{"title":"Language and Social Psychology Approaches to Race, Racism, and Social Justice: Analyzing the Past and Revealing Ways Forward","authors":"Natasha Shrikant, H. Giles, Daniel Angus","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211064808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211064808","url":null,"abstract":"Issues of race, racism, and social justice are under-studied topics in this journal. This Prologue, and our Special Issue (S.I.) more broadly, highlights ways that language and social psychology (LSP) approaches can further our understanding of race, racism, and social justice, while suggesting more inclusive directions for their theoretical development. Acknowledging the inspiration from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, we begin by discussing our deeply-held personal and emotional connections to recent societal events, including police violence against innocent Black civilians and the prevalence of anti-Asian hate. What follows, then, is: a historical analysis of past JLSP publications on these issues, a proposal for more intersections between LSP and communication social justice research, and an overview of the BLM movement together with the four articles that follow. We conclude by advocating for individual and institutional practices that can create socially-just changes by LSP scholars in the academy.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"4 - 28"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48593710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effects of Expertise, Status Power, and Language Use on Perception of Task Partner","authors":"J. Paik, Lyn M. van Swol","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211067249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211067249","url":null,"abstract":"An experiment manipulated the relative expertise and status power of dyad task partners, examining how expertise and status power affect language use and if linguistic cues that emerged during the interaction influence a partner's assessment of the speaker's competence. One hundred twenty-eight dyads worked together on a problem-solving task without knowing who had received better quality information beforehand. One hundred twenty-four interactions were transcribed and quantified using both language software and human coders. Members with superior expertise spoke more words and used more tag questions than those with less expertise. The data did not yield support for more politeness in low-status members’ language nor more confidence in high-expertise members’ language. Members who spoke more were perceived as more competent by partners. Members who used more hedges were perceived as more competent and polite. Results identified language features that can be used strategically to exert influence on others and manage impressions.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"396 - 427"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45493228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Will You Go on a Date with Me? Predicting First Dates from Linguistic Traces in Online Dating Messages","authors":"Sabrina A. Huang, Jeffrey T. Hancock","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211066612","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211066612","url":null,"abstract":"From conveying intimacy (“I like you”) to irritation (“stop messaging me!”) and dissatisfaction (“I don’t think we’ll work out”), language use plays a fundamental yet often overlooked role in the initiation of relationships. In online dating, daters exchange messages to determine how interested they are in a partner and whether they would like to go on a first date with them. In two studies, we examined whether linguistic features present in online dating messages can predict whether a first date took place. In Study 1, we identified five interpersonal processes related to first date outcomes: investment, interdependence, emotional dynamics, decision-making, and coordination. In Study 2, we tested our hypotheses generated from Study 1 on a new dataset. Our results suggest that certain linguistic features within online dating messages can be used to predict above chance the likelihood of going on a first date.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"371 - 395"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41708584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Susan L. Kline, Tiffany N. White, Ralph J. Martins
{"title":"Argumentation and Incivility in Online Forums: The Case of Discussing Colorism","authors":"Susan L. Kline, Tiffany N. White, Ralph J. Martins","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211066889","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211066889","url":null,"abstract":"Conversation argument theory is used to analyze seven online discussions of colorism, a form of skin tone prejudice. Discussants’ comments (N = 587) expressed ad hominem acts (17%), reasoning activities (59%) and delimitors (e.g., addressed objections, 37%). Unlike general forums confrontation-initiated forums had more ad hominem acts. Posts with compared to posts without ad hominem acts had fewer reasoning activities and delimitors. General colorism forums were the most civil and developed, findings that have implications for designing online forums.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"462 - 475"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46082174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Landry, R. Allard, Kenneth Deveau, Sylvain St-Onge
{"title":"Minority Language Learning and Use: Can Self-Determination Counter Social Determinism?","authors":"R. Landry, R. Allard, Kenneth Deveau, Sylvain St-Onge","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211041153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211041153","url":null,"abstract":"To what extent is minority language use in society imposed by social determinism, a force acting on individuals based on the language group's relative vitality in terms of demography, institutional support, and status? Can social determinism be countered by the force of self-determination sustained by group members’ personal autonomy, critical consciousness, and strong engaged integrated identity? These questions are addressed by testing a revised Self-determination and ethnolinguistic development (SED) model, using structural equation modeling. This model specifies how three categories of language socialization (enculturation, personal autonomization, critical consciousness-raising) mediate between objective ethnolinguistic vitality (EV) and four psycholinguistic constructs (engaged integrated identity, community engagement, linguistic competencies, subjective EV) in the prediction of minority language use. Results on a large sample of French Canadian students in different EV settings strongly support the SED model and show that social determinism can be at least moderately countered by psycholinguistic constructs that increase individual self-determination.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"240 - 269"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45746239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Language, Discrimination and Employability: Employers’ Othering and Racist Representations of Domestic Migrant Workers on Social Media","authors":"H. Ladegaard","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211046644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211046644","url":null,"abstract":"Discursive othering deals with the many ways in which language is used to express prejudice against minorities, and it outlines the processes and conditions that promote group-based inequality and marginalization. This article focuses on online othering, and it analyzes a corpus of 615 comments posted by Hong Kong employers of domestic migrant workers (DMWs) on social media. First, a quantitative analysis of the corpus outlines the content categories found in the posts, and second, a discourse analysis of representative excerpts illustrates the claims made about DMWs. Employers engage in othering of their helpers, and the analysis shows how demeaning racist comments function to publicly shame them and warn others not to employ them. The article uses Language and Social Psychology frameworks to analyze the posts, and it discusses the functions of using racist derogatory language. The paper concludes by discussing how research may be used to address pressing social issues.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"97 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48316911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Presidential Profanity in Duterte's Philippines: How Swearing Discursively Constructs a Populist Regime","authors":"C. Montiel, Joshua Uyheng, Nmanuel de Leon","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211065780","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211065780","url":null,"abstract":"Swearing in public discourse represents a contentious rhetorical feature of populist leaders’ transgressive politics. This paper argues that, beyond constituting merely “offensive” speech, swearing generatively accomplishes a host of discursive functions which contribute to the fortification of a populist regime. Taking populist President Duterte of the Philippines as a case in point, we utilize a critical text analytics approach to examine his use of profane language across a corpus of 746 of his public speeches. We find that Duterte discursively harnesses swear words to: (a) affirm vernacular identities with hostile humor, (b) claim outsider virtues against corrupt institutions, and (c) marshal insider force as the nation's sovereign leader. Swearing thus represents a rich discursive resource for populist leaders to navigate their contradictory positions as insiders and outsiders to political power, toward both public endearment and coercion of the nation's people. Our findings suggest the importance of critically examining language in relation to collective-level phenomena like populism and the utility of mixed methods approaches for enriching global psychologies of politics and language.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"428 - 449"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45294347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Public Expressions of Empathy and Sympathy by U.S. Criminal Justice Officials After Controversial Police Killings of African-Americans","authors":"E. Maguire, H. Giles","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211057238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211057238","url":null,"abstract":"Police use of force against minorities, particularly African-Americans, has become a prominent national issue in the United States. In a number of controversial instances, such as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, African-Americans have died under questionable circumstances due to police use of force. These incidents have fueled the growth of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and have often resulted in large-scale protests and riots. In this paper, we examine statements made by four types of criminal justice officials – police executives, police department spokespersons, police union representatives, and prosecutors – in the immediate aftermath of 30 such incidents that occurred in 2020. We examine the language used by these officials in social media postings, news releases, and press conferences, focusing specifically on the extent to which they express empathy or sympathy toward the decedent or his or her loved ones, as well as the community at large. Our analysis reveals that criminal justice officials rarely express empathy or sympathy in the aftermath of these incidents, though there are noteworthy differences between different types of officials. Our findings are helpful for understanding how the language used by these officials, particularly the public expression of empathy and sympathy, fits into broader debates about race and criminal justice in the United States.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"49 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44608858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“You are Irish—and as Irish as Me!”: Antiracism and National Identities in Ireland","authors":"Rahul Sambaraju","doi":"10.1177/0261927x211048215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x211048215","url":null,"abstract":"What is the role of national identities in doing antiracism? In social psychology, much research on racism has examined processes and practices of exclusion. Scant research however has examined practices of inclusion. In this paper, I examine practices of national majority group members doing antiracism in response to complaints by ethnic minority members about facing racism on Twitter about their national belonging. I examine these instances and responses to these in the Irish context, as in Ireland, being “Irish” can mean both ethnic and national identity. Findings show that respondents’ national identification was central to practices of inclusion, such as that of affirming the Irishness of those facing exclusion. For respondents’ national belonging was oriented to as significant for those complaining about inclusion, for themselves, and for those who were engaging in racist exclusion of ethnic minority members. Together the findings show that while national identities allow for antiracism, these problematically suppress the relevance of race in favor of nations and nationalisms.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48974679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Protest Structures: Responses From Nigerians in the United States to Police Brutality and #BlackLivesMatter Protests","authors":"Doris E. Acheme, Ioana A. Cionea","doi":"10.1177/0261927X211049473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211049473","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined how Nigerian immigrants communicated about, and got involved in, #BlackLivesMatter protests and/or advocacy due to racialized violence against Blacks in the United States during the summer of 2020. Using a qualitative open-ended questionnaire, a purposive sample of Nigerians (N = 70) was assembled. Constant comparative analysis revealed that communication about and participation in the BLM movement consisted of affective (feelings associated with protests), cognitive (psychological processes triggered by thinking about protests), and behavioral (actions and engagement in protests) responses. This process is labeled protest structures, a term that captures the socio-psychological processes that shape the communication of and involvement in protests and/or advocacy. We discuss further how social positioning impacts active participation in the fight for racial equality and social change.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"41 1","pages":"29 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43280644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}