Ece Aleyna Demirgünes,Jessica Boin,Jasper Van Assche,Giulia Fuochi
{"title":"Experimental tests of the tertiary transfer effect of intergroup contact: Addressing valence, prototypicality and moderators.","authors":"Ece Aleyna Demirgünes,Jessica Boin,Jasper Van Assche,Giulia Fuochi","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70113","url":null,"abstract":"Cognitive liberalization theory posits a tertiary transfer effect (TTE) whereby intergroup contact broadens open-minded cognitive dispositions. Across two pre-registered studies, we tested whether vicarious contact with Muslims (among non-Muslim Italians) influences abstract reasoning, convergent creativity, self-reported cognitive flexibility, cultural and group deprovincialization and environmental concern, with social dominance orientation (SDO), need for closure (NFC) and curiosity as moderators. Study 1 (N = 394) manipulated interaction valence (positive vs. negative) and target (ingroup vs. outgroup) and Study 2 (N = 574) manipulated valence and semantic distance (atypical vs. prototypical outgroup members). We hypothesized stronger cognitive gains from intergroup contact, especially with atypical outgroup members. Overall, results provided little support for the main hypotheses or for TTE, aside from targeted effects. In Study 1, positive vicarious interactions increased creativity. Additionally, low-SDO participants showed reduced abstract reasoning and low-NFC participants showed increased creativity following positive contact. In Study 2, atypical outgroup contact decreased deprovincialization and creativity, yet high-SDO participants reported greater cultural deprovincialization after positive contact with atypical outgroup members. These findings suggest a more nuanced and conditional view on TTE: despite evidence for a broad TTE being limited, under specific conditions, vicarious contact could facilitate cognitive liberalization.","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"260 1","pages":"e70113"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148408426","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":"As warm as competent, really? On the importance of stereotype facets in the context of autism.","authors":"Camille Sanrey,Vincent Yzerbyt","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70112","url":null,"abstract":"Previous work using the Stereotype Content Model reveals that autistic individuals come across as equally warm, if not warmer, than competent. This pattern runs against the widespread representations of autistic individuals as highly intelligent but lacking in social skills. The present research addresses this inconsistency by considering the facets of social judgement. Across two studies (Study 1-students' sample: N = 497, Study 2-general population sample: N = 667), participants completed trait attributions and reported spontaneous stereotypes. Results consistently revealed that respondents perceived autistic individuals as low in friendliness but high in morality and higher in ability than in assertiveness. Moreover, whereas friendliness and ability dominated spontaneous descriptions, morality and assertiveness were evoked only marginally. These findings highlight the added value of analysing stereotypes at the facet level, at least when it comes to autistic individuals, and offer a more nuanced understanding of stereotypic representations of this group.","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"36 1","pages":"e70112"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148408296","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":"Free will belief predicts everyday punitiveness across 44 countries.","authors":"Aaron Walton, Kelly Kirkland, Brock Bastian","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70110","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70110","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Belief in free will has been linked to more punitive and retributive responses to wrongdoing. While past research has focused on North American samples and criminal contexts, this study tested whether free will belief predicts punitiveness across diverse cultural contexts and focuses on more everyday moral transgressions. We surveyed 8917 participants from 44 countries using a validated measure of free will belief and a vignette-based measure of punitiveness. Multilevel analysis revealed that individuals with stronger free will beliefs were more punitive towards everyday moral transgressions. These findings suggest that free will belief is a cross-culturally robust predictor of punitiveness towards everyday moral transgressions. Implications are discussed for the potential benefits of mitigating free will belief in specific contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":"e70110"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13382202/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148521291","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":"Bodies in and out of place: The racialized entanglements of occupying space","authors":"Krystal M. Perkins, Ghina Abi-Ghannam","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70107","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70107","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the past decades, social scientists have interrogated the racialized machinations of social space. Ahmed (2007), for example, speaks of the ‘Whiteness of space’, wherein White bodies ‘are what lags behind’, sinking into the background and ‘cohering to form the edges of spaces (pg. 156,157)’, but non-White bodies are fated to be noticed and to be uncomfortably incoherent in space. This research examines the deep entanglements of racialized bodies and space, focusing on two recent ‘disruptions’ of space: the January 6th Capitol attack and the Gaza solidarity encampments. We examined media sources and employed a critical discursive analysis to detail how the occupation of space is categorized and constructed, paying specific attention to how racialized assumptions get discursively (re)produced. We observed that the acts of violence on January 6th, through discursive reproductions of <i>habitus</i>, were imbued with/in White innocence—a habitus not afforded to those involved in the Gaza solidarity encampments. For those participating in the encampments, a <i>habitus</i> of banal terrorism was linguistically and spatially reproduced, whereby the surveillance of the physical space of non-White and Muslim bodies was routinized. We consider these results within the context of existing critical psychological studies of Whiteness, discourse and race scholarship.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148355715","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}
Jocelyn J. Bélanger, Daniel W. Snook, Jais-Adam Troian, Manuel Moyano
{"title":"The role of moral identity in ideological obsession and violent extremism","authors":"Jocelyn J. Bélanger, Daniel W. Snook, Jais-Adam Troian, Manuel Moyano","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70106","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70106","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This research examines how ideological passion shapes moral identity and support for political violence, drawing on the Dualistic Model of Passion to distinguish between obsessive (OP) and harmonious passion (HP). Across six studies with diverse ideological groups, OP consistently predicted the adoption of a villainous moral identity, whereas HP predicted a heroic identity. Studies 1A (<i>N</i> = 202; Democrats) and 1B (<i>N</i> = 232; Republicans) showed that OP was associated with villain identity, which mediated support for political violence. Study 2 (<i>N</i> = 315; environmentalists) experimentally manipulated passion, demonstrating that an OP mindset increased villain identification and violent endorsement. Study 3 (<i>N</i> = 179; Black Lives Matter supporters) manipulated moral identity directly, revealing that adopting a villain role amplified support for political violence. Studies 4 (<i>N</i> = 277; U.S. Muslims) and 5 (<i>N</i> = 294; Republicans, preregistered) examined mechanisms of appeal, showing that OP individuals perceived villains as warm, which reinforced villain identification. Finally, Study 6 (<i>N</i> = 236; environmentalists) showed that villain identity was tied to a coherent pattern of moral inversion—villains recast as justified and not harmful, heroes as harmful—which in turn predicted support for political violence.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjso.70106","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148279278","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":"Correction to ‘Digitizing fear: Identity, threat and collective mobilization through social media posts during the 2021 election campaigns in West Bengal, India’","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70108","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70108","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Majumdar, S., Ray, S., Bhowmick, P., & Datta, A. (2026). Digitizing fear: Identity, threat and collective mobilization through social media posts during the 2021 election campaigns in West Bengal, India. <i>British Journal of Social Psychology</i>, 65, e70099. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70099</p><p>In page 1 under Author Names and in page 22 under ORCID section, the second author's first name ‘Subhashish’ was incorrect. This should have read ‘Subhasish’.</p><p>We apologize for this error.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjso.70108","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148279273","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":"‘Far right just means anyone who wants to support British values’: Mobilizing ‘British values’ talk in discussions of the August 2024 UK race riots","authors":"Rahul Sambaraju, Steve Kirkwood","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70093","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70093","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Social psychological research has shown how far-right leaders mobilize people by claiming that majority populations are threatened or silenced. This paper builds on this work to examine a related process in naturalistic interactions: how riotous actions are explained and justified through appeals to ‘British values’ in online forums. Using discursive psychology, we analyse talk surrounding the riots that followed the stabbing of three young girls in Southport, England—the UK race riots of August 2024. We show that invoking British or English values serves two key functions: it renders rioters' actions self-explanatory and offers a competing account of rioters as the more authentic representation of Britishness and the British people than the government. This reframing of ‘British values’ offers up a challenge to those attributing riots to ‘far right’ motivations and instead portrays the riots as effortful and even ideal expressions of British citizenship. Thus, British values operate not merely as symbols but as rhetorical tools that can sanitize the ‘far-right’ label linking the riots, immigration, state policy and national identity.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjso.70093","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148218960","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":"Managing acculturation threats with tailored self-affirmation interventions: A mixed-methods study with Syrian forced migrants","authors":"Yara Alnajjar, Constantina Badea, Michael Bender","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70103","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70103","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Self-affirmation interventions can protect individuals from perceived threats and enhance well-being. However, previous studies highlight the need to adapt these interventions to specific populations, particularly non-WEIRD ones, to achieve effective results. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use a mixed-methods participatory approach to develop self-affirmation techniques tailored to the threats Syrian forced migrants face during acculturation in European host societies. In the first qualitative study, 30 in-depth interviews explored threats encountered during acculturation, their negative effects and spontaneous self-affirmation mechanisms used to preserve well-being and self-image. A second experimental study assessed the effectiveness of tailored self-affirmation interventions. Three hundred and thirteen participants reported their acculturation orientations, read a threat-inducing text and were then assigned to one of three self-affirmation conditions (host-domain, heritage-domain or individual) or a control condition. We then measured hedonic well-being, self-esteem and a challenged sense of belonging. Contrast analysis showed that combined self-affirmation interventions enhanced hedonic well-being compared to control, particularly when aligned with individuals' acculturation orientations. Our studies contribute to the literature by developing culturally grounded interventions for a specific underrepresented population using mixed methods. Future research should test their effectiveness with similar forced migrant populations and continue adapting interventions to fit diverse cultural contexts and interindividual differences.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148165081","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":"Sharing for the common good: Children's levels of social inclusion within the group and their sharing decisions in a public goods game","authors":"Yael Malin, Hagit Sabato","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70105","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70105","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Across two studies, this research explored the relationship between levels of social inclusion within a group and cooperative sharing decisions among children, using the public goods game (PGG). In Study 1 (10–12 years old, <i>N</i> = 165), participants' social inclusion was experimentally manipulated using a modified version of the Cyberball paradigm that varied the number of ball tosses, after which they were asked about their willingness to contribute resources to the common pool in the PGG. In Study 2 (10–11 years old, <i>N</i> = 249), social inclusion was measured in a naturalistic context by assessing children's interactions with peers in their class and their actual contributions in the PGG at two time points, 1 week apart. In both studies, children who experienced higher levels of social inclusion within the group were more willing to contribute to the group, even at a personal cost, compared with children experiencing lower levels of social inclusion. Together, these findings deepen our understanding of how social inclusion within the group shapes prosocial behaviour during middle childhood—a pivotal period in social development.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjso.70105","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148165131","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":"Digitizing fear: Identity, threat and collective mobilization through social media posts during the 2021 election campaigns in West Bengal, India","authors":"Sramana Majumdar, Subhashish Ray, Priti Bhowmick, Aratrika Datta","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70099","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjso.70099","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Political campaigns widely use fear speech to appraise historically salient identity-based differences and mobilize voters. Despite ample literature to support fear speech's effectiveness in mobilizing collective violence, empirical evidence exploring its nuances and mechanisms in electoral contexts is limited. The current study examines online fear speech used by competing political candidates in the pre-electoral period during the 2021 State Assembly Elections in West Bengal, India. Using qualitative content analysis, we coded 391 publicly available Facebook posts on the group and personal accounts of the candidates, during the 3 weeks leading up to the elections. The analysis focused on the types and intensity of fear speech, its use across constituencies and party candidates, and how existing communal and partisan threats were appraised using fear speech. Findings highlight the strategic use of violent vs. non-violent fear speech representing the socio-political history of the context and the cultural values represented by each party, and the affordances of social media as a platform for political and electoral campaigning and collective mobilization.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"65 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148158599","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}