Demographic and ideological correlates of negative attitudes towards asylum seekers: A meta‐analytic review

Us, them and we: How national and human identifications influence adolescents' ethnic prejudice

Although there have been numerous studies on the relations between group identification and ethnic prejudice, it is less clear whether their associations reflect stable individual tendencies or rather situational or temporal fluctuations. This longitudinal multilevel study aimed to fill this gap by examining the between- and within-person associations of identification with the national and superordinate human groups and levels of prejudice against multiple ethnic minorities. A total of 883 Italian majority adolescents (Mage = 15.66, SD = 1.15 at T1, 49.7% females) completed questionnaires at four time points over the course of 1 year. Results showed that national identification was related to more prejudice at the between-person level but to decreases in prejudice at the within-person level. Additionally, human identification contributed to lower levels of and steeper decreases in prejudice at both the between- and within-person levels. Common and unique associations also emerged across different ethnic minority targets, but only for between-person effects. Overall, this study highlights the importance of distinguishing stable individual levels and momentary fluctuations of both ingroup identifications and ethnic prejudice in order to orient future interventions aimed at improving the quality of intergroup relationships.

Palliative and hegemonic dimensions of conservatism: the mitigating role of institutional trust in shaping attitudes toward migrants and migration policy preferences

The study explores the links between palliative and hegemonic dimensions of conservatism, attitudes toward migrants and restrictive migration policy preferences. Participants reported on their palliative dimension (social conservatism, traditionalism) and hegemonic dimension (social dominance orientation, collective narcissism) of conservatism, trust in government, attitudes toward migrants, and restrictive migration policy preferences. The results show that both dimensions of conservatism are indirectly linked to more restrictive migration policy preferences through negative attitudes toward migrants. Moreover, the present study indicates that increasing institutional trust may be an effective mechanism mitigating negative attitudes toward migrants for individuals high in the palliative dimension of conservatism.

Correlates of Attitudes Toward Bisexuality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This paper presents a systematic review of factors that correlate with attitudes toward bisexuals, and a meta-analysis to estimate the effect size of these relationships. A search strategy was designed to identify studies that had a measure of attitudes toward bisexuals and assessed the relationship between these attitudes and at least one attitude-relevant correlate. The strategy was then applied to PsycINFO, PsycEXTRA, Proquest Psychology Collection, EBSCO Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection and SociINDEX databases, and calls for unpublished data were circulated through relevant professional bodies. Effect size data were extracted from the articles, and meta-analyses were conducted on each of the applicable correlates. The meta-analyses revealed that age, contact (quality and quantity), income, political orientation, religion, sexual orientation, education, ethnicity, gender, and population density were related to negative attitudes toward bisexual individuals (Fisher's Zs = 0.108, -0.418, -0.209, 0.221, 0.231, 0.346, & 0.831, and Hedges' g's = 0.365, 0.344, 0.278, & 0.193, respectively). In addition, a sub-group moderation analysis revealed these effect sizes for participant gender differed as a function of target gender (i.e., bisexual men vs. bisexual women).

Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)

Background. The COVID Stress Scales (CSS) assess COVID-related stress experienced in the past week related to danger and contamination fears, socioeconomic consequences, xenophobia, compulsive checking, and reassurance seeking, and traumatic stress symptoms. Our objective was to provide a translation into Italian, replication, and psychometric validation of the CSS in the general population. Moreover, we aimed to test the convergent and discriminant validity of the Italian CSS (CSS-I) with respect to anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms in the general Italian population. Method. Adult participants (n = 935) over the age of 18 years were recruited from the general population in Italy. Psychological status was assessed using multiple validated measures, including the CSS, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), and the Prejudice Against Immigrants Scale (PAIS). Results. Our confirmatory factor analysis supported a 6-factor model, including danger fears (DAN), socioeconomic consequences (SEC), xenophobia (XEN), compulsive checking and reassurance seeking (CHE), contamination fears (CON), and traumatic stress symptoms (TSS). Strong reliability of the CSS-I (Cronbach's α = 0.863-0.936) and convergent validity with the DASS-21 and PAI were established with positive correlations between total and scale scores across measures. Conclusions. The CSS-I is a valid and reliable instrument to measure COVID-19-related distress in the Italian population.

The Between-Person and Within-Person Effects of Intergroup Contact on Outgroup Attitudes: A Multi-Context Examination

The extensive literature on the contact hypothesis reports a positive association between intergroup contact and outgroup attitudes, yet it remains unknown whether this association reflects within-person (i.e., situational changes within individuals) or between-person (i.e., stable differences between individuals) effects. To investigate this question, we applied (random-intercept) cross-lagged panel models in two studies featuring different samples, measurements, and contexts. We found longitudinal contact–attitude associations in cross-lagged panel models, which cannot differentiate within-person and between-person effects. In random-intercept cross-lagged panel models, we identified between-person effects but not within-person effects. These results conflict with the contact hypothesis, which assumes that contact leads to intra-individual attitude change. We further investigated whether between-person effects represent spurious correlations caused by potential confounders (demographic characteristics, personality, and intergroup ideologies), but found that this was not the case. Our findings highlight the need to further investigate within-person effects and potential explanations of between-person differences in contact and attitudes.

National identification, social dominance orientation, and attitudes towards Black Pete in the Netherlands: Person- and variable-centered analyses