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The theory of normative social behavior (TNSB) postulates that people are influenced by others' behaviors, which they observe from messages and experience. In addition to focusing on perceived (i.e., descriptive and injunctive) norms, the TNSB was expanded to include collective norms, which represent what people actually do. Testing this expanded theoretical model, the current study examined whether two types of collective norms – collective political norms and collective regional norms – interacted with descriptive norms to influence pandemic mask wearing behavior expectations among U.S. adults (N = 444). The interaction was statistically significant for collective political norms (β = -.74, p =.009) but not collective regional norms (β = -.16, p =.85). Specifically, descriptive norms were related to increased mask wearing expectation for all values of political party collective norms, but the effects were stronger when political party collective norms were low (i.e., low mask wearing behavior was normative). The findings support the inclusion of collective norms in the TNSB, clarify the relationships among different types of norms, and provide insights for norms-based interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prominent theory in political psychology contends that individual differences in negativity bias explain political ideology: people who are more sensitive to negative stimuli find solace and comfort in conservative approaches to politics. Using self‐reported measures of negativity bias, the evidence is relatively consistent. Yet, using physiological indicators of the negativity bias, the results are, across the board, inconsistent with the negativity bias argument. Building on recent neuroscience work, we propose and test two innovations. First, unconscious and conscious processes are not necessarily aligned. Therefore, we propose that there are different – conscious and unconscious – paths that could link ideology with the negativity bias. Second, individuals vary in their ability and motivation to down‐regulate arousal and reflect on their emotions. As such, the ideology‐negativity bias may emerge in some individuals but not in others. In two preregistered laboratory studies (US and the Netherlands), we find limited evidence for these claims. In a subsequent registered report, we replicate some inconsistent patterns that emerged in study 1. We confirm that self‐reported social conservatism and implicit social conservatism (measured with an IAT) are positively correlated. We also establish that negativity bias is unrelated to social conservatism (both explicit and implicit). We conclude that negativity bias is most likely not the answer to why people on the left and right differ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Related Articles This article suggests that since people who believe in magic and those who believe in conspiracy theories produce meaning and make sense of the world by engaging in the same process of signification, they should be more likely to have one such belief if they hold the other. To test this proposition, we perform both macro‐ and micro‐level analyses using, respectively, cross‐national datasets and an original set of Tanzanian data. Our findings from both sets of analyses reveal a strong association between witchcraft beliefs and the belief in conspiracy theories.Gainous, Jason, and Bill Radunovich. 2008. “Religion and Core Values: A Reformulation of the Funnel of Causality.” Politics & Policy 33(1): 154–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2005.tb00213.x.Richey, Sean. 2017. “A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs.” Politics & Policy 45(3): 465–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12206.Tubadji, Annie. 2023. “You'll Never Walk Alone: Loneliness, Religion, and Politico‐economic Transformation.” Politics & Policy 51(4): 661–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12538. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon recent calls for the integration of abolition into psychology, we develop and validate a measure of Abolitionist Ideology. In two studies with abolitionist leaning (N = 201, abolitionist‐identifying n = 58) and nationally representative (N = 350) samples, we identify and confirm a three‐factor, 26‐item measure including subscales of Alternatives to State Violence, Revolutionary Abolitionism, and Abolitionist Identity. The Abolitionist Ideology Scale demonstrates convergent validity with measures including support for Black Lives Matter, critical consciousness, openness to experience, radical imagination, and attribution of violence to the state. The scale demonstrates divergent validity from measures including social dominance orientation (SDO) and political conservatism. Finally, the scale predicted activism tenacity above and beyond a related measure of carceral system justification. The Abolitionist Ideology Scale demonstrates initial reliability and validity and will be useful for those aiming to engage abolition in liberatory theory, research, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A superordinate identity unites different subgroups into an overarching, common one. But does superordinate identification then improve or worsen attitudes towards the former outgroup? The common ingroup identity model (CIIM) asserts that recategorization ameliorates outgroup bias by reducing perceptions of intergroup threat. It predicts that superordinate identification will improve intergroup relations by promoting tolerance and acceptance of diversity. In contrast, the ingroup project model (IPM) asserts that identifying superordinately will actually exacerbate outgroup bias because ingroup members naturally project their own characteristics onto the superordinate category and will more strongly dislike the former outgroup for not fitting the "correct" superordinate prototype. Existing evidence—largely drawn from psychology lab experiments, not real‐world situations—suggests both models can be correct insofar as ingroup projection only occurs under certain conditions. In that case, which model is correct for European identity? Results from original survey data collected in three European countries (Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom) show that increased identification with Europe is almost always associated with more favorable attitudes towards outgroup immigrants, even among those most likely to engage in ingroup projection. Future research should continue to investigate when and why this inclusivity does—and does not—hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a collection of abstracts from various research papers in the field of psychology. The abstracts cover a wide range of topics, including the influence of enterprise network tie strength on innovation performance, the impact of third-party logistics procurement models on mental health, and the effects of peer feedback on anxiety and written production. The studies provide valuable insights into their respective fields and offer guidance for further research. Additionally, the document explores the integration of ideological and political courses in higher vocational colleges, consumer satisfaction with agricultural products in live streaming e-commerce, and the impact of psychological factors on economic growth. The studies contribute to a better understanding of these areas and provide policy recommendations for improvement. The document also discusses the psychological depths and moral dimensions of Shakespeare's Macbeth, the factors that influence the educational mindset of college teachers, and the coping strategies of students with cognitive psychological disabilities in mathematics. Furthermore, it explores the development of vocational and technical education based on learning psychology, applies Marx's career choice theory in career perspective education, and examines the impact of social media travel sharing on travelers' behavior. The document also investigates the impact of employee stock ownership plans on employee motivation and company productivity, the professional psychological quality of teachers in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, and the role of positive emotions in alleviating mental exhaustion among college students. These studies provide valuable insights and recommendations for their respective fields of study. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the profound impact of Ludwig von Mises's Human Action, emphasizing its significance as a major work in economics comparable to eighteenth-century philosophical classics. Topics include Mises's contributions to technical economics, his influence on the revival of the Austrian school and Cold War intellectual movements, and his role in advancing property rights economics, law and economics, and Public Choice economics.

I argue that the gender-role incongruity between being a woman and the masculine stereotypes of political leadership roles will lead to more ambivalence about women relative to men and that gendered traits will comprise the content of these ambivalent attitudes. I analyze attitudinal ambivalence toward female candidates using ANES data. The results find that ambivalence is higher among voters who hold cross-pressured identities as strong partisans with sexist beliefs for both Democratic and Republican women. In 2016, individuals held stronger ambivalent attitudes about Hillary Clinton even among strong Democrats but there was very little ambivalence in attitudes about Trump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System justification theory (SJT) is a thriving field of research, wherein the primary questions revolve around why individuals and groups are motivated to see the systems they depend on as just, fair, and legitimate. This article seeks to answer how accurate the postulates of SJT are when compared to competing self‐interest claims of social identity and social dominance theory. We addressed the ongoing debates among proponents of each theory by identifying who, when, and why individuals decide to system‐justify. We used data comprised of 24,009 participants nested within 42 countries. Multilevel models largely supported the competing claims of social dominance and social identity theories over SJT. The most robust findings were: (1) greater objective socioeconomic status (SES) was associated with greater system justification; (2) the consistent positive relationship between subjective SES and system justification was partially mediated by life satisfaction; and (3) both ends of the political spectrum were willing to system‐justify more when the political party they favored was in power. The results presented are used to discuss both the current state and the future directions for system justification research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from liberation psychology as well as progressive traditions within psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic liberation psychology represents a paradigmatic approach to practice, one that moves away from regressive disciplinary orthodoxies and toward the flows of desire and emotion that characterize emancipatory political spaces. For psychoanalytic liberation psychology, the manner by which fantasy is engaged within anti‐capitalist movements remains, somewhat curiously, under‐considered. In this article, I reflect on my work with a South African social movement to flesh out some of the progressive and regressive valances of fantasy in the context of social movement building. Specifically, I consider how psychoanalytic liberation psychology may and may not be of use to anti‐capitalist resistance movement actors whose political activity is undergirded by a bricolage of fantasies, breakdowns in fantasy, and holding reality accountable to liberatory fantasies. I conclude by speculating what fantasy might mean for future psychoanalytic liberation psychology work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces John T. Jost, the recipient of the 2023 Kurt Lewin Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. At just 23, Jost developed the influential theory of system justification while studying at Yale University. With over 250 publications and six books on the psychology of political ideology, Jost's work has significantly shaped social sciences and social psychology.

Several watershed events preceded the dissolution of Yugoslavia. One of these was the toppling of the Vojvodina autonomist leadership in October 1988. This was preceded by a series of rallies throughout Vojvodina in the summer of 1988, which may have seemed like a spontaneous affair and the work of "ordinary citizens." It was called "the antibureaucratic revolution." However, these rallies, including a standing group of demonstrators, continually and always referring to the grievances of Kosovo Serbs, turned out to be supported by the Serbian political elite centered in Belgrade. The elite, still headed by the Serbian Communist Chief Slobodan Milošević, gave thrust and coordination to efforts to organize the rallies. The Vojvodina leadership was toppled for their alleged "failing to understand the plight of Kosovo Serbs." The overthrow was, further, with a view to achieve the Serbian elite's pet project, the "united Serbia"—that is, doing away with Vojvodina's and Kosovo's autonomy. Written sources (including recollections by Yugoslav leaders of the time) and written sources are considered in research on the events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural resentment is a form of place-based grievance politics that scholars have used to explain the growing urban-rural divide in American politics. However, whereas extant theory assumes that rural resentment stems from rural identification, recently available data shows that beliefs about geographic inequity, which are central to rural resentment, are not held exclusively by those who embrace a rural identity. If geography is not the sole source of rural resentment, then what else explains this ostensibly place-based phenomenon? Among White Americans who do not identify as rural, we posit that belief in the existence of deliberate rural deprivation by government and media elites can be conceived as 'place-based empathy' toward rural Americans. Further, we argue that place empathy toward rural areas is partially an expression of White grievance politics stemming from the belief that the stereotypical rural resident is a White American suffering from relative deprivation at the hands of government officials who privilege non-white (and non-rural) constituents over them. Using the 2020 American National Election Time Series, as well as novel mTurk data, we show that White consciousness predicts beliefs about geographic inequity among non-rural identifiers but not rural identifiers. Instead, consistent with previous research, we show that racial prejudice is a better predictor of geographic attitudes for rural identifiers and White consciousness has little independent association. These findings provide a more complete and nuanced understanding of the ways race and place intersect to explain the grievance politics of White Americans in the Trump era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we develop and test three propositions related to the status of a primary counterpoint of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement—"Blue Lives Matter" (BlueLM). Employing correlational and causal analyses on a wide array of data, including public opinion, news and social media, internet searches, and merchandise sales, our findings are threefold: first, we offer evidence that Whiteness is associated with attitudinal and behavioral indicators of support for BlueLM; second, we present evidence that support for BlueLM is systematically linked to White racial prejudice; and third, we demonstrate that BlueLM activity is caused by BLM protest following a high-profile police killing of a Black man, which comports with the conceptualization of BlueLM as engaging in a process of "competitive victimhood" against BLM. Together, these findings suggest that BlueLM is a new incarnation of an ongoing history of White countermobilization against organized Black claims-making activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has examined the relationship between ethnic outgroup-size at the neighbourhood level and Brexit support, yet there is a lack of understanding on the factors that moderate these effects. This paper critically extends prior debate by focusing on how personality traits moderate not only the extent to which the levels (2011) of ethnic outgroup-size in individuals' residential neighbourhoods but also the increase thereof (2001-2011) are associated with individuals' preferences about the 2016 Brexit referendum. Using data from Understanding Society, we find that two personality traits, agreeableness and openness, are key moderators affecting the above-mentioned relationship. High-agreeable and high-open individuals are less likely than low-agreeable and low-open individuals to support Brexit. However, while the gap between low and highly agreeable individuals shrinks as ethnic outgroup-size increases, the gap widens between those higher vs. lower in openness. Our findings highlight the multifaceted role of personality traits as a driver of heterogeneous effects on political behaviour. In sum, this paper shows that analysing the complex and intertwined nature of both contextual and individual factors is fundamental for a better understanding, not only of the Brexit referendum but, more broadly, of anti-immigrant sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives of racialized sexual violence—specifically, where a dominant-group woman faces harm by a man outside the dominant group—have long been a staple of American political communication. Past scholarship has examined how these threats prime racial resentment among White Americans; less is known about their gendered effects. I present an original survey experiment comparing racialized sexual threats with racialized threats that are not gendered or sexual. Both evoke racial resentment. Compared with solely racial threats, however, racialized sexual threats also make benevolent sexism salient for a range of democratic outcomes. Moreover, I find distinct effects by respondent race and gender, as men and women of different racial identities are situated differently vis a vis racialized sexual threats. To demonstrate that the gendered/sexualized impact of these appeals extends to real-world campaigns, I conclude with an analysis of candidate support in the 1988 presidential election. The 1988 race saw one of the most notorious examples of racialized sexual threat in modern American politics in the "Willie Horton" ad, aired on behalf of the Bush campaign. Even with the limited measures available in that year, I find that sexism played an important role in shaping Americans' political views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the post‐Brexit increase in applications for Irish passports through descent, and in so doing, seeks to develop a social/political psychology of diasporic citizenship. It draws on a focus group and 10 individual interviews, all conducted in 2018–19; participants were all based in England and had applied, or were in the process of applying, for Irish passports through descent in the aftermath of Brexit. Analysis, using perspectives from discursive psychology, attended to both rhetoric and narratives of citizenship in participants' talk about the application process and identification with Ireland and Irishness. Participants draw on discourses of both effortfulness and essentialism in working up claims to Irish identity, with effortfulness in acquiring transnational knowledge being particularly central in rhetorically legitimizing less secure claims. The analysis thus builds on previous political psychological work highlighting the centrality of “effortfulness” to contemporary constructions of citizenship, particularly in the United Kingdom (Anderson & Gibson, 2020; Gibson, 2009). It is furthermore suggested that explicitly labeled “noneffortfulness” can act as a rhetorical marker of belonging. The implications of these findings for concepts of diasporic citizenship and debates around jus soli versus jus sanguinis citizenship in both Ireland and Britain are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence from democracies shows that making laws more egalitarian can increase individuals' perceptions that others hold egalitarian views. How do citizens in authoritarian regimes that promote women's rights perceive public opinion on gender issues? While regime actions and narratives could increase perceptions that egalitarian attitudes are widespread, the disconnect between policy and public preferences could inhibit the expressive power of law to alter perceived norms. Drawing on original surveys and qualitative evidence from Morocco, an important case of de jure advances in women's rights, I find that Moroccans tend to overestimate others' embrace of patriarchal attitudes on gender issues. The tendency to misperceive conservatism spans demographic categories and is especially pronounced among men. I argue that citizens' awareness that policy processes are divorced from electoral accountability and the raised salience of conservative opposition during reform processes can reinforce perceived conservatism, even as women's rights advance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide the first account of the culture wars in the political psychology and public opinion literature based on a theory of culture. Using innovative measures of grid‐group cultural theory (CT), we identify the cultures associated with ideological and partisan identifications in annual U.S. national surveys from 2011 to 2022, a unique data set of 24,870 respondents. As hypothesized, we find that the culture wars occur not just between ideologues and partisans but among them as they draw support from distinct, relatively stable yet shifting cultural coalitions. Egalitarian and, less often, fatalistic liberals and Democrats battle against individualistic and, less often, hierarchical, conservatives and Republicans. As hypothesized, fatalists are the least reliable coalition partners, and, as expected, they gravitate Republican and conservative in 2017, after Trump's election. However, fatalists who are strong partisan identifiers never defect. Moreover, our hypothesis that fatalist attraction to Trump would drive defections in their political identification is largely invalidated. Instead, fatalists mostly flee Trump in our aggregate analysis as well as in subanalyses of strong and weak ideological and partisan identifiers. In 2016 and 2018–2022, it appears that independent fatalists cause fatalists to gravitate liberal and Democrat. Unexpectedly, hierarchists also go liberal and Democrat in 2022, in apparent reaction to Trump's multifront attacks on the 2020 election that he lost. We identify the basis for cultural coalitions that can end particular culture wars, including the most significant one now occurring between egalitarians and individualists, and conclude with suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While some studies show ideological asymmetry in outgroup bias between rightists and leftists, those studies often target an ideologically biased outgroup. Here, we bypass this issue by targeting the ideological outgroups (rightists for leftists, and leftists for rightists). We rely on a magnetoencephalography‐based approach delineating function‐specific neural mechanisms to test for ideological asymmetries at multiple levels: explicit psychological self‐reports, implicit behavioral bias, and neural oscillations. Using a computational model balancing the stimuli and screening 81 rightists and leftist Israeli individuals, we find ideological asymmetry with rightists being more biased at all three levels. Furthermore, the neural results add important insights by uncovering two underlying mechanisms: The first (late beta‐band motor activity) is strongly associated with implicit behavior, while the second (early alpha‐band dorsal anterior cingulate activity) reveal an antileftist bias for both groups. We discuss implications of the findings on bias, ideological asymmetry, their neural underpinnings, and social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Cancel culture" has become a prominent phrase in US political commentary, with supporters and opponents relying on different value-based arguments to express their views. At the same time, these camps often fall along predictable partisan political lines. What, then, are the real motivations for promoting and opposing behaviors sometimes labeled as "canceling" in contemporary American politics? We explore this question through survey data from Pew in 2020 and two original survey experiments, conducted on the 2021 CES and a 2023 online sample. We examine how Americans define the term "cancel culture," to what extent cancel culture is linked to both a range of core democratic values, and the role of partisanship in shaping support or opposition to specific behaviors. We observe a significant range of views about cancel culture and document connections to various political values. From our experiments, we find that partisanship is a potent driver of support for and understanding of cancel culture and that value-based framing has a weaker impact as compared to partisanship. Cancel culture provides an important case study of how Americans process conflicting norms and values, including free speech and political accountability, beyond the typical constraints of the formal political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), 11 of PsySSA's past presidents, along with two facilitators, gathered in early 2024 for a roundtable discussion on psychology in South Africa. This article represents an edited transcript of that conversation. The guiding motif of the discussion – looking backwards, looking forwards – led discussants through the historical temporalities, institutional, professional and disciplinary debates, as well as the political concerns that face and have forged South African psychology. The discussants were specifically concerned with the challenges of unifying organised psychology; the generative forces, conflicts and antagonisms within psychology; psychology's pedagogical and intellectual developments; and what it means to politicise psychology in and beyond South Africa. In looking ahead, the discussion concluded with an internationalist reflection on how psychology in South Africa contributes to global knowledges and praxes. The conversation was characterised by epistemic, sectoral and political tensions, as well as ambivalences and shifting centres of gravity, all of which reflect the accomplishments made within South African psychology, as well as psychology's status as a strongly contested and patently unfinished organisational, disciplinary, professional, service and knowledge project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial "Towards new horizons: Welcome to the future" reflects on the 30-year history of the journal Culture & Psychology, highlighting its commitment to transdisciplinary and international scholarly exchanges on culture in psychology. The editor emphasizes the importance of intellectual freedom in academia and expresses concerns about the commoditization of journal articles and the trivialization of cultural psychology. The editorial also discusses potential obstacles facing the field, such as the danger of becoming extinct by losing intellectual substance. The editor expresses confidence in the future of the journal under the new Editor-in-Chief, Kevin Carriere, who is expected to bring innovative perspectives to the field. [Extracted from the article]

Variation in political preferences is increasingly understood to stem from both environmental influences and genetics. Research in political psychology has argued that a pathway for genetic effects on ideology is via cognitive performance, showing a sizable genetic overlap between the traits. Yet the link between actual trait cognitive performance and economic conservatism is itself highly ambiguous, with both positive, null, and negative estimates prevalent in the literature. In this study, I argue that this puzzle can only be understood from a gene–environment interaction (GxE) perspective. Drawing on traditional theories of political preference formation, I argue that genetics associated with cognitive performance should cause more left‐wing economic preferences if you grow up in relative poverty, but more right‐wing economic preferences if you grow up affluent. Utilizing variation in a polygenic index (PGI) of cognitive performance within dizygotic twin pairs, coupled with unique register data on economic conditions for the twins, their parents, and their childhood neighborhood, I show that the causal effect of the PGI on economic conservatism is zero on average, but indeed sizable and sign‐discordant by class background. The GxE perspective thus has wide‐ranging implications for future research attempting to integrate genetic methods into political psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intellectual humility (IH) is related to less political and religious polarization, so IH may help shed light on polarization broadly. That said, IH-polarization relations may differ depending on the belief domain or identity in question, which in turn raises important implications for applied work aimed at reducing polarization. Here we simultaneously examined political and religious affective polarization in relation to IH. Across belief domains (politics and religion) and identities (Republicans, Democrats, atheists, Christians), IH was consistently related to less affective polarization. These relations tended to remain significant even when controlling for belief strength. There was limited evidence, however, that IH statistically protected against variables that predict more polarization (e.g. moralization of beliefs). Altogether, these findings highlight pressing directions for future research that can uncover the constellation of variables that might mitigate polarization in those most likely to be polarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scholars have closely examined the intensification of negative affect across party lines during elections, less is known about the decline of partisan hostility in the aftermath of election campaigns. Synthesizing insights from research on electoral rules and political psychology, we theorize and empirically test two such mechanisms of post‐election negative affect decline. The first is that of winners' generosity: the expectation that self‐perceived election winners will express warmer feelings towards political opponents. The second is that of co‐governance, which predicts that shared coalition status leads to warmer affective evaluations among governing parties. We provide evidence that these mechanisms operate as pressure valves of negative partisan affect. We also show that while co‐governance reduces negative affect between parties who govern together, it fuels negative affect among supporters of opposition parties. The empirical analyses leverage a uniquely uncertain political period following the 2021 Israeli elections, around which we conducted an original panel study. Our findings advance the comparative polarization literature and connect psychological and institutional accounts of temporal fluctuations in partisan affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does perceived discrimination and exclusion promote or hinder support for democracy among immigrants? While many studies investigate the drivers of prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants, relatively less is known about the impact of discrimination on immigrants' political attitudes. In this paper, we assess whether perceived discrimination is associated with higher levels of support for democracy among Muslim immigrants using the EURISLAM survey dataset, which includes data from immigrants from Muslim-majority countries residing in four European countries. We find that in particular, perceived discrimination toward the ethnic or religious in-group is associated with increased support for democracy. These results are robust to alternative control variables, model specification, matching procedures and coefficient stability analysis. Our findings make an important contribution to understanding the implications of discriminatory experiences for immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"When Conscience Calls: Moral Courage in Times of Confusion and Despair" by Kristen Monroe is a thought-provoking and inspiring book that explores the concept of moral courage in liberal democracy. Monroe presents a new conceptualization of moral courage that focuses on agency and intentionality, supported by interviews with nearly 100 individuals who have demonstrated moral courage. The book raises questions about risk perception, the role of support networks, and the social consequences of moral courage. While further empirical studies are needed, the book offers valuable insights into the conditions under which moral courage is displayed. [Extracted from the article]

A series of new conceptualizations of left‐wing authoritarianism have recently been proposed to counterbalance the traditional focus on right‐wing authoritarianism in political psychology. This article scrutinizes conceptual confusions in the literature on authoritarianism that have been exacerbated by these new conceptualizations, including a pseudo‐debate about the existence of left‐wing authoritarianism; a conflation of the psychological phenomenon of authoritarianism with the more general category of all antidemocratic predispositions; and a number of logical, conceptual, and statistical fallacies that obscure psychological differences between antidemocratic predispositions on the right and the left. It proposes that antidemocratic predispositions on the right typically involve an authoritarian adherence to established norms along with violence and repression directed at perceived threats to, or deviations from, these norms, whereas those that occur on the left more commonly involve a motivation to overthrow the established authority along with violence and repression directed at perceived threats to superordinate ideological values. It concludes with a call for a broadened and reinvigorated program of research that studies the complexity and diversity of antidemocratic predispositions on the left, the right, and beyond, and their causal impact on antidemocratic attitudes and actions, drawing on insights from multiple traditions and fields of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are elections becoming personality contests? A growing literature is concerned about the increasing personalization of politics and its democratic consequences. This paper argues that part of the phenomenon is due to voters using politicians' personalities to infer their party and valence and that voters of populist parties are especially able in this inferential task. Using a varying conjoint experiment in Spain, the author certainly finds evidence that the importance of personality decreases when voters learn both about candidates' party and valence and that this mediating effect is especially relevant for Vox and UP voters. These results dispel concerns about the irrationality of today's politics by showing that the independent effect of personality is minimal and suggesting that populist voters efficiently use the personality of politicians to infer classical vote determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides concise summaries of various research studies from different countries. The studies cover a range of topics, including the impact of historical trauma, cyberbullying among Mexican adolescents, negative intergroup stereotypes on social media in South Africa, experiences of widowed fathers in South Africa, factors influencing obesity-related behaviors, and more. The summaries aim to provide library patrons with an overview of the research findings, allowing them to decide if they want to explore the full articles for further information. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a collection of papers and presentations from a symposium on the decolonial turn and the future of psychology education. The symposium discusses the problems with Western-centric psychology and the harm it causes to marginalized communities. It calls for the inclusion of locally grounded knowledge and the dismantling of colonial hegemony in psychology. The papers cover topics such as the criminalization of LGBTQ+ identities, the construction of knowledge in textbooks, teaching decolonially in India, and the impact of colonialism on psychology education in the Caribbean. The symposium emphasizes the importance of inclusivity, critical thinking, and pluralism in the future of psychology. Another paper explores the relationship between dietary choices, justice sensitivity, and aggression permissiveness. It suggests that individuals who follow a plant-based diet and have a high sensitivity to justice are less likely to tolerate aggression. The study highlights the need to consider both dietary choices and justice sensitivity in understanding aggression. Additionally, a study examines the decision-making process of forced Ukrainian migrants in choosing temporary asylum. It defines implicit competence as the ability to solve problems under uncertainty and sheds light on the factors influencing migrants' choices. Lastly, a study analyzes how the Philippine government communicates about the COVID-19 pandemic. It finds that the government uses anchoring, objectification, and metaphors to convey the seriousness of the situation and encourage compliance with protocols. The study emphasizes how those in power shape discourses to support their interests. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a collection of summaries of lectures and presentations from the International Journal of Psychology and the International Congress of Psychology (ICP). The summaries cover a wide range of topics, including disaster resilience, mental health in humanitarian settings, violence, sustainability, global mental health, self-regulation in children, indigenous perspectives, kindness, armed conflict, cross-cultural psychology, aging well, climate change, community living, artificial intelligence, democracy, mental health in emergencies, diversity, equality, and inclusion. Each summary provides an overview of the main points discussed in each presentation or panel discussion. The document also includes a workshop on the psychology and culture of the Czech Republic, where the congress is being held. [Extracted from the article]

The rationalist bargaining literature explains how public statements and military mobilizations can signal resolve. But recent political psychology scholarship shows how such actions can "provoke" targets, increasing their resolve by arousing emotions among their leaders and public. While rationalist models have largely omitted provocation, psychological approaches have neglected its strategic consequences. We model provocation in bargaining, assuming that a challenger's signals endogenously increase the target's resolve. Our model shows that introducing provocation can make signals of resolve more credible precisely because their provocative effects make them more costly to send. Moreover, against the prevailing intuition that provocation uniformly promotes conflict, the information from these signals can mitigate their provocative effects and elicit more generous offers than not signaling. Thus, in contrast to psychological accounts, we show that taking provocative actions can be rational and necessary for reaching peaceful bargains. We illustrate these findings with the 1911 Agadir Crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter to the editor discusses two problematic analysis strategies used in recent studies on the metacognition of face perception. The first strategy involves dividing a sample into quartiles based on one measure and studying the relationship between paired measures. This can lead to numerical artifacts that may be mistaken for meaningful patterns of behavior. The second strategy involves studying the correlation between self-estimates of ability and actual performance within quartiles, which can be influenced by range restriction. The authors recommend alternative methods for assessing metacognitive insight in face perception research. [Extracted from the article]

Can nativist attitudes condition support for LGBT+ rights? The sustained advance in pro-LGBT+ attitudes in the West often contrasts with the greening of anti-immigrant sentiment propagated by nativist supply-side actors. We argue that these parallel trends are causally connected, theorizing that exposure to sexually conservative ethnic out-groups can provoke an instrumental increase in LGBT+ inclusion, particularly among those hostile toward immigration. Leveraging experiments in Britain and Spain, we provide causal evidence that citizens strategically liberalize their levels of support for LGBT+ rights when opponents of these measures are from the ethnic out-group. In a context where sexuality-based liberalism is nationalized, increasing tolerance toward LGBT+ citizens is driven by a desire among nativist citizens to socially disidentify from those out-groups perceived as inimical to these nationalized norms. Our analyses provide a critical interpretation of positive trends in LGBT+ tolerance with instrumental liberalism masking lower rates of genuine shifts in LGBT+ inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We add depth and breadth to the study of the childhood personality–adult ideology link with additional data, measures, and measurement approaches. Background: Past research in (political) psychology has put forward that individual differences in psychological needs shape ideology. Most evidence supporting this claim is cross‐sectional. Two previous longitudinal studies showed preliminary evidence that childhood personality traits linked to negativity bias correlate with political ideology in adulthood, yet these studies have limitations. Methods: We report the results from two longitudinal studies (combined N = 13,822) conducted in the United Kingdom that measure childhood personality (5–11 years old) and political ideology from puberty (age 16) to early (age 26) and middle adulthood (age 42). Results: We find very weak and inconsistent evidence that childhood personality traits related to negativity bias are directly associated with general conservatism, social conservatism, or economic conservatism across different stages of adulthood. Across the board, Bayes Factors most often indicate strong evidence for the null hypothesis. Conclusion: We offer evidence that the results of previous research are not as robust or as consistent as scholars in the extant literature presume. Our findings call for more, not less, research on the link between childhood personality and political ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the issue of historical injustices and the challenges they pose in terms of responsibility for reparations. It discusses different accounts of historical injustice and argues for a new approach based on inherited agency through social learning. The text emphasizes the importance of addressing the root causes of historical injustices and proposes that collective responsibility can be grounded in the responsibilities of a national community. It also discusses the concept of inherited agency and its normative implications, as well as the role of collective agency and self-perception in large-scale groups. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of social learning and the transmission of cultural identities in intergenerational communities. Additionally, it mentions a research monograph that explores the categorization of people based on historical groups and its potential benefits. [Extracted from the article]

Objective/Background Method Results Conclusions Conservative ideology, broadly speaking, has been widely linked to greater happiness and meaning in life. Is that true of all forms of a good life? We examined whether a psychologically rich life is associated with political orientation, system justification, and Protestant work ethic, independent of two other traditional forms of a good life: a happy life and a meaningful life.Participants completed a questionnaire that assessed conservative worldviews and three aspects of well‐being (N = 583 in Study 1; N = 348 in Study 2; N = 436 in Study 3; N = 1,217 in Study 4; N = 2,176 in Study 5; N = 516 in Study 6).Happiness was associated with political conservatism and system justification, and meaning in life was associated with Protestant work ethic. In contrast, zero‐order correlations showed that psychological richness was not associated with conservative worldviews. However, when happiness and meaning in life were included in multiple regression models, the nature of the association shifted: Psychological richness was consistently inversely associated with system justification and on average less political conservatism, suggesting that happiness and meaning in life were suppressor variables.These findings suggest that happiness and meaning in life are associated with conservative ideology, whereas psychological richness is not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the role of social media in addressing emergent social problems during times of global crises, with a focus on contentious politics and partisan engagement. It highlights the importance of social identity and polarization in political communication, as well as the potential for social media to exacerbate polarization. The article also explores the use of digital media by governments, politicians, political parties, and the public in addressing global crises. It includes several studies on topics such as protests, emotional reactions on social media, anti-vaccine misinformation, and the politicization of science. Overall, the article provides a comparative perspective on digital political communication during crises and offers valuable insights for researchers interested in this field. [Extracted from the article]

The main objective of this study was to analyze democracy legitimacy in a non-WEIRD country from a political psychology perspective. More specifically, two dimensions of democracy legitimacy were empirically isolated: diffuse and specific support. We tested a system justification model of democracy legitimacy, while also assessing the role of sociodemographic and context evaluation variables. We applied a questionnaire with closed-ended response choices to a non-probabilistic quota sample of adults from Cordoba, Argentina (n = 450). Besides descriptively analyzing democracy legitimacy, two hierarchical multiple regression analyzes were performed, one for each criterion variable. The results evidenced that diffuse support for democracy remains relatively high, while specific support for Argentine political system is markedly low. Different variables explained each dimension of political legitimacy: those regarding ideological system justification—right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and political conservatism—explained an important amount of the variance of diffuse support but had only a marginal role in explaining specific support. The latter was better predicted by context evaluation variables, suggesting that system performance is more relevant than ideology when it comes to specific support. Thus, although democracy legitimacy could be based on a relatively developed civic culture, a poor system performance is not innocuous. The authors discuss how the theoretical explanations developed and framed in Western democracies may be not adequate to comprehend Latin American political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that understanding when and how emotions matter in times of crisis requires simultaneous contextualisation through setting out three different approaches to the political psychology of emotions in EU foreign policy in times of ontological (in)security and crisis. Firstly, through a longitudinal survey of emotional anxieties and fears in the EU from the 1990s to the 2020s drawing on the introduction of ontological security studies by Kinnvall, Manners, and Mitzen. Secondly the article analyses the SI contributions empirically in terms of the way in which the EU's discrete crises are part of a wider planetary organic crisis. Thirdly, using the contributions as examples of theoretical contributions to the field of political psychology of EU, ranging from individual cognitive psychology to social psychology, social construction, psychoanalysis, and critical political psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does leader age matter for the likelihood of interstate conflict? Many studies in biology, psychology, and physiology have found that aggression tends to decline with age throughout the adult lifespan, particularly in males. Moreover, a number of major international conflicts have been attributed to young leaders, including the conquests of Alexander the Great and the ambitious military campaigns of Napoleon. However, the exact nature of the relationship between leader age and international conflict has been difficult to study because of the endogeneity problem. Leaders do not come to power randomly. Rather, many domestic and international factors influence who becomes the leader of a country, and some of these factors could correlate with the chances of interstate conflict. For instance, wary democratic publics might favor older leaders when future international conflict seems likely, inducing a relationship between older leaders and interstate conflict. This article overcomes such confounding by using a regression discontinuity design. Specifically, it looks at close elections of national leaders who had large differences in age. It finds that when older candidates barely defeated younger ones, countries were much less likely to engage in military conflict. Its sample is also fairly representative of democracies more broadly, meaning that the findings likely hold true for cases outside the sample. The results demonstrate the important role that individuals play in shaping world politics. They also illustrate the value of design-based inference for learning about important questions in the study of international relations and peace science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securitization and desecuritization demonstrate how threat (de)constructions can lead to conflictual or cooperative foreign policies. However, due to its focus on collectivities, securitization theory cannot tell us why leaders choose either securitization or desecuritization. Understanding this choice is crucial because (de)securitization processes can prescribe possible foreign policy options and thus affect the likelihood of conflict and cooperation. To account for leaders' choices, I draw on political psychology and demonstrate the utility of my approach through an explanation of two US presidents' preferences for (de)securitizing North Korea. Using leadership trait and operational code analysis, I show that psychological variables shaped Bill Clinton's and George W. Bush's preferences because they affected their threat perception and inclination toward conflictual or cooperative actions. These preferences had substantial consequences: While Clinton's desecuritization attempt led to improvements in US–North Korean relations, Bush's effort to resecuritize North Korea effectively reversed this progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 20 years have passed since this journal's last review of Latino politics. Today, American politics have shifted dramatically, even alarmingly, with Latinos absorbing and contributing to many of these changes. Yet American politics research still overwhelmingly privileges non-Hispanic Whites and their political opinions and behavior. We argue that this marginalization of Latino politics research has even fewer excuses in this era when data, methodologies, and other resources have expanded, making theory-based, empirically grounded research on Latino politics more feasible. We also argue that to better grasp what happens in contemporary politics today and tomorrow, a deeper understanding of Latinos' political psychology is indispensable because they are a highly diverse, minoritized group whose members are acutely sensitive to structural, temporal, and situational pressures. Finally, in an overwhelmingly quantitative, empirically oriented field, we urge Latino politics scholars to more earnestly consider the normative implications of research on this growing pan-ethnic population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of contagion offers important but underexplored opportunities to rethink and advance our understanding of key concepts in political science. These include notably state capacity; social policy; state–society relations, especially the role of trust; nationalism and social solidarity; exclusionary dynamics, such as xenophobia, prejudice, and discrimination; and within political psychology, the role of emotions, including disgust. This article reviews studies on contagion and health within and adjacent to political science. While taking note of the surge of studies around COVID-19, this article focuses on work on infectious disease before and beyond the pandemic. It analyzes the scholarship as it sheds light on the control of infectious diseases, on the one hand, and on the consequences of that control, on the other, while also pointing to connections and feedback loops, especially as they open avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior work shows that women are, on average, more risk averse than men. This evidence has been used to theorize about gender differences in elite behavior. However, whether differences in risk aversion hold among the subset of citizens willing to run for office remains an open question. We report a preregistered experiment with parliamentary candidates in Portugal and find that women candidates are less risk averse than men candidates. This effect is driven by risk preferences in public investments and is not explained by gender differences in political experience. The findings are consistent with a process of gendered (self-)selection in which women risk-takers are disproportionately attracted to enter a men-dominated career and run for office. Despite requiring future validation in different contexts, the evidence highlights the challenges of extrapolating from citizen samples to study elite behavior and suggests that risk perceptions are a relevant supply-side determinant of women representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]