When group representations serve social change: The speeches of Patrice Lumumba during the Congolese decolonization

Episodic versus thematic media framing of violence against social leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia

Social leaders and human rights defenders (SLHRD) in Colombia have been under increasing attack for defending the rights of communities affected by violence. From 2016 to 2022, over 600 SLHRD were assassinated, resulting in a serious violation of both individual and community human rights. The media's portrayal of these attacks can shape public perceptions and influence efforts towards peacebuilding and promoting human rights. This study examines the media's framing of violence against SLHRD in Colombia between 2016 and 2020, a period marked by an escalation of violence after the signing of the 2016 peace accord between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). We analysed 1506 textual publications from seven media outlets using a lexicometric approach and identified two frames of news articles: episodic and thematic. Our findings suggest that the episodic media framing may present a simplistic and non-political perspective of the issue, which can impede peacebuilding efforts, while the thematic frame can raise awareness of violence against SLHRD and promote human rights defence. Our study highlights the media's significant role in shaping public opinion on violence against SLHRD, offering practical implications for advocacy and activism.

Lay representations of artificial intelligence and autonomous military machines

This study is about how lay persons perceive and represent artificial intelligence in general as well as its use in weaponised autonomous ground vehicles in the military context. We analysed the discourse of six focus groups in Estonia, using an automatic text analysis tool and complemented the results by a qualitative thematic content analysis. The findings show that representations of artificial intelligence-driven machines are anchored in the image of man. A cluster analysis revealed five dominant themes: artificial intelligence as programmed machines, artificial intelligence and the problem of control, artificial intelligence and its relation to human life, artificial intelligence used in wars and ethical problems in developing autonomous weaponised machines. The findings are discussed with regard to people's tendency to anthropomorphise robots despite their lack of emotions, which can be seen as a last resort when confronting an autonomous machine where the usual interpersonal understanding of intentions does not apply.

Who Were We? Exploring French Past Group Prototypes

Groups have cognitive existence through the prototype of the group (Haslam et al., 1995; https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420250504). Past group prototypes then refer to the most representative characteristics that define the group in these previous states. We suppose, as collective events might have different versions associated with different valences (Zaromb et al., 2014; https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-013-0369-7), this might also be the case for prototypes also held in the collective memory (Halbwachs, 1950; http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1522/cla.ham.mem1). After highlighting different facets of the past (Study 1) or not (Study 2), we used the "free association method" (Lo Monaco et al., 2017; https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12124; Vergès, [1992], L'évocation de l'argent. Bulletin de Psychologie, 45(4-7), 203-209). Yet, this research explored the content of past prototypes associated with different elements of French collective memory: the French during the Second World War (Study 1, N = 301), and French people in 18th century (Study 2, N = 354). Results suggest the existence for each of these periods of a "two-sided" prototype, i.e., a positive vs. negative-valence prototype. The implications of the existence of these "two-sided" prototypes, the implication of collective continuity perceived for each of them and avenues for future research will be discussed.

The challenge of education for sustainability in higher education: key themes and competences within the University of the Basque Country

Introduction

One of the major challenges for higher education institutions in the last decade has been (and will continue to be) the integration of sustainability into their curricula and the development of sustainability competences in students. Education for Sustainability (ES) can help prepare students to meet the challenges of making societies more sustainable. However, as a first step toward this goal, teachers need to incorporate ES into their teaching. In this regard, this research aimed to analyze if members of the teaching staff have started this integration and, if so, which sustainability-related topics have been introduced and which skills do they consider contribute to the development of future graduates.

Methods

A questionnaire was administered to teaching staff at the University of the Basque Country in 2022. A total of 403 teachers completed the questionnaire, expressing their perceptions through open-ended questions.

Results

In general terms teachers incorporate ES into their teaching (71.22%). However, they do this mainly within the framework of two general themes: "Environmental awareness and energy" - most used by teachers of experimental sciences and engineering - and "Social commitment," most used by teachers of social sciences and those who are familiar with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Regarding the key competences that ES provides for future graduates, those most frequently mentioned were "training of professionals committed to society" and "critical thinking and ethics." These competences were particularly notable in the discourse of teachers who were aware of the 2030 Agenda and who use active methodologies in their classrooms. Finally, the opinion that sustainability has little to do with their teaching (28.78%) was notably expressed by teachers less familiar with the 2030 Agenda.

Discussion

Thus, it can be concluded that, aside from knowledge of the 2030 Agenda, factors such as the sustainability policy of the institution, area of teaching expertise, and the use of active methodologies all play a significant role in determining whether competences for sustainable development are integrated into higher education teaching.

Rape Culture, Revictimization, and Social Representations: Images and Discourses on Sexual and Violent Crimes in the Digital Sphere in Mexico

The digital sphere has become a space in which misogyny-laden discourses are constantly presented. In fact, in Mexico persists a rape culture that justifies violent acts against women and blames the victims of the crimes through social opinions. The present study proposed an approach based on the Theory of Social Representations. In this sense, this study aimed to analyze the discourses that emerge in the digital sphere when users give their opinion on five types of crimes against women: femicide, rape, enforced disappearance, abuse, and sexual harassment. The results revealed that there are four types of discourse (representations) framed within rape culture: disbelief of rape, blaming the victim, revictimization, and disempowering women. It is concluded that Mexican society maintains a representation that stereotypes and devalues the image of women, which allows us to understand the aggressions that women suffer in their daily lives.

Citizenship deservingness justifies exclusive national boundary making: A socio-dynamic mixed-methods approach to social representations of citizenship

Naturalization policies prescribe the conditions immigrants must fulfil to be legally recognized as national citizens in a receiving country. When changes in naturalization policies are publicly debated, divergent opinions on national boundary making reveal social representations of citizenship as spaces of political contention. This research offers a socio-dynamic analysis of citizenship representations in the context of a recent referendum on a simplified naturalization procedure for third-generation immigrants in Switzerland. Automatic lexicometric techniques enriched with reflexive thematic analysis were performed on a post-vote survey (VOTO, N = 998), to examine how voters grounded their voting decisions via different citizenship representations. The results showed that ascribed criteria based on natural birthrights and cultural assimilation were mobilized in favour of more permissive access to nationality. Conversely, allegedly achievable criteria based on citizenship deservingness were mobilized against. These findings provide new evidence about citizenship deservingness as a neoliberal strategy legitimizing exclusive national boundary making.

Comparing social representations of feminism among education and engineering majors: Insights for developing feminist pedagogies

The present study uses Social Representation Theory to explore students’ representations of feminism with a view to informing principles for developing feminist pedagogies that can help foster egalitarian values among college students. The aim is to identify how Spanish students (n = 366) represent feminism and how these representations are shaped by participants’ gender, identification with feminism, or by studying feminized or masculinized disciplines. Students from Education ( n = 192), a feminized qualification, and Engineering ( n = 174), a masculinized qualification, completed a free association task using the Grid Elaboration Method to collect representations of feminism. A lexical analysis was conducted using the Reinert method. The results showed that a positive representation of feminism was the broadest (75.8%), with feminist-identified students defining feminism as a struggle for freedom. Feminist women emphasized the importance of achieving equality, and education students emphasized the importance of education in the process of women's empowerment. In contrast, 24.2% represented feminism negatively, as an extreme movement, especially engineering, non-feminist, and male students. These findings suggest that efforts aimed at developing feminist principles among students consider not only gender and feminist identification but also the context of feminized or masculinized disciplines as key spaces of gendered socialization. The study was carried out in the Basque country, Spain.

Exploring the social and emotional representations used by students from the University of the Basque Country to face the first outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic

In 2020, COVID-19, a new emerging infectious disease (EID), was spread throughout the world, including Europe. Spain, in particular, witnessed a significant outbreak of the pandemic. In consequence, all classes were cancelled and the Government declared a state of emergency, ordering the lockdown of the entire population from March to May. The aim of this research is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the representations of young university students from the University of the Basque Country and their emotional response when the crisis started. A free-association exercise was completed by 503 students from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) (Northern Spain). To analyze the content, the Reinert method was used with the Iramuteq software for lexical analysis. The results showed that students placed COVID-19 at a distance from the self, pointing out issues related to social response and disinformation, while showing concerns for self-related issues that are linked to negative emotions, academic consequences, and potentially close victims. The students' concerns were categorized at four main levels: the communicative-informative level, health-emotional level, community-social level, and academic level. All of this has created overwhelming feelings of nervousness, along with anger and emotional fatigue. These results indicate the necessity for universities to work from a holistic standpoint, not only in terms of responding to academic needs but also from psychological, communicative, social, health, and well-being perspectives.

Coping with COVID-19: social representations underlying blaming processes and fear

Objective. This study examines how people socially represent the COVID-19 pandemic in the early stage of the health crisis in Europe. Specifically, this research analyses the days before and immediately after the declaration of the state of emergency in Spain, which resulted in the entire population being placed in lockdown. Design. For this purpose, we used the Grid Elaboration Method for free association elicited by the word "coronavirus". This exercise was completed by 1037 people from Spain. Main Outcome Measures. Responses were analysed using Iramuteq software for lexical analysis. Results. Before the state of emergency and lockdown, there was a repeat of many of the emotional and cognitive patterns seen in previous pandemics such us upward and downward blaming or feelings of anger and emotional fatigue. However, outward blaming patterns towards peers also emerged. Moreover, in the period following lockdown, we noted the emergence of new representations and emotions such as paralyzing distrust or resilience. Similarity analysis revealed that the "fear of pandemic" hides a wide variety of emotions. Conclusion. Understanding the blaming and fear processes that are linked to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain offers us practical implications for coping with the challenge of this new crisis.

Exploring the Social and Emotional Representations Used by the Elderly to Deal With the COVID-19 Pandemic

Spain has become one of the European epicenters of coronavirus (COVID-19), a virus that particularly affects the elderly, since this group accounts for the majority of hospitalized cases and has the highest mortality rates. Therefore, the aim of this research is to understand how elderly people represent and emotionally cope with COVID-19 during the days when the pandemic emerged in Spain. Using a qualitative methodology, a free association exercise elicited by the word "COVID-19" was completed by 115 participants (age range: 60-85 years) from the North of Spain. Lexical analysis was used to analyze the content. The results revealed that the government and the mass media are criticized for failing to communicate a clear message, and for giving out information that is both insufficient and contradictory. However, participants are clear that it is essential to follow the guidelines of the scientists and doctors, which are represented as credible sources. However, when the state of alarm and the lockdown of all citizens was declared, most of the participants represented the risk as being associated with the elderly and the pandemic became something that might also affect their families. Due to these circumstances, negative emotions appear such as fear, nervousness, uncertainty, restlessness, and insecurity. Feelings of solitude and loneliness also emerged, and these are represented as being linked to death. These results indicate the need for governments to manage the current situation with the elderly by placing greater emphasis on social and inclusive policies to help alleviate the possible effects of the pandemic and the lockdown.

Exploring Children's Social and Emotional Representations of the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19, a new emerging infectious disease (EID), has spread throughout the world, including Europe. Spain, in particular, has witnessed a significant outbreak of the pandemic. All classes have been canceled, and the government has declared a state of emergency, ordering the lockdown and confinement of the entire population. All children in the country have been confined to their homes since March 13 and are not allowed to leave at any time. This population is thus facing the harshest restrictions. Given the vulnerable situation of children, the aim of this research is to understand how they represent and emotionally cope with the COVID-19 crisis. A free association exercise elicited by the word "coronavirus" was completed by 228 children (age range: 3-12 years) from the North of Spain. To analyze the content, we employed the Reinert method with Iramuteq software for lexical analysis. The results revealed that children represent the COVID-19 as an enemy that is being fought by the doctors. Children are afraid and worried about catching the virus, but mainly because they think they can infect their grandparents, and this makes them feel guilty. Moreover, the lockdown situation has produced conflicting emotions in the children. On the one hand, they are scared, nervous, lonely, sad, bored, and angry, but they also feel safe, calm, and happy with their families. These results indicate the need for governments to also consider children in their management of the current situation by placing greater emphasis on social and inclusive policies to help alleviate the possible effects that they may suffer as a consequence of the pandemic and the lockdown. In short, there is a need to address the psychological, educational, social, health, and well-being needs of children.

Struggling to breathe: a qualitative study of children's wellbeing during lockdown in Spain

OBJECTIVE

COVID-19 has spread throughout the world, including Europe. In order to halt the spread of the pandemic by maintaining social distancing, all children in Spain have been completely confined to their homes, and from March 13th to April 26th they were forbidden from going outdoors at any time. The aim of this research was gather the voices of children in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain in order to examine how they are coping with this health crisis. Design: A sample of 250 Children from a region of Spain aged 3-12 years (mean 7.14) were openly asked about their lockdown activities, needs, and feelings. Main Outcome Measures: Responses were analyzed using Iramuteq software for lexical analysis. Results: Children reported having mixed emotions in lockdown; whilst they are happy and relaxed with their families, they also feel fear, nervousness, worry, loneliness, sadness, boredom, and anger. At a physical level, Children noted it was difficult to be deprived of fresh air for weeks, which also makes them primarily sedentary, and they missed outdoor exercise. Socially, they missed peers and caregivers. Conclusion: This study provides evidence about the need to safeguard children's wellbeing during the COVID-19 crisis.

From marches to movements: building and sustaining a social movement following collective action

Collective action has the potential to have large-scale implications for a society. We review the processes that are key to understanding the path from collective action to the continuation and success of a social movement. First, we consider how the experience of participating in collective action can foster continued commitment to a cause. Next, since gaining broader support from society is key to the success of social movements, we discuss how the very nature of collective action employed can mobilize support or elicit backlash from members of the general public. Finally, we describe the role of movement leaders whose task is to unite movement participants while also mobilizing the broader society to rally behind the cause for social change. Emergent research on the consequences of collective action contributes to our understanding of the dynamic processes involved in maintaining a movement.

Preferences for different representations of colonial history in a Canadian urban indigenous community

When a social group’s history includes significant victimization by an outgroup, how might that group choose to represent its collective history, and for what reasons? Employing a social identity approach, we show how preferences for different representations of colonial history were guided by group interest in a sample of urban Indigenous participants. Three themes were identified after thematic analysis of interview and focus group transcripts from thirty-five participants who identified as Indigenous. First, participants expressed concern that painful, victimization-focused representations of colonial history would harm vulnerable ingroup members, and urged caution when representing colonial history in this way. Second, while colonial history was clearly painful and unpleasant for all participants, many nevertheless felt it was important that representations of colonial history tell the whole truth about how badly Indigenous people have been mistreated by outgroups. Participants suggested these brutal representations of colonial history could also serve the interests of their group by bolstering ingroup pride when representations also emphasized the resilience of Indigenous peoples. Finally, participants described how brutal representations of colonial history could help transform intergroup relations with non-Indigenous outgroups in positive ways by explaining present challenges in Indigenous communities as the result of intergenerational trauma. We discuss findings in terms of their relevance for ingroup agency and their implications for public representations of colonial history.

Extracurricular Activities in Higher Education and the Promotion of Reflective Learning for Sustainability

The objective of higher education institutions is to integrate reflective learning that contributes to the development of a greater awareness among individuals of the importance of facing the 21st century’s sustainability challenges. This paper analyzes the impact of an extracurricular volunteer activity in Tangier, Morocco in the development of student reflection at a Spanish university. To this end, two objectives were proposed: (1) to explore the students’ primary reflections of the experience, and (2) analyze the students’ perceptions of the importance of participating in the experience in order to develop reflective learning. In the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 students who participated in the volunteer activity. Data analysis was carried out using Iramuteq software to conduct a descending hierarchical classification (DHC), and MAXQDA software to conduct a constant comparison analysis. This research highlights the value of voluntary extracurricular activities in the development of reflections that guide change in the beliefs, attitudes, and daily behaviors of students that ultimately result in sustainability. Due to this, not only is it considered essential that students participate in social projects, but also that they undertake these projects with peers and instructors who can create environments of support and trust.

Press Ideology as an Epistemological Connector between Framing Theory and Social Representations Theory: An Analysis of Violence and Drug Trafficking in the Mexican Press

The present paper explores the advantages of using framing theory, social representations theory and differences in ideology to analyze polarized issues in the press. Framing uncovers the structure/format of news articles and social representations explores their meanings. These two theoretical positions are connected through the concept of ideology - a set of beliefs that shape position taking regarding social issues. Using this integrated framework, we will analyze the highly polarized topic of violence and drug trafficking in two ideologically different newspapers in Sinaloa, Mexico - Noroeste (journalistic ideology) and El Debate (elite ideology) (total N = 547 articles). This will be accomplished using three steps - a descriptive analysis, application of the framing scale and submitting the articles to ALCESTE software. The results show differences in framing and social representations of violence and drug trafficking according to ideology. Each newspaper presented different news frames (journalistic - attribution of responsibility and conflict frames; elite - human-interest and morality frames). However, at the level of representations (content) there were ideological differences in the representation of violence but not of drug trafficking, suggesting a common element in these representations, beyond ideological differences. These findings contribute to (1) the clarification of the concept used and (2) towards an analytical framework of press analysis - analyzing format and content and considering differences in press ideology.

Understanding menstruation: Influence of gender and ideological factors. A study of young people's social representations

This research investigates social representations of menstruation. It analyses firstly how young Spanish people understand menstruation in their everyday lives. And secondly, it explores how gender and ideological factors (liberal vs. conservative; feminist vs. non-feminist) impact on the meaning of menstruation and its implications for acceptance of this process. A free association exercise elicited by the word “menstruation” was answered by 250 people and the content was examined by lexical analysis. The results divided social representations of menstruation into two levels: firstly, a traditionalist level that is clearly linked to a negative stigmatized discourse about menstruation; and, secondly, a progressive level where two different discourses emerge, one representing liberal men and the other representing feminist women. The results show that only the feminist conception of menstruation provides an empowered and emotionally positive representation. The concept of menstruation is concluded to emerge from various sources of information, values and social conventions that are somewhat removed from its scientific meaning. The representation of menstruation is therefore understood to be situated within a social, ideological and emotional context. Accordingly, health education campaigns should frame their discourse about menstruation within a feminist perspective as their point of departure, thereby increasing their effectiveness.

Uses of the Past: History as a Resource for the Present

Collective memory has become an increasingly important topic in social and human sciences over the past thirty years. Beyond the interest for how we understand history, collective memory research has explored how the past has been used to defend certain understandings of the world (for instance nationalist ideologies), political actions (as in the case of intractable conflicts), or collective identities (particularly when they are seen as reflecting the historical 'essence' of a national group). That is, how the history is used as a resource for the present. However, theoretical conceptualisations have more directly focused on how collective memory is produced, and less so on how it is mobilised for the present. In this paper, we propose to review the main conceptualisation of collective memory in psychology - as social thinking, as social identity, and as sense-making - and how they more or less implicitly understand the relations between past and present. In a final section, we argue that representations of history have mainly been seen, in collective memory research, as a source of meaning for the present or as a way to position oneself in the current social field. In conclusion, we propose a third way of understanding the relations between past and present, considering collective memory to be both transformative of the present and prospective for the future.

Understanding fatness in the public sphere of young students: social representations and emotional response

This study examines how youth collectively represent fatness and determines the emotions it arouses. Understanding how fatness is socially constructed by young people is crucial to create programs that better deal with it. A free association exercise elicited by the word "fatness" was answered by 200 people of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Spain), and the content was analyzed by its lexicon using Alceste software. The results showed that health-related representation of fatness was mostly descriptive, and it was not connected to risky or any emotional response. But fatness was also completely represented as a social pressure issue related to stigmatization and highly correlated with negative emotions, such as sadness, insecurity, embarrassment, anguish, lonesomeness, pity or anger. That is, risky and negative emotions were linked to social non-acceptance, and not with health problems. Thus, the conclusion is that fatness is transmitted from fear and not from a positive construction of the health.

Commemoration in crisis: A discursive analysis of who 'we' and 'they' have been or become in ceremonial political speeches before and during the Greek financial downturn

This study analyses the discourse of statements of the leaders of two Greek political parties commemorating the restoration of Greek democracy on 24 July 1974; the ruling party New Democracy and the opposition, Coalition of the Radical Left. We focus on how these leaders act as entrepreneurs of their identities by constructing their ingroups in broad or narrow terms and their outgroups in vague or specific terms. These constructions were ventured during a period of relative political stability (2008) and instability (2012), and we focus on how ingroup prototypes and group boundaries are narrated across Greece's past, present and future in ambiguous or concrete terms. The study aligns the social identity approach to political leadership with studies on political discourse and 'the rhetoric of we'. We view commemorative statements as historical charters and respond to calls for discourse analysis to take greater account of historical context. The findings suggest concrete hypotheses about how leaders with different amounts of political support might define, as identity entrepreneurs, who 'we' are, and who 'we' are not in democratic contexts marked by stability or crisis.

Attitudes Towards World War II Collaboration in Belgium: Effects on Political Positioning Towards the Amnesty Issue in the Two Main Linguistic Communities

It is a known fact that some Belgians collaborated with the Nazi occupier during WWII. However, according to a popular myth, collaboration was widespread in Flanders, whereas Walloons bravely resisted. Of course, historical reality is much more nuanced, but this oversimplification has largely resurfaced in political debates surrounding the Belgian linguistic conflict. Demands for amnesty for former collaborators addressed by Flemish nationalist parties are a case in point. We conducted two studies in order to investigate Belgians’ attitudes towards this political issue in the two linguistic communities. In 2012, a first survey (N = 521; 315 French-speakers (FS) and 206 Dutch-speakers (DS)) showed that WWII collaboration was morally condemned, and attitudes towards amnesty were predominantly negative, in both groups. However, DS tended to support amnesty more than FS. This effect of Linguistic Group on Support for Amnesty was mediated by Judgments of Morality of collaboration, and this mediation was moderated by Linguistic identification. In 2015, a second survey (N = 774; 476 FS and 298 DS) confirmed these results. Moreover, judgments about the Unfairness of the repression of collaboration also mediated the effect of Linguistic Group on Support for Amnesty. These results suggest that differences in political position-taking regarding the granting of amnesty between DS and FS are, at least partly, due to different attitudes towards collaboration and to the membership to a linguistic community.

Lessons from the past for the future: The definition and mobilisation of Hindu nationhood by the Hindu nationalist movement of India

Guided by a self-categorisation and social-identity framework of identity entrepreneurship (Reicher & Hopkins, 2001), and social representations theory of history (Liu & Hilton, 2005), this paper examines how the Hindu nationalist movement of India defines Hindu nationhood by embedding it in an essentialising historical narrative. The heart of the paper consists of a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of the ideological manifestos of the Hindu nationalist movement in India, “Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?” (1928) and “We, or Our Nationhood Defined” (1939), written by two of its founding leaders – Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, respectively. The texts constitute authoritative attempts to define Hindu nationhood that continue to guide the Hindu nationalist movement today. The derived themes and sub-themes indicate that the definition of Hindu nationhood largely was embedded in a narrative about its historical origins and trajectory, but also its future. More specifically, a ‘golden age’ was invoked to define the origins of Hindu nationhood, whereas a dark age in its historical trajectory was invoked to identify peoples considered to be enemies of Hindu nationhood, and thereby to legitimise their exclusion. Through its selective account of past events and its efforts to utilise this as a cohesive mobilising factor, the emergence and rise of the Hindu nationalist movement elucidate lessons that further our understanding of the rise of right-wing movements around the world today.

Perceived Legitimacy of Collective Punishment as a Function of Democratic versus Non-Democratic Group Structure

The present research tested the hypothesis that the political structure of groups moderates the perceived legitimacy of collective punishment. Participants read scenarios of fictitious summer camps in which unidentified members of one group aggressed members of another group. The political structure of both the offender and the victim groups was described as either egalitarian or hierarchical (defined with democratic or non-democratic decision-making procedures). Perceived legitimacy of collective punishment directed against all members of the offender group was assessed by measuring the acceptability of sanctions administered by an authority and of revenge actions inflicted by members of the victim group. Results showed that collective punishment was evaluated as less legitimate when the offender group was egalitarian and the victim group was hierarchical. Supplementary analyses showed that this effect was mediated by the higher value attributed to members of the offender egalitarian group when the victim group was hierarchical.

Raising European citizens: Constructing European identities in French and English textbooks

Schools play a pivotal role in the formation of identities and in the political socialization of youth. This study explores the social representations of European integration in French and English school textbooks and shows how the social representations are discursively used to construct national and European identities. By analysing the history and civics textbooks of major educational publishers, this study aims to demonstrate how European integration is understood, made familiar and concretized in the school textbooks of the two influential but different European countries. The findings suggest some shared and some diverse patterns in the way the two European countries portray and construct the political project of European integration. These representations, constructed around French Europe in French textbooks and ambivalent Europe in English textbooks, share the images of a strong European economy and a French-led political Europe. However, they position themselves differently with respect to the United States, motivation for the European unification process and the significance of common values and heritage. In both countries textbooks draw upon memories that are important for group identity. While the French textbooks make European integration meaningful in reference to a shared post-war collective memory and to a cultural memory based on a more ancient idea of Europe, shared values and heritage, the English textbooks anchor it more strongly to domestic policy.

Understanding an Ebola outbreak: Social representations of emerging infectious diseases

This study examined the collective image of the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, to understand how people incorporate this epidemic in their everyday thinking. A free association exercise elicited by Ebola was answered by 294 people from Spain and the content was analysed using Alceste software. First, results showed that Ebola was represented as inherently African. Second, it was also depicted as a global threat creating fear. People also felt anger, and they blamed political authorities and the mass media for the failure to manage this crisis. Finally, this research underlines the importance of the social representations to understand how current outbreaks are cognitively represented and emotionally faced as a key factor to appropriately manage future epidemics.

Conspiracy theories as quasi-religious mentality: an integrated account from cognitive science, social representations theory, and frame theory

Conspiracy theories (CTs) can take many forms and vary widely in popularity, the intensity with which they are believed and their effects on individual and collective behavior. An integrated account of CTs thus needs to explain how they come to appeal to potential believers, how they spread from one person to the next via communication, and how they motivate collective action. We summarize these aspects under the labels of stick, spread, and action. We propose the quasi-religious hypothesis for CTs: drawing on cognitive science of religion, social representations theory, and frame theory. We use cognitive science of religion to describe the main features of the content of CTs that explain how they come to stick: CTs are quasi-religious representations in that their contents, forms and functions parallel those found in beliefs of institutionalized religions. However, CTs are quasi-religious in that CTs and the communities that support them, lack many of the institutional features of organized religions. We use social representations theory to explain how CTs spread as devices for making sense of sudden events that threaten existing worldviews. CTs allow laypersons to interpret such events by relating them to common sense, thereby defusing some of the anxiety that those events generate. We use frame theory to explain how some, but not all CTs mobilize collective counter-conspiratorial action by identifying a target and by proposing credible and concrete rationales for action. We specify our integrated account in 13 propositions.

Collective symbolic coping with disease threat and othering: a case study of avian influenza

Much research studies how individuals cope with disease threat by blaming out-groups and protecting the in-group. The model of collective symbolic coping (CSC) describes four stages by which representations of a threatening event are elaborated in the mass media: awareness, divergence, convergence, and normalization. We used the CSC model to predict when symbolic in-group protection (othering) would occur in the case of the avian influenza (AI) outbreak. Two studies documented CSC stages and showed that othering occurred during the divergence stage, characterized by an uncertain symbolic environment. Study 1 analysed media coverage of AI over time, documenting CSC stages of awareness and divergence. In Study 2, a two-wave repeated cross-sectional survey was conducted just after the divergence stage and a year later. Othering was measured by the number of foreign countries erroneously ticked by participants as having human victims. Individual differences in germ aversion and social dominance orientation interacted to predict othering during the divergence stage but not a year later. Implications for research on CSC and symbolic in-group protection strategies resulting from disease threat are discussed.

Perceived out-group (Dis)continuity and attribution of responsibility for the Lebanese Civil War mediate effects of national and religious subgroup identification on intergroup attitudes

Successful reconciliation between groups following a violent conflict requires psychological change. We test a model predicting intergroup attitudes towards Muslims in Lebanon among Maronite (Christian) Lebanese youths. Identification with both their religious subgroup and with the superordinate national group predicted attitudes towards Muslims, in opposite directions. These effects of levels of identification on intergroup attitudes were mediated by attributions of responsibility for the war (Muslim responsibility) and perception that the current generation of out-group members is different from the war generation (perceived out-group discontinuity). Identification with Lebanon fosters positive attitudes towards Muslims by lowering Muslim responsibility for the war, and by increasing perceptions of foreign responsibility and perceived out-group discontinuity. In contrast, increased identification with their own religious subgroup undermines attitude change by increasing Muslim responsibility for the war and lessening perception of out-group discontinuity. Representations of the past have implications for attitudes towards former enemies and reconciliation in the present.

Who we were and who we will be: the temporal context of women's in-group stereotype content

Research has elaborated considerably on the dimensions of out-group stereotype content and on the origins and functions of different content combinations. Less attention has been given to the origins and functions of in-group stereotype content. We argue that in-group stereotypes are likely to serve different social identity functions, and thus attract different content, dependent on individual differences in in-group identification and on the temporal perspective of the perceiver. Two studies (Ns = 43 and 93) found that women's in-group stereotype content varied as a function of gender group identification and temporal perspective. When the past was primed, highly identified women generated stereotypes that emphasized the warmth (but not competence) of their group. When the future was primed, highly identified women generated stereotypes that emphasized the competence (as well as warmth) of their group. These results are discussed in terms of the use of stereotypes for social creativity versus social change.

A study of the factors that influence how senior officers police crowd events: On SIDE outside the laboratory

This paper fits into the SIDE perspective (Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995; Postmes, Spears, Lea, & Reicher, 2000), which emphasises the importance of integrating the cognitive and strategic dimensions of group processes. Our study examines the decisions made by senior police officers during a simulation exercise of a crowd event. The analysis shows, firstly, that officers are deeply concerned about their accountability to a variety of audiences, both internal and external to the police force. Second, these different audiences pressure them to act in different, and sometimes contradictory, ways. What counts, then, is the overall balance between accountability concerns. Third, this balance - and, with it, police perceptions and decisions - alters in the course of an event. More specifically, with escalating conflict, the balance of accountability concerns moves increasingly in the direction of undifferentiated intervention against crowd members. In discussion, we consider both the theoretical implications of this analysis for research on group processes (in particular the importance of accountability issues once one moves beyond the laboratory and deals with groups that have a past and future and in which membership is more than simply an act of choice) and the practical implications in terms of crowd policing.

Social identity performance: extending the strategic side of SIDE

This article extends the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) by considering the various ways in which relations of visibility to an audience can affect the public expression of identity-relevant norms (identity performance). It is suggested that social identity performance can fulfill two general functions: Affirming, conforming, or strengthening individual or group identities (the identity consolidation function) and persuading audiences into adopting specific behaviors (the mobilization function). The authors report evidence supporting these two functions of identity performance both in intragroup and intergroup contexts. They argue that through these functions, social identity performance plays a major role in the elaboration and coordination of social action. Finally, and building on this framework, the authors consider the ways through which social identity performance can be used in the very construction of social identity.

Justification of War and Terrorism

Abstract. In this study, examples of war and terrorism from both Western and Arab countries were examined with respect to the underlying ethical positions of justifications that have been publicized. In a rating process, we analyzed speeches and explanations of (1) the American government justifying the military strikes in Afghanistan (2001-) and the war in Iraq (2003-), (2) the Red Army Faction justifying terrorist attacks they perpetrated in Germany (1972-1984), (3) the former President of Iraq justifying the war against Iran (1980-1988), and (4) members of Al Qaeda justifying terrorist acts (2001-2004). The ethical justification patterns are presented, compared, and discussed with respect to the influences of culture and type of political violence. The results reveal significant differences between the kinds of aggression as well as between Western and Arab countries, with the cultural factor proving to be more essential.