Soledad de Lemus

University of Granada | UGR · Department of Social Psychology

In the present work, we addressed the relationship between parental leave policies and social norms. Using a pre‐registered, cross‐national approach, we examined the relationship between parental leave policies and the perception of social norms for the gender division of childcare. In this study, 19,259 students (11,924 women) from 48 countries in...

Collective action is a powerful tool for social change and is fundamental to women and girls’ empowerment on a societal level. Collective action towards gender equality could be understood as intentional and conscious civic behaviors focused on social transformation, questioning power relations, and promoting gender equality through collective effo...

This study examines the perceptions of LBQ+ and heterosexual feminist cis women, regarding how they define feminism and perceive the relationship between the feminist and LGBTIQA+ movement in the context of progressive trans rights legislation in Spain (Trans Law, approved in 2023). Two two-hour focus groups were conducted with 12 feminist cis wome...

The Occupy Wall Street movement popularized the slogan “we are the 99%” to highlight economic disparities. In this studies, we investigated the impact of the 99% identity on middle-class attitudes and collective action intentions. Conducting two correlational studies (Study 1, N = 374; Study 2, N = 344) and two experimental studies (Study 3, N = 33...

In this research, we focused on women's perception of men as allies depending on the type of confrontation. We conducted four experimental scenario studies (Study 1 and 2 in a bar setting; Study 3 and 4 in a workplace setting) where a man confronted a sexist comment using either an egalitarian or paternalistic argument. Results showed that women ar...

Using data from 15 countries, this article investigates whether descriptive and prescriptive gender norms concerning housework and child care (domestic work) changed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a total of 8,343 participants (M = 19.95, SD = 1.68) from two comparable student samples suggest that descriptive norms about unpai...

From an early age, boys and girls assimilate gender stereotypes and roles. The aim of this paper is to test the effectiveness of an intervention based on counter-stereotypical narratives for the reduction of gender stereotyping and its consequences in two developmental stages, one before the period of gender stereotypical rigidity (before 5-6 years...

The present research examined whether the use of gendered language acts as a cue to reduce identity threat by enhancing women’s motivation, self-efficacy, and cognitive processing in academic contexts culturally stereotyped as masculine. Pooled data from two studies conducted in Spanish, a language in which masculine generics are the cultural defau...

This review focuses on resistance to experiences of group-based devaluation, specifically in the context of gender. This literature has seen considerable development in recent years – we outline this development and review the empirical evidence that supports it. The first section of the review discusses definitional issues surrounding resistance....

Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identifi...

Social inequalities between migrants and the host society trigger collective actions that aim to reduce such inequalities. Such actions can be led by migrants themselves, or by advantaged members from the host society who act as allies. In three studies conducted in Spain (N Study 1 = 182 low vulnerability migrants; N Study 2 = 160 forced migrants...

People desire agentic representations of their personal and collective selves, such as their own nation. When national agency is put into question, this should increase their inclination to restore it, particularly when they simultaneously lack perceptions of personal control. In this article, we test this hypothesis of group-based control in the c...

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflec...

Socially disadvantaged groups have to deal with diverse negative circumstances. We can expect that high status groups often legitimate and justify these disadvantages. However, when the low status group itself shares this perspective, it is more threatening: How do disadvantaged groups deal with social injustice when the ingroup itself frames it as...

Global threats are often perceived as triggers of intergroup conflict and prejudice. However, threats that jointly affect in- and outgroup members can also enhance intergroup cooperation and decrease prejudice. In this research, we investigated how different appraisals of threat (to personal vs. social identity motives) and different forms of coope...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions encouraged social isolation and non-interaction with other people to prevent contagion. Still, the response to an impending economic crisis must be through collective organization. In this set of pre-registered studies, we analyze two possible mechanisms of coping with collective economic threat: shared so...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects thousands of women around the world and is prevalent in the Global South. Unequal social structures perpetuate hierarchies and maintain women’s vulnerability to violence. Difficulties women face in accessing education, economic resources, and employment diminish their power in intimate relationships, increasi...

Even though taking part in elections is one of the most direct tools to influence the socio-political system, many people choose not to vote. Research shows that this problem is especially prevalent among those citizens who do not believe they have control over social and political issues, but the question remains as to what could encourage their v...

In spite of their subtle nature, subliminal cues of group devaluation can have profound effects on members of targeted groups. Across three studies, we examine factors that allow people to counteract subliminal cues of group devaluation. We do this in the context of Spanish–German intergroup relations following the 2008 financial crisis. Throughout...

Men as advantaged group members can be involved in actions against inequality. But how do women experience men’s confrontation of sexism? We examine how women perceive men’s egalitarian versus paternalistic confrontation of sexism. We hypothesized that women would be more likely to report empowerment and well-being (i.e., more happiness and less an...

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated ge...

Violence against women (VAW) is currently one of the main problems in El Salvador, which leads the ranking of femicides in the world. We conducted the first national survey on VAW in El Salvador following the World Health Organization (WHO) methodology, to determine the impact of violence on women’s mental health ( N = 1,274). Women who had experie...

Sexist language can trigger feelings of ostracism and negatively influence women’s motivation and identification. In this research, we test this hypothesis in two domains (academic: Study 1 [N = 107 Spanish high schoolers]; work: Study 2 [N = 164 Spanish university students]. We examine the underlying process that leads women and men to feel ostrac...

Even though taking part in elections is one of the most direct tools to influence the socio-political system, many people choose not to vote. Research shows that this problem is especially prevalent among those citizens who do not believe they have control over social and political issues, but the question remains as to what could encourage their v...

Men sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross‐culturally, to test if both individual‐ and country‐level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zer...

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries (N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower stat...

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries (N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower stat...

We investigated how sexism affected leadership in mixed-gender alpine climbing-dyads. We asked whether benevolent sexism would impair, and hostile sexism would increase (as a form of resistance) women’s leadership; and whether benevolent sexism would increase men’s leadership (as a form of paternalism). A correlational study assessed reported leadi...

For feminists, a core goal is to promote the interests of women as a group. Across three studies, we examined whether the pursuit of such goals can lead feminists to use more divergent thinking styles. We measured identification with feminists, identification with women, and manipulated the extent to which a divergent thinking task was congruent wi...

Sexist language can trigger feelings of ostracism and negatively influence women’s motivation and identification. In this research, we test this hypothesis in two domains (academic: Study 1 [N = 107 Spanish high schoolers]; work: Study 2 [N = 164 Spanish university students]. We examine the underlying process that leads women and men to feel ostrac...

The role of men in fighting gender inequality is a controversial issue. Literature has shown that advantaged group members can promote social change but also perpetuate status quo. We conducted three studies to examine two motivational processes that may lead men to confront sexism: an egalitarian path and a paternalistic one. Studies 1–3 revealed...

We investigated how sexism affected leadership in mixed-gender alpine climbing-dyads. We asked whether benevolent sexism would impair, and hostile sexism would increase (as a form of resistance) women’s leadership; and whether benevolent sexism would increase men’s leadership (as a form of paternalism). A correlational study assessed reported leadi...

Uncontrollability has been often associated with impaired or rigid cognitive processing. However, perceived stability of uncontrollable events modulated some of these detrimental effects on cognition. We investigated whether the experience of sequential control loss and restoration can enhance cognitive flexibility. We manipulated uncontrollability...

Traditional roles are problematic for women because they constrain their life choices. Therefore, women have a vested interest in challenging them. We argue that women can resist pervasive traditional roles by showing automatic ingroup bias. In two studies we used an associative procedure to expose two groups of women to stereotypical vs. counter-s...

When personal control is threatened, people often turn to their own group and show negativity towards others. In three studies, we tested an alternative prediction that the salient lack of personal control (vs. control) experienced in the context of unemployment can lead to connectedness and more positive perception of similar others (e.g., members...

The present research examines whether individuation and categorization processes influence trust decisions about strangers at first and across repeated interactions. In a partial replication of the study reported by Cañadas et al. (2015), participants played an adaptation of the multi-round trust game paradigm and had to decide whether or not to co...

Violence against women is currently one of the major problems in El Salvador. However, the country lacks existing data to address this issue. The recent coming into effect of the Ley Especial Integral para una Vida Libre de Violencia para las Mujeres (LEIV) [Comprehensive Law for a Life Free of Violence Against Women] urgently calls for the dimensi...

We examine women’s responses to subliminal gender stereotypes, that is, stereotypes present outside conscious awareness. Previous research suggests that subtle stereotypes elicit acceptance and assimilation, but we predict that subliminal exposure to gender stereotypes will trigger resistance in some women. Specifically, we expect resistance to occ...

Across four studies, we examine multiple identities in the context of gender and propose that women's attitudes toward gender group membership are governed by two largely orthogonal dimensions of gender identity: identification with women and identification with feminists. We argue that identification with women reflects attitudes toward the conten...

Although women who highly identify with other women are more susceptible to stereotype threat effects, women's identification might associate with greater leadership aspirations contingent on (1) counter-stereotype salience and (2) feminist identification. When gender counter-stereotypes are salient, women's identification should associate with gre...

How do individuals deal with group disadvantage when their fellow in-group members conceive it as legitimate? Integrating research on the normative conflict model (Packer, 2008, Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev., 12, 50) and collective action, we expect high identifiers to reject the in-group norm of legitimacy that justifies the inequality, and to assert t...

Economic crises can threaten individuals’ sense of control. At the same time, these crises often result in collective responses, such as class-based protest (e.g., the 99%), but also nationalism or xenophobia. We investigated how personal consequences of economic crises lead to both intragroup and intergroup responses and the role of control for th...

Social resistance is defined as a group’s opposition to economic, political, and social circumstances that perpetuate social disadvantage, or status differences within society. Social identity researchers (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), amongst others, have theorized about the psychological processes underlying social resistance ( Reicher, 2004 ; Spe...

In this research, we examined how people cope with threats to personal control related to the global economic crisis. Three studies (one correlational and two experimental) tested the prediction that blaming social outgroups could serve as a means to restore a threatened sense of personal control. We found that outgroup blaming attributions are rel...

We propose that reactance to threats to individual freedom can be broadened to include threats to group identity and its associated values and norms. In two studies we primed women and men with (counter)stereotypical roles and measured implicit activation of reactance vs. acceptance goals, task persistence, and support for system justification beli...

Radical action against social disadvantage is highly consequential but has been far less studied than moderate collective action. But who supports such extreme actions and why? In two studies, we examine the relation between group identification and support for radical action in disadvantaged groups. Paradoxically, low identifiers are more willing...

Recently, there has been a growing interest in not only understanding the processes underlying responses to disadvantage, and ways of reducing prejudice, but also to gain insight into how experiences of prejudice and social disadvantage affect the need to address one's disadvantage. Our goal in this issue is to discuss how and when low status group...

The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of romantic relationships on adolescents’ sexism. We primed some of the participants with their past and/or present relationship experiences before assessing their sexism. A sample of 130 adolescents (67 boys and 63 girls) from Spanish high schools participated in the study. Half of them were asked...

In this chapter we provide an overview of the main internal and external factors proposed by social and evolutionary psychologists to explain the development of prejudice and stereotypes from childhood. We focus particularly on gender prejudice and empirical evidence obtained from studies conducted in Spain. Gender relations differ from other inter...

We present an intervention to reduce gender prejudice in future professionals of social sciences in three samples from Argentina (N = 28), Spain (N = 83) and El Salvador (N = 67), with slight differences across countries. The program was based on scientific research on sexism and gender-based power aimed at: a) increasing awareness of gender inequa...

The emergence of heterosexual intimate relationship experiences has been described as central to the development of ambivalent sexist attitudes during adolescence. The quality of these relationships might be largely determined by the perceived attractiveness and expectancies about potential partners also in ideological terms. In a questionnaire stu...

This study explored the predictive power of effortful control (EC) on empathy, academic performance, and social competence in adolescents. We obtained self-report measures of EC and dispositional empathy in 359 students (197 girls and 162 boys) aged between 12 and 14 years. Each student provided information about the prosocial behavior of the rest...

We examined the influence of interdependence goals on the accessibility of implicit gender stereotypical associations. Participants were asked to cooperate with or compete against a woman on a mathematical abilities task and subsequently the relative activation of positive and negative warmth and competence traits was measured using a primed catego...

In a set of two studies, we tested whether gender-stereotypical associations are automatically activated by Spanish women in a categorization task, and how this process is conditioned by the context in which the target is presented (kitchen vs. office). We hypothesized that gender stereotypes would be activated implicitly when the target (men vs. w...

We examined the influence of exposure to traditional gender roles on the activation of gender stereotypes in Spanish women. An associative procedure was used to expose participants to stereotypical vs. counterstereotypical gender roles, and a word categorization task with stereotypically feminine communal/warmth and stereotypically masculine agenti...

Several studies have shown the impact of legitimacy on dealing with group power disadvantage. In the present paper we focus on the impact of internal legitimacy (i.e., the ingroup’s appraisal of the fairness of its own powerless position) on the ingroup stereotype as a way of contesting the power disadvantage. Results show that especially in the in...

Extending evidence that nonverbal complementary behavior can occur in dyads to the intergroup domain, the authors predicted that women assume a relatively submissive (narrow) posture when confronted with a male instructor adopting a dominant (broad) posture, but only when he smiles (affiliation motive) and when gender is salient. Male affiliation (...

A questionnaire study addressed the intergenerational transmission of benevolent sexist beliefs (BS) from mothers to adolescent daughters and influences of BS on daughters’ traditional goals, academic goals (i.e., getting an academic degree), and academic performance. In addition, the role of mothers’ educational level and job status as predictors...

People's self-perception biases often lead them to see themselves as better than the average person (a phenomenon known as self-enhancement). This bias varies across cultures, and variations are typically explained using cultural variables, such as individualism versus collectivism. We propose that socioeconomic differences among societies--specifi...

The present study tested the role of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), terrorist threat, and sociopolitical 'climate' as predictors of support for governmental anti-terrorism policies and actions. Two dimensions of analysis were defined: the presence versus absence of al-Qaeda attacks, and adherence to surveillance versus anti-surveillance mainstr...

The present work describes a gender training program for future professionals in Psychology based on scientific research on sexism and power. The training course was held in a Salvadorean University and aimed at: a) increasing awareness of gender inequalities in everyday life; b) reducing ambivalent sexist beliefs; c) providing participants with us...