Yingjie Li, Jean Daunizeau, Sabine Geurts, Johan Karremans, Fred Hasselman
{"title":"Contrast bias, not confirmation bias, shapes daily impression updating across social and non-social targets","authors":"Yingjie Li, Jean Daunizeau, Sabine Geurts, Johan Karremans, Fred Hasselman","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70123","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70123","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Previous literature on impression updating has paid extensive attention to confirmation bias <i>- the tendency to seek out, favour, interpret or remember information in a way that reinforces existing beliefs</i>. Fewer studies examined the <i>contrast effect/bias</i> in the sequential updating of impressions. Contrast bias <i>occurs when the difference between current beliefs and new information is exaggerated, leading to a stronger shift in evaluation than the new information alone would justify</i>. In this work, we conducted two Ecological Momentary Experiments to capture real-world impression formation and updating on both social (e.g. an employee) and non-social (e.g. a vacation house) targets. We also developed novel computational models of biased impression updating based on parametric distortions of Bayesian ideal observers. Across the two studies, we found that daily impression updating exhibited significant contrast bias, with negative contrast bias exerting a stronger influence than positive ones. Additionally, we found no evidence for differences in impression updating between social and non-social targets. By focusing on within-person impression updating over time, these findings reveal contrast bias as a core dynamic of impression updating, systematically shaping how impressions change in response to inconsistent information.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13451568/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148690203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Meikel Neumann, Annik Strauch, Lea Boecker, Kathi Diel, Yannik A. Escher, Paweł Muniak, Danna Oomen, Hannes M. Petrowsky, Leonie Schwarz, Marcel Weber, Malte Friese, Oliver Genschow, S. Alexander Haslam, David D. Loschelder
{"title":"Whether we win or with whom we watch: How international sporting events link to life satisfaction and work motivation","authors":"Meikel Neumann, Annik Strauch, Lea Boecker, Kathi Diel, Yannik A. Escher, Paweł Muniak, Danna Oomen, Hannes M. Petrowsky, Leonie Schwarz, Marcel Weber, Malte Friese, Oliver Genschow, S. Alexander Haslam, David D. Loschelder","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70115","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70115","url":null,"abstract":"<p>International sporting events like the UEFA EURO 2024 provide a powerful natural context to study how social identity dynamics and social processes link to well-being and motivation beyond the sporting domain. In this pre-registered longitudinal experience-sampling study (<i>N</i> = 842; <i>k</i> = 2,414 post-game responses) across five European countries, we examined how social context (watching alone vs. with others) and game result (win vs. loss) link to spectators' life satisfaction and work motivation. Drawing on social identity and self-categorisation theory, we explored mediating processes including team, football, and national identity, as well as social processes—social connectedness and game-related socialising. Multilevel analyses revealed that watching games with others was unexpectedly associated with lower work motivation, an effect explained by alcohol consumption. The social context was unrelated to life satisfaction. Game result (i.e., a win) was positively related to life satisfaction and work motivation, mediated by social identities and social processes. These findings demonstrate that collective success—rather than shared spectating—coincides with positive psychological spill-overs from leisure to work. By situating these effects within a social identity framework, the study highlights how collective experiences relate to both evaluative well-being (i.e., life satisfaction) and motivational outcomes (i.e., work motivation) in everyday and organisational life.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13451784/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148690029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Charlie J. Walker Clarke, Elliot J. Sharpe, Lise Jans, Thijs Bouman
{"title":"Beyond proximity: The social and spatial dynamics of collaboration in community energy initiatives","authors":"Charlie J. Walker Clarke, Elliot J. Sharpe, Lise Jans, Thijs Bouman","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70121","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70121","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This research examines how actual and perceived spatial distance from group members shape collaboration intentions in the context of community energy initiatives. While previous studies highlight in-group identification and interpersonal contact for community engagement, the role distance plays in this has received less attention. Across two studies (N total = 195, N total = 287), we tested across spatially different groups (neighbourhood, city, nation, family, workplace) whether indicators of greater (perceived) spatial distance were indicative of less interpersonal contact, lower identification with the group and weaker collaboration intentions. Our results indicate that perceived spatial distance did not correspond to actual spatial differences across groups, suggesting that perceived distance does not always reflect actual distance. However, members who perceive other members as less distant report stronger interpersonal contact, identification (Studies 1 and 2) and collaboration intentions (Study 2). Associations between interpersonal contact, identification and collaboration intentions were consistent across groups, suggesting that these processes are rather universal, while the role and interpretation of distance fluctuate between the groups tested. These results contribute to t/0258heory by clarifying the interplay between spatial and social dimensions of groups, and by showing how perceptions of space shape identification and intentions to engage in community-based energy.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13448857/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148686511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michał Bilewicz, Michał Wypych, Adam Płoszaj, Anna Gromova, Maciej Siemiątkowski
{"title":"National identity as both cure and curse: The effects of three facets of national identification on post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in wartime Ukraine","authors":"Michał Bilewicz, Michał Wypych, Adam Płoszaj, Anna Gromova, Maciej Siemiątkowski","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70119","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70119","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The social cure hypothesis proposes that national identification can be beneficial to the well-being and mental health of ingroup members. However, research has also identified a social curse phenomenon in which identification can exacerbate distress and undermine recovery after trauma. We propose that these seemingly paradoxical phenomena arise from the effects of different dimensions of identification. To test this approach, we examined the context of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, as the actions of Russian troops, bombings, and the loss of homes and relatives are all sources of trauma for Ukrainians. Our research hypothesised that ingroup ties and ingroup affect would serve as protective factors, while identity centrality would serve as a risk factor for post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. Using two studies conducted among Ukrainians living in Ukraine (<i>N</i><sub>1</sub> = 1012) and Ukrainian refugees in Poland (<i>N</i><sub>2</sub> = 381), we consistently found that identity centrality was positively associated with PTS symptoms. In addition, Study 2 provided evidence for the protective role of ingroup ties and affect. These findings clarify how specific dimensions of national identification may function as either a ‘social cure’ or a ‘social curse’ during ongoing conflict, with important implications for mental health interventions for war-affected populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148680536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond mere novelty: Categorization drives differentiation","authors":"Patrick Rothermund, Roland Deutsch","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70120","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70120","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Stereotype formation is shaped by <i>differentiation</i>, that is, the tendency to prioritize attributes that render a novel group distinct from comparison groups. While differentiation is well documented, it remains unclear whether it is intrinsic to categorization or whether it is a byproduct of a general processing advantage of novel stimuli. We conducted three preregistered experiments to disentangle these accounts. In all experiments, participants learned a set of social traits that were either assigned to a single group or distributed across two groups. Crucially, novel traits presented in the second half of the stimulus set marked intergroup distinctiveness only in the two-groups condition while being equally novel in the single-group condition. In line with a category-based account of differentiation, recall for novel traits was enhanced in the two-groups condition compared to the single-group condition (Exp. 1 & 3) and an additional control condition without groups (Exp. 3). Moreover, novel traits were judged as more typical for their group than initially learned traits, but only in the two-groups condition (Exp. 2). These findings suggest differentiation is not a fixed response to novelty but a genuine categorization effect, serving a functional role in distinguishing groups. We discuss implications for category learning and stereotype formation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13433972/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148670935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Polarizing trajectories of colonial ideologies: A latent class growth analysis of historical negation and symbolic exclusion","authors":"Zoe Bertenshaw, Chris G. Sibley, Danny Osborne","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70116","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70116","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The impassioned advocacy both for and against Indigenous rights in recent years suggests a polarization of public opinion. Accordingly, we theorize increasingly divided endorsement of two ideologies that challenge Indigenous rights to material and symbolic equality—historical negation and symbolic exclusion, respectively (the ‘Dark Duo’). Using latent class growth analysis, we test for distinct classes of change in the Dark Duo over 16 years (2009–2025) among a national probability sample of New Zealand adults (<i>N</i> = 43,020). As expected, results reveal a subgroup of <i>Progressives</i> (76.84%) with lower levels of historical negation and symbolic exclusion that decreased over time and a smaller subgroup of <i>Reactionaries</i> (23.16%) with higher levels of these ideologies that increased over the same period. Demographic and socio-political variables predicted class membership, and support for political parties varied across classes. Thus, the current study illustrates the presence and implications of ideological polarization towards Indigenous rights.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13430099/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148664711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond procedural justice: Power, identity and the asymmetric architecture of public trust in security services","authors":"Paul Wood","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70114","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70114","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Public trust in security services is a critical social-psychological phenomenon, yet existing theoretical accounts remain fragmented and insufficiently attentive to the structural power asymmetries characterising security–public relations. This article argues that the dominant paradigm, procedural justice theory, requires fundamental revision within intergroup and institutional power dynamics. Drawing upon procedural justice theory (<i>Why people obey the law</i>, 1990, Yale University Press; <i>Why people obey the law</i>, 2nd ed., 2006, Princeton University Press), social identity and self-categorisation theory (<i>The social psychology of intergroup relations</i>, 1979, 33, Brooks/Cole; <i>Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory</i>, 1987, Blackwell), the integrative model of organisational trust (<i>Academy of Management Review</i>, 1995, 20, 709), intergroup contact theory (<i>The nature of prejudice</i>, 1954, Addison-Wesley), system justification theory (<i>British Journal of Social Psychology</i>, 1994, 33, 1), institutional betrayal theory (<i>American Psychologist</i>, 2014, 69, 575) and the political trust tradition (<i>A systems analysis of political life</i>, 1965, Wiley; <i>Trust and trustworthiness</i>, 2002, Russell Sage Foundation; <i>Annual Review of Political Science</i>, 2000, 3, 475), the article advances three propositions. First, trust formation is asymmetric: trust erodes faster than it accrues, with the asymmetry amplified for subordinate-status groups. Second, procedural justice effects are identity-contingent: perceived fairness operates differently depending on whether the authority is categorised as in-group protector or out-group enforcer. Third, trustworthiness appraisal under institutional betrayal requires reconceptualising Mayer et al.'s integrity dimension as epistemic credibility. A four-pathway model is proposed, with power asymmetry as a structural moderator and recursive feedback producing virtuous or vicious trust spirals.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148596288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dominance meets competence: A socio-ecological perspective on leadership and human social hierarchies","authors":"Kodai Kusano, Hirotaka Imada","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70111","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70111","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Dominance has been evolutionarily salient in shaping power relations across species, and recent social-psychological work has revived the concept in the study of human social hierarchies. Yet previous research has produced mixed findings and inconsistent interpretations of the effectiveness of dominance. This article clarifies the role of dominance, particularly in the context of leadership selection. We relax the strict view of dominance as inherently equated with physical aggression and antisociality, often assumed to be inherited from nonhuman primates. Instead, its instrumental value depends on how followers evaluate its capacity to benefit them. We situate this reframing within a unitary evolutionary model of human status, in which diverse traits and behaviours contribute to leadership through a single pathway of competence. We then outline the socio-ecological conditions under which dominance-based leadership emerges. We argue that groups grant leadership to individuals who demonstrate contextually relevant competence, particularly when contexts demand (a) resolving and preventing intragroup conflict, (b) securing and defending resources, and (c) managing external threats. We invite future research to examine how socio-ecological contexts shape diverse forms of leadership, moving beyond explanations focused on a fixed set of individual motives and strategies for status attainment.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148401571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Did politically engaged individuals construe the COVID‐19 pandemic primarily as a security threat, a welfare threat, or both? Understanding differential emotional and ideological responses to threats through the lens of THEISM","authors":"Michael Edem Fiagbenu","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70101","url":null,"abstract":"Political engagement shapes whether threats produce rigid or flexible political attitudes, yet the conditions under which these patterns emerge remain unclear. To address this gap, we introduced and tested the Threat‐Engagement Ideological Shift Model (THEISM), which proposes that engagement determines whether threats are processed reactively—through a dominant security or welfare lens, yielding univalent emotions and rigid attitudes, or integratively, through multiple lenses producing conflicting multivalent emotions and flexible attitudes. Across four studies ( <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 74,443) examining responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic, results revealed that the pandemic was directly linked with liberal attitudes, with stronger effects among highly (vs. less) engaged individuals. At the same time, across both groups, perceived threat predicted both fear and empathy, leading to co‐occurring conservative and liberal attitudes, respectively, reflecting integrative processing and shared pandemic responses. However, empathy‐mediated liberal attitudes were stronger among highly engaged individuals, whereas fear‐mediated conservative attitudes remained stable across groups, revealing engagement‐based (a)symmetries. Overall, political engagement primarily strengthened the direct threat–liberalism pathway, with emotional pathways playing a more modest but theoretically meaningful role. The findings highlight how engagement conditions the translation of threats into emotional and ideological outcomes, helping clarify conditions under which threats produce shared or polarized attitudes.","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"26 1","pages":"e70101"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148394062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aseel Sahib, Stephanie L. Hardacre, Olivia Evans, Anika S. Quayle, Mark Rubin, Alysia Robertson, Tegan Cruwys, Lillian Smyth
{"title":"Rethinking social media metrics: Daily interaction valence and well-being in university students","authors":"Aseel Sahib, Stephanie L. Hardacre, Olivia Evans, Anika S. Quayle, Mark Rubin, Alysia Robertson, Tegan Cruwys, Lillian Smyth","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70109","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70109","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Rising concern about student mental health has highlighted the complex role of social media as both a source of support and a risk factor. However, existing research often relies on simplistic measures that overlook the context-dependent ways in which students engage with these platforms. This daily diary study (159 observations; <i>N</i> = 40 university students) examined how the valence of university-specific social media interactions related to student well-being. Grounded in the view that digital spaces increasingly mediate campus social life, we tested whether more positive daily online interactions predicted greater subsequent well-being and whether this association was mediated by sense of community and social support, provided or received. Social class was examined as a moderator. Multilevel analyses showed that more positive interaction valence was associated with higher subsequent daily well-being, stronger sense of community, and greater provided and received social support. However, none of the mediators predicted well-being, and no indirect effects were observed. These findings suggest that the quality of university-related online interactions is linked to student well-being.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjso.70109","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148379785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}