants and minority groups are treated. Traditionally, variation national boundaries has been understood as a distinction between ethnic and civic nationalism. However, despite a developed empirical literature, it is...

Authorities such as the police and the government play a vital function in maintaining order in the social systems in which groups exist. Relational models of procedural justice (PJ) state that fair treatment from authority affirms the social standing of those identifying with the authority, communicating inclusion and respect. Previous research su...

Relational models of procedural justice propose that fair procedures from authorities communicate that one is an affirmed member of the society that they represent. Authorities who use principles of procedural justice are more likely to be seen as legitimate, increasing compliance and cooperation from the public. However, ensuring that authority de...

A number of studies have reported a positive relationship between levels of national identification and well-being. Although this link is clear, the relationship is likely influenced by a number of other variables. In the current study, we examine two such variables: age and the ease with which people feel they can express their identity in the nat...

De Dreu and Gross offer novel solutions to discouraging attackers via political sanctions. We offer insights from social psychological and criminological research on when such sanctions would work and when they could backfire. We argue that the influence of such sanctioning ultimately rests upon the extent to which such authorities can claim to rep...

De Dreu and Gross offer novel solutions to discouraging attackers via political sanctions. We offer insights from social psychological and criminological research on when such sanctions would work and when they could backfire. We argue that the influence of such sanctioning ultimately rests upon the extent to which such authorities can claim to rep...

We consider cultural differences in how moral concerns can shape responses to intergroup- level authority decisions – that is, decisions that allocate outcomes between different groups. We hypothesised that at the individual level, moral foundations may predict how people respond to authority decisions that either favour or disfavour their group, a...

MPlus command file for the 3-cluster LCA. (INP)

MPlus command file for full SEM model. (INP)

Complete scales for police fairness, goal alignment, identification with society, cooperation with police and legitimacy. (PDF)

MPlus command file for the 4-cluster LCA. (INP)

Complete raw data file included all variables used in the analyses. (SAV)

SPSS syntax file for scales, items parcels and factor analysis. (SPS)

MPlus command file for the 2-cluster LCA. (INP)

Much current research on collective victimhood acknowledges the role of rhetoric but does not fully address the implications for micro-level variation in personal expressions of victimhood. The focus has tended to be on individual differences in collective victimhood construals where people may either see their group as the sole possessor of victim...

We examined the concepts and emotions people associate with their national flag, and how these associations are related to nationalism and patriotism across 11 countries. Factor analyses indicated that the structures of associations differed across countries in ways that reflect their idiosyncratic historical developments. Positive emotions and ega...

The present study investigates how attendees at national celebratory crowd events—specifically St. Patrick's Day parades—understand the role of such events in representing and uniting the national community. We conducted semi-structured interviews with people who attended St. Patrick's Day parades in either Dublin or Belfast. In year 1, full-length...

Competitive victimhood is now a well-established intergroup phenomenon. Research continues to show how competition exists on a range of dimensions including physical, cultural and psychological aspects of suffering. But what happens when victims' suffering starts to be addressed and victims learn to cope with their past? We suggest that even here,...

While there is an acknowledgement in apology research that political apologies are highly mediated, the process of mediation itself has lacked scrutiny. This article suggests that the idea of reconstruction helps to understand how apologies are mediated and evaluated. David Cameron's apology for Bloody Sunday is examined to see how he constructs fo...

This discourse analytic study examines how violence can be constructed as an honourable course of action, using the example of a leaflet circulated in the loyalist Donegall Pass area of Belfast urging the removal of the minority Chinese population. Starting from the assumptions that racism is an ideological practice that naturalises social categori...

We live in an ever-changing social world, which constantly demands adjustment to our identities and actions. Advances in science, technology and medicine, political upheaval, and economic development are just some examples of social change that can impact upon how we live our lives, how we view ourselves and each other, and how we communicate. Thre...

We examine support for policies affecting indigenous ethnic minorities in Chile. Specifically, we examine the role of national group definitions that include the largest indigenous group—the Mapuche—in different ways. Based on questionnaire data from nonindigenous Chilean students (N = 338), we empirically distinguish iconic inclusion, whereby the...

We argue that attitudes about immigration can be better understood by paying closer attention to the various ways in which national group boundaries are demarcated. We describe two related lines of work that address this. The first deals with national group definitions and, based on evidence from studies carried out in England and analyses of inter...

Three studies tested the effects of essentialist beliefs regarding the national ingroup in situations where a perpetrator group has inflicted harm on a victim group. For members of the perpetrator group, it was hypothesised that ‘essentialism’ has a direct positive association with ‘collective guilt’ felt as a result of misdeeds conducted by other...

Two studies were carried out in England to investigate the role of essentialist national group definitions in determining the effect of national identification on prejudice towards immigrants, and asylum seekers in particular. It was expected that the relationship between national identification and prejudice would depend on the degree to which par...