Does diversity foster individualism? The relation of racial-ethnic diversity to individualism-collectivism across the 50 American States

Recent longitudinal research by others analyzing the relation between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism in the 50 American states over the period 2000-2018 suggests that racial-ethnic diversity promotes individualism. The present study used a cross-sectional approach based on 2013 data to determine whether a relation mirroring the longitudinal pattern exists between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism across the 50 states. Two measures of state racial-ethnic diversity were related to four measures of state individualism-collectivism using Pearson correlation and partial correlation controlling for state socioeconomic status. All correlations between diversity and individualism were negative and all those between diversity and collectivism were positive. The absolute magnitudes ranged from .43 to .68 for the Pearson correlations and from .43 to .67 for the partial correlations. Contrary to the earlier longitudinal findings, the current results show that states with higher racial-ethnic diversity are less individualistic and more collectivistic.

Integrating methadone into primary care settings in Ukraine: effects on provider stigma and knowledge

INTRODUCTION

Stigma has undermined the scale-up of evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment. Negative beliefs influence clinicians' discriminatory behaviour and ultimately have wide-ranging effects across the HIV prevention and treatment continuum. Stigma among clinicians can be mitigated in several ways, including through interpersonal contact. In this study, we test whether interactions with people who inject drugs (PWID) influence attitudes of both direct and indirect providers of opioid agonist therapies (OATs) within the same primary care clinics (PCCs) where OAT is newly introduced.

METHODS

In a cluster randomized controlled trial integrating OAT and HIV care into PCCs in Ukraine, clinicians at 24 integrated care sites (two sites in 12 regions) from January 2018 to August 2022 completed a structured survey at baseline, 12 and 24 months. The survey included feeling thermometers and standardized scales related to clinician attitudes towards patients and evidence-based care. Nested linear mixed-effects models were used to examine changes in mean scores over three timepoints for both direct and indirect clinicians.

RESULTS

There were fewer significant changes in any of the scales for direct providers (n = 87) than for indirect providers (n = 155). Direct providers became less tough-minded about substance use disorders (p = 0.002), had less negative opinions about PWID (p = 0.006) and improved their beliefs regarding OAT maintenance (p<0.001) and medical information (p = 0.004). Indirect providers reported improvements in most stigma constructs, including a significant decrease in prejudice (p<0.001), discrimination (p = 0.001), shame (p = 0.007) and fear (p = 0.001) towards PWID.

CONCLUSIONS

Integrating OAT services within primary settings was associated with significantly reduced stigma constructs and improved attitudes towards PWID, possibly through increased intergroup contact between PWID and general clinical staff. Unlike most stigma reduction interventions, re-engineering clinical processes so that PWID receive their care in PCCs emerges as a multilevel stigma reduction intervention through the integration of specialized services in PCCs. Integration influences different types of stigma, and has positive effects not only on health outcomes, but also improves clinician attitudes and efficiently reduces clinician stigma.

Growing Together Through Our Cultural Differences: Self-Expansion in Intercultural Romantic Relationships

Intercultural romantic relationships are increasingly common and although the obstacles such couples face are well documented, the factors that facilitate their success are less studied. Although cultural differences may present challenges, they also offer opportunities for self-expansion-personal growth via new perspectives, knowledge, and identities. In three studies using cross-sectional, dyadic, longitudinal, and experimental methods (NTotal = 896), self-expansion was associated with relationship quality and identity outcomes (i.e., identity integration, cultural self-awareness). Self-expanding through a partner's culture (i.e., cultural self-expansion) was uniquely related to identity outcomes, beyond self-expanding more generally (relational self-expansion). Furthermore, actively sharing cultures and discussing their differences were linked to greater cultural and relational self-expansion, which in turn differentially predicted partners' relationship quality and cultural identities. These studies provide a first look at the role of self-expansion in intercultural relationships, demonstrating that the way couples negotiate their cultures is linked to both relational and personal outcomes.

The Impact of Contact Experience on the Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Same-Sex Parents and Their Children Among Kindergarten Teachers

Intergroup contact is important to reduce prejudice toward sexual minorities. Yet little is known regarding how kindergarten teachers' contact experiences with sexual minority affect their attitudes toward sexual minorities and their beliefs regarding same-sex family parents' parenting skills and same-sex family children's adjustment. This cross-sectional study recruited kindergarten teachers (n = 261; mean age = 38.8 years) in Taiwan in 2021-2022. A self-reported online questionnaire was administered which included questions about quantity and quality of contact experiences with lesbians, gay men (LG) and same-sex families, attitudes toward same-sex families, beliefs regarding same-sex parenting skills, and children's adjustment. Hierarchical multiple regression was used for analysis. The results showed that higher quality of contact with LG was associated with lower prejudice toward LG and with a more positive belief regarding same-sex parents' parenting skills and children's adjustment in same-sex families. The contact experience with same-sex families has an association with positive beliefs regarding same-sex family parents and children. After adjustment of quality of contact, quantity of contact did not show association with attitude toward LG or beliefs regarding same-sex family parents and children. The findings suggest that the quality of contact experience with LG is an important factor to reduce the stereotype against same-sex families.

An intergroup contact approach for understanding attitudes and behaviours towards deaf students among hearing students in Malaysia

Purpose

This study examines the hearing students' attitudes and behaviors towards deaf students in Malaysia using the intergroup contact approach.

Design/methodology/approach

Purposive sampling was used to recruit 439 hearing students at secondary schools. Hearing students were asked to fill in questionnaires that contained four measurements: contact with deaf people, sources of knowledge about deaf people, attitudes towards deaf people and behaviors toward deaf people. A serial mediation model was proposed to investigate the hypothetical mediating role of knowledge and attitudes toward deaf students in the relationship.

Findings

The results of this study showed that contact frequency is negatively associated with attitudes towards deaf people. However, such a relationship is suppressed, only when knowledge is included as a mediator. In addition, mediation analysis supports that sources of knowledge and attitudes about deaf people mediate the relationship between contact and behaviors toward deaf people. Moreover, the frequency of contact indirectly contributes to behaviors through knowledge and attitudes.

Originality/value

The findings indicate that increasing the contact between hearing and deaf students would improve hearing students' attitudes and behaviors towards deaf students. However, this is only when the contact can improve hearing students' knowledge about deaf people and deafness.

The role of early intergroup experiences for identification with all humanity in adulthood

Identification with all humanity (IWAH), defined as a bond with and concern for people all over the world, predicts concern for global problems, commitment to human rights, and prosocial activities. However, it is still unknown how such a broad social identification develops and if early experiences play any role. Two studies explored the role of diverse childhood and adolescence intergroup experiences in predicting IWAH in adulthood. We focused on experiences such as being raised in diversity and having intergroup friends, helping or being helped by various others, and having experiences leading to re- or de-categorization, and introduced a new Childhood/Adolescent Intergroup Experiences (CAIE) scale. Study 1 (N = 313 U.S. students, M age = 21) and Study 2 (N = 1,000, a representative Polish sample, M age = 47) found that this kind of intergroup experiences during childhood and adolescence predicted IWAH beyond the effects of its other known predictors, such as empathy, openness to experience, universalism, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation or ethnocentrism. These results, obtained on various samples and in countries with different ethno-cultural contexts, point to potential ways of enlarging IWAH during childhood and adolescence.

Navigating race in a racially diverse environment: An experience sampling study on the daily use of race in conversations within Hawaii

As the United States grows more racially diverse, it is imperative to understand whether being in a racially diverse environment impacts conversations about race. This study examines whether exposure to, and interactions with racially diverse others relate to whether people talk about race, the frequency with which people talk about race, and their comfort with doing so within the racially diverse context of Hawaii. We employed experience sampling to measure whether people had conversations about race, how frequently conversations about race occurred and their comfort in those conversations, and whether their exposure to and interactions with racially diverse others predicted these behaviors. Exposure to and interactions with racially diverse others were not significant predictors of race-related conversations (and their comfort with said conversations). However, interactions with racially diverse friends was related to greater likelihood of discussing race, more frequent discussions of race, and more comfort with race-related conversations. These findings illustrate the importance that interactions with cross-race friends have for improving intergroup relations.

All Things Considered: Examining Mentoring Relationships Between White Mentors and Black Youth in Community-Based Youth Mentoring Programs

Background

Community-based youth mentoring programs are popular interventions that serve a large number of Black youths throughout the country. Interestingly, the majority of mentors who volunteer their time for mentoring organizations identify as non-Hispanic White. This study examines how White mentors address topics acknowledging ethnic/racial identity and issues centered around social justice and recognize their own privileges when mentoring Black youth in community-based youth mentoring programs.

Objective

The aims of the current study were to examine: (a) whether and how White volunteer mentors address ethnic/racial identity, racial socialization, and oppression in the mentoring relationship and (b) how White mentors' awareness of their own positionality and privilege impacted how they addressed ethnic/racial identity, racial socialization, and oppression in the mentoring relationship with Black youth.

Method

Utilizing a constructivist grounded theory approach, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 current and former mentors from six different Big Brothers Big Sisters community-based mentoring programs across the United States.

Results

Findings reveal that some mentors felt uncomfortable discussing issues centered around race and others do not think it is relevant at all. Further, findings demonstrated that mentoring Black youth significantly impacts mentors' perceived awareness of social issues and acknowledgment of privileges they hold.

Conclusions

Current findings highlight the need for youth mentoring programs to provide training and resources to help White mentors discuss implications of race and broader social justice issues with the Black youth they mentor.

Public Stigma and Personal Networks: Confronting the Limitations of Unidimensional Measures of Social Contact

One of the most promising directions for reducing mental illness stigma lies in Allport's contact theory, which suggests that intergroup interactions reduce stigma. Here, we argue that stigmatizing attitudes are driven by the nature, magnitude, and valence of community-based ties to people with mental illness (PMI), not simply their presence. Using the 2018 General Social Survey (N = 1,113), we compare network-based measures of contact to traditional survey indicators. We find that knowing someone with mental illness, or even number of people known, explains little about desire for social distance, perceptions of dangerousness, or endorsement of treatment coercion. However, having stronger relationships with more PMI, having more friends and family (but not more peripheral ties) with mental illness, and knowing people in treatment are associated with less stigma endorsement. In contrast, we find that exposure to PMI who are perceived as dangerous is associated with greater levels of stigma.

Quiet ego is associated with positive attitudes toward Muslims

Well-known predictors of prejudice toward Muslims include social dominance and authoritarianism. However, a gap exists for variables reflecting a rejection or mitigation of ideological motivations associated with prejudice toward Muslims. We examined if quiet ego was related to positive attitudes toward Muslims, and whether this could be explained by lower levels of authoritarianism, social dominance, and the motivation to express prejudice. We explored this possibility across two studies of adults in the United States (N = 376; N = 519). In Study 1, regression results showed quiet ego was directly associated with positive attitudes toward Muslims. Study 2 utilized path analyses and found that the direct relationship between quiet ego and positive attitudes toward Muslims was explained by associations between quiet ego and lower endorsement of authoritarianism, social dominance, and the internal motivation to express prejudice toward Muslims. Moreover, these associations held when accounting for several correlates of intergroup attitudes.

Contact theory and the multiethnic community of Riace, Italy: An ethnographic examination

This article uses the case of Riace, a small multiethnic community in Southern Italy, as a lens to evaluate key theoretical and methodological aspects of the influential Intergroup Contact Theory. The article draws upon 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Riace, Italy, a town that for more than 20 years has hosted and integrated refugees into the local community. We analyzed the ethnographic material in light of assumptions underlying intergroup contact theory. Findings demonstrate that friendly everyday interactions between inhabitants of different ethnic backgrounds serve as the critical "social glue" for the Riace community, but that there are social inequalities, as well as group stereotypes, group-based friendships, and spatial segregation. The different interpretations and nuanced outcomes of everyday social interactions demonstrate the importance of a contextualized understanding of the nature and implications of intergroup contact in real-world settings for future research and policies.

Detecting Prejudice From Egalitarianism: Why Black Americans Don't Trust White Egalitarians' Claims

Although White Americans increasingly express egalitarian views, how they express egalitarianism may reveal inegalitarian tendencies and sow mistrust with Black Americans. In the present experiments, Black perceivers inferred likability and trustworthiness and accurately inferred underlying racial attitudes and motivations from White writers' declarations that they are nonprejudiced and egalitarian (Experiments 1 and 2). White writers believed that their egalitarianism seemed more inoffensive and indicative of allyship than was perceived by Black Americans (Experiment 1a). Linguistic analysis revealed that, when inferring racial attitudes and motivations, Black perceivers accurately attended to language emphasizing humanization, support for equal opportunity, personal responsibility, and the idea that equality already exists (Experiment 1b). We found causal evidence that these linguistic cues informed Black Americans' perceptions of White egalitarians (Experiment 2). Suggesting societal costs of these perceptions, White egalitarians' underlying racial beliefs negatively predicted Black participants' actual trust and cooperation in an economic game (Experiment 3). Our experiments (N = 1,335 adults) showed that White Americans' insistence that they are egalitarian itself perpetuates mistrust with Black Americans.

Categorizing a Face and Facing a Category: The Constructive Impacts of Ambiguity and Uncertainty in Racial Categorization

The past generation has seen a dramatic rise in multiracial populations and a consequent increase in exposure to individuals who challenge monolithic racial categories. We examine and compare two potential outcomes of the multiracial population growth that may impact people's racial categorization experience: (a) exposure to racially ambiguous faces that visually challenge the existing categories, and (b) a category that conceptually challenges existing categories (including "biracial" as an option in addition to the monolithic "Black" and "White" categories). Across four studies (N = 1,810), we found that multiple exposures to faces that are racially ambiguous directly lower essentialist views of race. Moreover, we found that when people consider a category that blurs the line between racial categories (i.e., "biracial"), they become less certain in their racial categorization, which is associated with less race essentialism, as well. Importantly, we found that these two effects happen independently from one another and represent two distinct cognitive processes.

Promoting Fair and Just School Environments: Developing Inclusive Youth

Incidents of prejudice and discrimination in K-12 schools have increased over the past decade around the world, including the U.S. In 2018, more than two-thirds of the 2,776 U.S. educators surveyed reported witnessing a hate or bias incident in their school. Children and adolescents who experience prejudice, social exclusion and discrimination are subject to compromised well-being and low academic achievement. Few educators feel prepared to incorporate this topic into the education curriculum. Given the long-term harm related to experiencing social exclusion and discrimination, school districts need to create positive school environments and directly address prejudice and bias. Several factors are currently undermining progress in this area. First, national debates in the U.S. and other countries has politicized the topic of creating fair and just school environments. Second, the Covid pandemic has interrupted children's and adolescents' education by halting academic progress which has particularly negatively affected students from marginalized and ethnic/racial minority backgrounds. Third, teachers have experienced significant stress during Covid-19 with an increase in anxiety around virtual instruction and communication with parents. Three strategies recommended to address these converging problems include creating inclusive and non-discriminatory policies for schools, promoting opportunities for intergroup contact and mutual respect, and implementing evidence-based, developmentally appropriate education programs designed to reduce prejudice, increase ethnic and racial identity, and promote equity, fairness and justice in school environments.

Personality traits predict attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disability

Background: Explaining individual differences in people's attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disability (ID) is important for increasing social inclusion of people with ID. The aim of the current study was to replicate and extend past research by formulating a single model of attitudes toward individuals with ID with several predictors: personality traits, quality and quantity of contact, perceived knowledge of ID, social desirability, and demographics. Methods: A sample of 221 undergraduate students in the United States completed several surveys in a lab setting: the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory-Revised, the Big Five Inventory, McManus et al.'s measures of contact with and perceived knowledge of ID, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Results: Results replicated previous findings by showing quality of contact was the strongest predictor of attitudes. Additionally, we found openness to experience and agreeableness remained significant predictors after holding all other variables constant. A follow-up mediation analysis demonstrated that quality of contact mediated the relations from openness and agreeableness to attitudes. Conclusions: Findings suggest personality factors can influence attitudes toward individuals with ID, and further emphasize the importance of quality of contact. Implications for the social inclusion of individuals with ID are discussed.

Dismantling Structural Stigma Related to Mental Health and Substance Use: An Educational Framework

Stigma related to mental health and substance use (MHSU) is a well-established construct that describes how inequitable health outcomes can result from prejudice, discrimination, and marginalization. Although there is a body of literature on educational approaches to reduce stigma, antistigma education for MHSU has primarily focused on stigma at the social, interpersonal/public, and personal (self-stigma) levels, with little attention to the problem of structural stigma. Structural stigma refers to how inequity is manifested through rules, policies, and procedures embedded within organizations and society at large. Structural stigma is also prominent within clinical learning environments and can be transmitted through role modeling, resulting in inequitable treatment of vulnerable patient populations. Addressing structural stigma through education, therefore, has the potential to improve equity and enhance care. A promising educational approach for addressing structural stigma is structural competency, which aims to enhance health professionals' ability to recognize and respond to social and structural determinants that produce or maintain health disparities. In this article, the authors propose a framework for addressing structural MHSU stigma in health professions education that has 4 key components and is rooted in structural humility: recognizing structural forms of stigma; reflecting critically on one's own assumptions, values, and biases; reframing language away from stereotyping toward empathic terms; and responding with actions that actively dismantle structural MHSU stigma. The authors propose evidence-informed and practical suggestions on how structural competency may be applied within clinical learning environments to dismantle structural MHSU stigma in organizations and society at large.

Distinguishing Intergroup and Long-Distance Relationships

Intergroup and long-distance relationships are both central features of human social life, but because intergroup relationships are emphasized in the literature, long-distance relationships are often overlooked. Here, we make the case that intergroup and long-distance relationships should be studied as distinct, albeit related, features of human sociality. First, we review the functions of both kinds of relationship: while both can be conduits for difficult-to-access resources, intergroup relationships can reduce intergroup conflict whereas long-distance relationships are especially effective at buffering widespread resource shortfalls. Second, to illustrate the importance of distinguishing the two relationship types, we present a case study from rural Bolivia. Combining ethnography and two different experimental techniques, we find that the importance of intergroup relationships-and the salience of group membership itself-varies across populations and across methods. Although ethnography revealed that participants often rely on long-distance relationships for resource access, we were unable to capture participant preferences for these relationships with a forced-choice technique. Taken together, our review and empirical data highlight that (1) intergroup and long-distance relationships can have different functions and can be more or less important in different contexts and (2) validating experimental field data with ethnography is crucial for work on human sociality. We close by outlining future directions for research on long-distance relationships in humans.

Leadership and Follower Voice: The Role of Inclusive Leadership and Group Faultlines in Promoting Collective Voice Behavior

We developed and tested a theoretical model to examine how and when inclusive leadership affected collective voice behavior in this study. We identified two voice-relevant mediators—group psychological safety (an emergent state) and information elaboration (a group process) to clarify the mechanisms between inclusive leadership and collective voice behavior. Further, according to the person–situation interaction approach, we brought the faultlines theory to the inclusive leadership literature and considered group faultlines as a positive moderator to maximize the effects of inclusive leadership. With a two-wave, two-source design, we collected data from 301 employees within 67 research and development groups in China. We found that inclusive leadership positively affected collective voice behavior through the mediating mechanisms of both group psychological safety and information elaboration. Additionally, this effect was stronger in high faultlines situation. The findings suggest that leaders should show inclusiveness to motivate collective voice, especially in groups with high faultlines.

Team Belonging: Integrating Teamwork and Diversity Training Through Emotions

With the worldwide focus shifting toward important questions of what diversity means to society, organizations are attempting to keep up with employees’ needs to feel recognized and belong. Given that traditionally team and diversity trainings are provided separately, with different theoretical backgrounds and goals, they are often misaligned and ineffective. We review 339 empirical articles depicting a team, diversity, or emotional management training to extract themes and determine which methods are most effective. Although research has demonstrated the importance of belonging for providing positive workplace outcomes, we found that the traditional design of these trainings and lack of emotional management prevent a balance between team and diversity goals, preventing belonging. We propose an integrative training with emotional management to help teams foster optimal belonging, where members can unite together through their differences. Accordingly, our themes inform this training model that can inspire future research into more effective training.

Slumming on Social Media? E-Mediated Tourist Gaze and Social Representations of Indian, South African, and Brazilian Slum Tourism Destinations

Slum tourism is a hotly debated genre of travel. While it may foster intercultural encounters with marginalised “others”, it is also accused of reinforcing stereotypes and exploitation. Both aspects are amplified by the communication through social media of the slum tourism experience, that contribute to challenge or confirm stigmatizing representations of slums and their inhabitants. Based on the theoretical constructs of the tourist gaze and of social representations, this article addresses this particular type of digital contact. A lexicometric approach was used to analyse an extensive corpus of reviews on TripAdvisor (N = 8126). The findings not only confirm common themes already identified by the literature: the eye-opening component of touring poverty and the gatekeeping function of guides; but also show the emergence of context-dependent specificities, such as a hedonistic feature in the Cape Town region; or the integration of favelas within the representations of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, the results show the tension between the “othering” and the “sameing” mechanisms, making this tourism practice a space in which shallow and deep tourist gazes interact and co-exist, and are crucially mediated by the gatekeeper of the tours: the guide.

Changing Attitudes Towards Voice Hearers: A Literature Review

Auditory verbal hallucinations, or voice hearing, is increasingly understood as a common experience. Despite this, voice hearers still experience a great deal of stigma, which can have serious negative impacts on the person's experience of their voices, and their recovery. Research has demonstrated that healthcare professionals may be a major source of the stigma surrounding voice hearing, with service-level implications for the development and delivery of evidence-based interventions. Therefore, reducing this stigma is a critical intervention target. The purpose of this narrative review is to examine evidence for interventions aimed at reducing stigma towards people who hear voices, in populations of healthcare professionals, students, and the general public. The available evidence supports the use of anti-stigma interventions based around direct contact with voice hearers and education about voice hearing. However, further research is necessary in this area to confirm these findings.

Interracial Contact Differentially Shapes Brain Networks Involved in Social and Non-Social Judgments From Faces: A Combination of Univariate and Multivariate Approaches

The present work explores the relationship between interracial contact and the neural substrates of explicit social and non-social judgments about both racial ingroup and outgroup targets. Convergent evidence from univariate and multivariate partial least squares (PLS) analyses reveals that contact shapes the recruitment of brain regions involved in social cognition similarly for both ingroup and outgroup targets. Results support the hypothesis that increased contact is associated with generalized changes in social cognition toward both ingroup and outgroup faces. Specifically, regardless of target race, low- and average-contact perceivers showed the typically observed increased recruitment of temporoparietal junction and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex during social compared to perceptual judgments. However, high-contact perceivers did not show selective recruitment of these brain regions for social judgments. Complimenting univariate results, multivariate PLS analyses reveal that greater perceiver contact leads to reduced co-activation in networks of brain regions associated with face processing (e.g. fusiform gyrus) and salience detection (e.g. anterior cingulate cortex and insula). Across univariate and multivariate analyses, we found no evidence that contact differentially impacted cross-race face perception. Instead, when performing either a social or a novel perceptual task, interracial contact appears to broadly shape how perceivers engage with all faces.

Pediatric Surgery and School Nurse Attitudes Regarding Children with Obesity

PURPOSE

Weight bias towards individuals with obesity exists among medical professionals; yet, there is less evidence of the extent to which weight biases exist in different types of nursing professions. This study aimed to describe pediatric surgery and school nurses' weight biases towards children with obesity and examine factors associated with weight biases.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Pediatric surgery (n = 108) and school nurses (n = 177) completed a single online survey that assessed their attitudes towards weight regarding children with obesity. Responses were categorized as % agreement (responded "agree" or "strongly agree" to a given statement). Nurses also reported % time spent working with children who had obesity.

RESULTS

Almost all nurses (>93%) agreed it was important to treat patients with obesity with compassion and respect. However, many nurses endorsed statements stating that patients with obesity are often non-compliant with treatment recommendations (47%) and can be difficult to deal with (35%). Only about half of school nurses (53%) and surgical nurses (56%) felt professionally prepared to effectively treat patients with obesity. Nurses commonly reported hearing/witnessing other professionals in their field make negative comments (69%) or convey negative stereotypes (55%) about patients with obesity. School nurses who spent a greater % of time working with children with overweight had more positive weight attitudes (p = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS

Negative attitudes towards patients with obesity were relatively prevalent in this population of pediatric surgery and school nurses.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

There is a need for more educational opportunities, professional trainings, and policy initiatives to reduce weight bias among nurses.

Impact of interracial contact on inferring mental states from facial expressions

Although decades of research have shown that intergroup contact critically impacts person perception and evaluation, little is known about how contact shapes the ability to infer others' mental states from facial cues (commonly referred to as mentalizing). In a pair of studies, we demonstrated that interracial contact and motivation to attend to faces jointly influence White perceivers' ability to infer mental states based on facial expressions displaying secondary emotions from both White targets alone (study 1) and White and Black targets (study 2; pre-registered). Consistent with previous work on the effect of motivation and interracial contact on other-race face memory, we found that motivation and interracial contact interacted to shape perceivers' accuracy at inferring mental states from secondary emotions. When motivated to attend to the task, high-contact White perceivers were more accurate at inferring both Black and White targets' mental states; unexpectedly, the opposite was true for low-contact perceivers. Importantly, the target race did not interact with interracial contact, suggesting that contact is associated with general changes in mentalizing irrespective of target race. These findings expand the theoretical understanding and implications of contact for fundamental social cognition.

Support for interreligious conflict in Indonesia

The study aims to extend knowledge on interreligious conflicts in Indonesia by investigating the extent to which perceived threat, outgroup distrust, and interreligious contact mediate the relationship between majority–minority affiliation and support for interreligious conflict in Indonesia. We employed two modes of support, lawful and violent protests, to represent support for interreligious conflict. We collected survey data, covering random samples of ordinary citizens (N = 2,055, Muslims and Christians) across the archipelago. Our results reveal that perceived threat is the strongest mediator in the relationship between majority–minority affiliation and support for interreligious conflict. In contrast, interreligious contact shows no significance in explaining the relationship of interest. Overall, our study highlights the importance of focusing on support for both lawful and violent protests to describe and explain latent interreligious conflict in Indonesia, while taking into account relevant concepts resulting from prolonged interreligious conflict (namely perceived threat and outgroup distrust) on the one hand and different traits of interreligious contact as highly potential solutions on the other.

Narrative persuasion and stigma: Using news accounts to denormalize texting while driving

Despite nearly universal texting while driving bans in U.S. states, distracted driving still poses a major risk for American motorists and pedestrians on a daily basis. We argue texting while driving behavior, due to its cultural, social, and psychological motivations, may be addressed by cultivating a stigma to denormalize TWD much in the same way public health campaigns and bans did with tobacco use. While extant strategies may similarly stigmatize this risky behavior, we contend the stigmatizing effect of news narratives offers an untapped and unexamined resource. In this paper we draw on emergent findings in narrative persuasion work to present an exploratory analysis and evidence indicates news narratives, through narrative engagement, can both stigmatize TWD behavior and diminish attitudes toward distracted driving. These initial findings are then validated against an independent sample. If applied widely, this method may be applied to increase social pressure against distracted driving, leading to fewer people engaging in TWD behavior, and making roads safer.

Rethinking intergroup contact across cultures: Predicting outgroup evaluations using different types of contact, group status, and perceived sociopolitical contexts

Two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between three different types of intergroup contact (i.e., direct contact, extended contact, and online contact) and outgroup evaluation, and the moderating effect of group status and sociopolitical contexts across two cultural contexts. A total of 75 European Americans (majority) and 44 Chinese Americans (minority) participated in Study 1; whereas 61 Javanese (majority) and 72 Chinese Indonesians (minority) participated in Study 2. In both studies, participants completed an outgroup feeling thermometer as well as a set of questionnaires measuring intergroup contact, perceived outgroup political power, perceived outgroup economic power, perceived government support, and perceived quality of the current intergroup relations. Results from the two studies revealed that although contact was beneficial in both cultural contexts, there were notable moderators of the links between contact and outgroup evaluations. Specifically, the value of direct contact was greater for the minority group members in the United States, extended contact only mattered in a specific condition when the perceived government support was taken into account in the United States, and online contact was beneficial across group status in the Indonesian context. Overall, the findings provide evidence of the need to take into account the role of specific sociopolitical relations between the two groups in intergroup relations research.

Expressions of self-ageism in four European countries: a comparative analysis of predictors across cultural contexts

Self-ageism has a significant negative impact on older people's ageing experiences and health outcomes. Despite ample evidence on cross-cultural ageism, studies have rarely looked into the way cultural contexts affect self-ageism. In this article, we compare expressions of self-ageism and its possible predictors across four European countries based on two questionnaires in a study sample of 2,494 individuals aged 55 and older. We explore how predictors of self-ageism are moderated by cultural values in a comparative fixed-effects regression model. We empirically show that similarly to ageism, self-ageism is not present in the same way and to the same extent in every country. Moreover, the level to which cultures value hierarchy and intellectual autonomy significantly moderates the association between self-ageism and individual predictors of self-ageism. Our study adds to the small existing body of work on self-ageism by confirming empirically that certain expressions of self-ageism and individual predictors are susceptible to change in different cultural contexts. Our research results suggest that self-ageism interventions may benefit from a culturally sensitive approach and imply that more culturally diverse comparisons of self-ageism are necessary to figure out fitting ways to reduce self-ageism.

Cultural intelligence and social distance among undergraduate students in clinical professions

Cultural competence, also known as cultural intelligence (CQ), is considered a necessary skill in the clinical professions and for resolving intergroup conflict, yet it has not been examined within the framework of the contact hypothesis. The aim of the present research is to extend CQ theory from management to the clinical professions and examine it in a context of intergroup conflict. The present study examined CQ and social distance among entering undergraduate majority (Jewish) and minority (Arab) students in clinical study domains, hypothesizing that CQ will be negatively associated with social distance towards outgroup members and that minority students will report higher CQ than majority students. First-year students ( N = 180) from diverse demographic and study domains (social work, nursing, behavioral sciences) were surveyed. The results reveal a novel negative association between CQ and outgroup social distance, and higher CQ among minority-group students. The finding that students from minority backgrounds were more receptive to intercultural exchange at the outset of their training suggests that CQ theory could be used in training and evaluation criteria of students entering clinical professional training.

The romantic imperative: discourses of romance and heterosexual marriage

The contact hypothesis predicts that positive contact will reform attitudes towards the out-group and lead to less prejudice as a result. In contexts facing ongoing gender inequality - such as South Africa - romance is usually seen as a beneficial point of contact between unequal groups (heterosexual men and women), because of the sense of intimacy it brings. We investigated romantic practices in a discursive-ethnographic study, by recruiting five young, westernised, middleclass South African couples and interviewing them a number of times about romance and their relationships. We found that these couples positioned being-romantic extremely positively, as a means of sustaining intimacy in marriage. However, we also found that they positioned one version of romance as something they needed to engage in, in order to do relationship-work. We have called this the romantic imperative and suggested that it appears to channel these couples into being romantic in a particular way; one which is restrictive in the way it may be performed and which carries a high cost in terms of the effort, time and financial resources required to perform it successfully. This links to critiques of the contact hypothesis, in that positive contact does not always equate to positive outcomes.

The positive impact of knowledge and quality of contact on university students' attitudes towards people with intellectual disability in the Arab world

BACKGROUND

This study examines undergraduate students' attitudes towards people with intellectual disability (PWID) in relation to their frequency of contact with people with intellectual disability, the quality of this contact, and their knowledge of intellectual disability (ID).

METHOD

The study sample comprised 1001 undergraduate students (458 male students [46 %]; 543 female students [54 %]; mean age = 20.6 years) from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Arabic version of the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory-Revised (MRAI-R) was used to examine attitudes towards PWID.

RESULTS

Knowledge about ID, quality of contact with PWID, and gender were significant predictors of attitudes. Frequency of contact, as well as having relatives with a disability, were not significant predictors of attitudes. No differences were found between participants from the two countries.

CONCLUSION

The results of the study indicate that high-quality contact is a major predictor of students' attitudes. Therefore, society needs to ensure more than just simple forms of contact between people with and without disabilities.

Rising Ethnic Diversity in the United States Accompanies Shifts Toward an Individualistic Culture

We investigate the relationship between ethnic diversity and the rise of individualism in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries. Tests of the historical rates of ethnic diversity alongside individualistic relational structures (e.g., adults living alone, single-/multi-child families) from the years 1950 to 2018 reveal that societal and regional rates of ethnic diversity accompanied individualistic relational structures. These effects hold above and beyond time-series trends in each variable. Further evidence from experimental studies ( N = 707) suggests that the presence of, and contact with, ethnically diverse others contributes to greater individualistic values (e.g., the importance of uniqueness and personal achievement). Converging evidence across societal-, regional-, and individual-level analyses suggests a systematic link between ethnic diversity and individualism. We discuss the implications of these findings for sociocultural livelihood in light of the rising rates of ethnic diversity across the globe.

‘Youngsplaining’ and moralistic judgements: exploring ageism through the lens of digital ‘media ideologies’

In this paper, we explore ageist depictions of both young and older people as they emerge from discourses addressing ‘other people's’ digital media usage practices. We carried out eight focus groups (four with teenagers, four with people aged 65 or older) in two southern European cities (Rome and Barcelona). By negotiating the affordances and constraints of (digital) tools and platforms, people develop their own usage norms and strategies, which might – or might not – be intersubjectively shared. Discourses surrounding usage practices and norms tend to refer to what people understand as anappropriateway of using digital platforms: these discourses proved to be powerful triggers for expressing ageist stereotypes; ‘the others’ were depicted, by both teenage and older participants, as adopting inappropriate usage practices (with regard to content, form, skills and adherence to social norms). These reflections proved to have broader implications on how other age cohorts are perceived: participants tended to take discourses on digital media usage as an opportunity for making generalised judgements about ‘the others’, which address their manners, as well as their attitude towards communication and social life. Inter-group discrimination processes and ageist stereotypes play a major role in shaping the strong moralistic and patronising judgements expressed by older and younger participants towards ‘the other’ age cohort.

Does classroom diversity improve intergroup relations? Short- and long-term effects of classroom diversity for cross-ethnic friendships and anti-immigrant attitudes in adolescence

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 ( MageT1 = 13.40, MageT5 = 17.30), we found only limited direct effects of classroom diversity on anti-immigrant attitudes. However, classroom diversity increased the likelihood of cross-ethnic friendships, which in turn was associated with lower levels of anti-immigrant attitudes. Moreover, we found that the effect of classroom diversity on friendships remained also after adolescents transitioned to new schools. The findings highlight the importance of longitudinal analyses and contribute to a deeper understanding of how intergroup relations develop during adolescence. It brings new insights related to the longevity of classroom effects and to cross-ethnic friendships’ ability to mediate the diversity–attitudes relationship.

Outperforming yet undervalued: Undergraduate women in STEM

In spite of efforts to increase gender diversity across many science fields, women continue to encounter beliefs that they lack ability and talent. Undergraduate education is a critical time when peer influence may alter choice of majors and careers for women interested in science. Even in life science courses, in which women outnumber men, gender biases that emerge in peer-to-peer interactions during coursework may detract from women's interest and progress. This is the first study of which we are aware to document that women are outperforming men in both physical and life science undergraduate courses at the same institution, while simultaneously continuing to be perceived as less-able students. This is problematic because undergraduate women may not be able to escape gender-ability stereotypes even when they are outperforming men, which has important implications for 1) the recognition of women's achievements among their peers in undergraduate education and 2) retention of women in STEM disciplines and careers.