Group Membership, Group Change, and Intergroup Attitudes: A Recategorization Model Based on Cognitive Consistency Principles

The likes that bind: Even novel opinion sharing can induce opinion-based identification

Research has found that psychological groups based on opinion congruence are an important group type. Previous research constructed such groups around opinions potentially connected to pre-existing identities. We strip away the socio-structural context by using novel opinions to determine whether opinion congruence alone can be a category cue which can foster identification and whether such group identification mediates the relationship between opinion exposure and opinion polarization. We assess this across two pre-registered online interactive experiments. Study 1 (N = 1168) demonstrate that opinion congruence fostered stronger identity than minimal groups. Study 2 (N = 505) demonstrate that opinion congruence fostered stronger identification than non-opinion congruence. The relationship between opinion exposure and opinion polarization occurs through group identification in both. Results demonstrate that (novel) opinions can be self-categorization cues informing identification and influencing opinion polarization.

Determinants of automatic age and race bias: ingroup-outgroup distinction salience moderates automatic evaluations of social groups

Introduction

The present research investigates whether ingroup-outgroup distinction salience moderates automatic intergroup bias (i.e., more positive evaluations of ingroup targets relative to outgroup targets) toward multiply categorizable social targets.

Methods

In two experiments, we manipulated the salience of participants' social identity based on age vs. race, respectively. Afterwards, we measured automatic evaluations of social targets varying in age and race.

Results

Young White participants exhibited higher automatic race bias when their racial identity (i.e., White in contrast to Black) was salient. Conversely, they exhibited higher automatic age bias when their age identity (i.e., young in contrast to old) was salient.

Discussion

Going beyond previous research, we show that it is sufficient to direct participants' attention to their ingroup-identity in contrast to the respective outgroup to cause changes in automatic intergroup bias. This is important because it provides a strong test of the hypothesis that ingroup-outgroup distinction salience moderates automatic intergroup bias.

A cognitive balance approach to understanding intergroup attitudes in post-Brexit Northern Ireland

Cognitive balance theory posits that a drive for cognitively consistent thoughts modulates interpersonal relations. We extended cognitive balance theory to intergroup relations and tested it in a real-life setting where intergroup relations are under strain: Northern Ireland in the wake of the UK's withdrawal from the EU. We predicted that when the groups of Irish people and British people in Northern Ireland are perceived as more compatible, intergroup bias would be lower than when groups are perceived as less compatible. We collected data of residents of Northern Ireland before the UK's official withdrawal from the EU (N = 604) and after (N = 350). As hypothesized, attitudes towards British people positively related to attitudes towards Irish people when participants perceived the groups as more compatible. We found the opposite relationship at low levels of perceived compatibility. Exploratory cross-lagged panel analyses did not show that these effects occurred longitudinally, suggesting that cognitive balance does not drive judgements over time possibly because people are less likely to notice inconsistent responses across different time points. The present research demonstrates that intergroup attitudes assessed at a certain point in time follow cognitive balance principles.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): The Effects of the Need to Belong, Perceived Centrality, and Fear of Social Exclusion

“Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO) is an all-consuming feeling that is associated with mental and emotional stress. Such strains are caused by a compulsive concern that one is missing an opportunity for a socially rewarding experience often spotted on social media networks. While several personality and psychological factors have been empirically validated as correlated with FOMO, so far, little research has examined the effects of perceived group centrality (i.e., the extent to which group members feel included in the group) and fear of social exclusion on FOMO. Therefore, this study is aimed at examining the mechanism that links these socially driven factors and the need to belong with social media use and, consequently, FOMO, using structural equation modeling. A total of 490 college students ( $\text{mean}\text{age}=20.56,\text{SD}=1.44$ ) completed a self-reported questionnaire that included measures of FOMO, the need to belong, social media use, perceived centrality, and fear of social exclusion. The need to belong emerged as the best predictor of FOMO, increasing it both directly and indirectly through the significant mediation of social media use. Females reported a greater need to belong and consequently more FOMO. Females also reported greater use of social media and greater perceived group centrality. Perceived centrality increased FOMO through social media use, but this indirect effect was not significant.

What Bias Management Can Learn From Change Management? Utilizing Change Framework to Review and Explore Bias Strategies

This paper conducted a preliminary study of reviewing and exploring bias strategies using a framework of a different discipline: change management. The hypothesis here is: If the major problem of implicit bias strategies is that they do not translate into actual changes in behaviors, then it could be helpful to learn from studies that have contributed to successful change interventions such as reward management, social neuroscience, health behavioral change, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The result of this integrated approach is: (1) current bias strategies can be improved and new ones can be developed with insight from adjunct study fields in change management; (2) it could be more sustainable to invest in a holistic and proactive bias strategy approach that targets the social environment, eliminating the very condition under which biases arise; and (3) while implicit biases are automatic, future studies should invest more on strategies that empower people as "change agents" who can act proactively to regulate the very environment that gives rise to their biased thoughts and behaviors.

Cognitive Matching of Design Subjects in Product Form Evolutionary Design

In actual product development, the cognitive differences between users and designers make it difficult for the designed products to be recognized by users. To reduce the cognitive differences between these two design subjects, this paper proposes a method of cognitive matching of the design subjects. First, we use the relevant methods of Kansei engineering to quantify the Kansei image cognition of the two design subjects and construct a cognitive matching model of the design subjects with information entropy and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Second, according to the Kansei image, the Kansei image prototype cluster is constructed, and the representative Kansei image prototype is obtained. Then, we combine an artificial neural network (ANN) with a cognitive matching model of the design subjects to construct a product Kansei image evaluation system; this is used to evaluate the evolved forms. Finally, a product Kansei image form evolution system is constructed based on the genetic algorithm (GA). To some extent, the system simulates the cognitive matching process between designers and users in product design, helps designers to more accurately understand the cognitive trends of the two design subjects, and provides a theoretical basis for the intelligent design of product forms through the cognitive balance of multiple design subjects. This paper takes a beverage bottle as an example to verify the feasibility of the model through a comparative study.

Whose Norms, Whose Prejudice? The Dynamics of Perceived Group Norms and Prejudice in New Secondary School Classes

Ethnic prejudice can lead to exclusion and hinder social integration. Prejudices are formed throughout socialization, and social norms inform individuals about the acceptability of prejudice against certain outgroups. Adolescence is a crucial period for the development of intergroup attitudes, and young people are especially prone to follow the norms they perceive in their reference groups. At the same time, the effect of perceived norms on prejudice in school classes has been rarely studied. In Hungary, where prejudice against the Roma is widespread and there is no clear social norm proscribing prejudiced manifestations, this topic is especially relevant. In the present paper, based on multi-level analyses of panel data from Hungarian ninth-graders, we find that adolescents adjust their attitudes to those they perceive to be dominant among their classmates and that classmates serve as more important reference groups than teachers do. More contact with Roma is found to be associated with less prejudice against them. Looking at school classes, we find that at the beginning of the school year, many students underestimate the rejection of prejudiced expressions in their classes. By the end of the year, many students are found to adjust their own attitudes to the falsely perceived class norm. Based on our findings, we argue that school classes should be treated as important normative contexts for the socialization of intergroup attitudes and should receive special attention from both scholars and practitioners working in the fields of prejudice research and reduction. Furthermore, we suggest that teachers can most successfully hinder prejudices by working on a common, visible, shared class norm rather than "teaching" students that prejudices are not acceptable.