Intergroup emotions powerfully shape intergroup relations. Anger and fear fuel, while hope and sympathy reduce intergroup strife. This implies that emotion regulation may play an important role in ...improving intergroup relations. Broadening the scope of prior research, we herein investigate the potential benefits of integrative emotion regulation for improving intergroup relations. Integrative emotion regulation involves actively paying attention to emotions to determine which information they provide. Interindividual differences in the use of integrative emotion regulation correlate with sympathy and supportiveness towards outgroups, but why this is the case is unclear. We tested two possible explanations: a person effect (i.e., interindividual differences in integrative emotion regulation shape respondents' general outlook on outgroups) and a person-situation interaction effect (i.e., integrative emotion regulation reduces the impact of situational factors that would typically dampen sympathy, thereby shaping situation-specific responses to outgroups). In four experiments (total N = 984), we manipulated outgroup behaviour and measured interindividual differences in integrative emotion regulation. We found no interaction between integrative emotion regulation and outgroup behaviour in predicting outgroup-directed sympathy and supportiveness. Instead, integrative emotion regulation consistently correlated positively with supportiveness, mediated by sympathy. These findings suggest that those high in integrative emotion regulation have a more positive, general outlook on outgroups than those low in integrative emotion regulation, but being high in integrative emotion does not alter situational responses.
Successful leadership requires leaders to make their followers aware of expectations regarding the goals to achieve, norms to follow, and task responsibilities to take over. This awareness is often ...achieved through leader-follower communication. In times of economic globalization and digitalization, however, leader-follower communication has become both more digitalized (virtual, rather than face-to-face) and less frequent, making successful leader-follower-communication more challenging. The current research tested in four studies (three preregistered) whether digitalization and frequency of interaction predict task-related leadership success. In one cross-sectional (Study 1, N = 200), one longitudinal (Study 2, N = 305), and one quasi-experimental study (Study 3, N = 178), as predicted, a higher frequency (but not a lower level of digitalization) of leader-follower interactions predicted better task-related leadership outcomes (i.e., stronger goal clarity, norm clarity, and task responsibility among followers). Via mediation and a causal chain approach, Study 3 and Study 4 (N = 261) further targeted the mechanism; results showed that the relationship between (higher) interaction frequency and these outcomes is due to followers perceiving more opportunities to share work-related information with the leaders. These results improve our understanding of contextual factors contributing to leadership success in collaborations across hierarchies. They highlight that it is not the digitalization but rather the frequency of interacting with their leader that predicts whether followers gain clarity about the relevant goals and norms to follow and the task responsibilities to assume.
People believing in conspiracy theories question mainstream thoughts and behavior, but it is unknown whether it is also linked to lower adherence to the prosocial norms of the broader society. ...Furthermore, interventions targeting correlates of the belief in conspiracy theories so far are scarce. In four preregistered, mixed-design experiments (Ntotal = 1,659, Nobservations = 8,902), we tested whether believing in conspiracy theories is related to lower prosocial norm adherence and whether deliberation about the reason for the norms mitigates this relationship. Across four studies with the U.S. samples, we found that believing in conspiracy theories correlated negatively with prosocial norm adherence in the control condition, which was less pronounced after deliberation (effect size of interaction: d = 0.16). Whether the norm was related to the law or not did not moderate this effect. Results point toward possible ways of mitigating negative correlates and potentially also consequences of believing in conspiracy theories.
One consequence of the EU-referendum’s pro-Brexit outcome was a renewed call for Scottish independence. Supporting this call can be construed as a form of collective action Scots may engage in. ...However, Scots may also consider individual mobility strategies including - in extreme cases - emigration. The current research investigated how identity-dynamics relate to these identity management strategies in post-referendum Scotland. We found a positive association between perceiving the EU-referendum as having violated expectations and considering individual mobility responses, mediated by identity subversion (i.e., the perception that the referendum results fundamentally changed the UK’s identity). Furthermore, we found that perceiving the EU-referendum as having violated expectations was related to higher collective action intentions, mediated by disidentification from UK citizens. Taken together, these findings underscore the pervasive role social identity processes play in shaping political decisions and individual behaviour.
Background
In the referendum in June 2016, the citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) had the possibility to decide whether their country should remain in or leave the European Union (EU). Overall, 51.9% voted to leave the EU, but the referendum outcome differed markedly between the constituent countries within the UK. One consequence of the EU-referendum’s outcome was a renewed call for Scottish independence. A second consequence was a marked increase in the number of people who emigrated from the UK to, or were granted citizenship in, another country within the EU.
Why was this study done?
Supporting a second referendum for Scottish independence is an action that aims at changing the position of a group as a whole (i.e., reflects collective action). Emigrating from the UK, in turn, represents an individual response that only changes one’s own situation (i.e., reflects individual mobility). In the present study, we investigated psychological processes that could underly these reactions to the EU-referendum. Specifically, we focused on how Scots’ perceptions of the referendum process relate to (a) their perceptions of the UK as a whole and (b) how they feel about being UK-citizens. Moreover, we investigated how these aspects relate to considering emigration and supporting a new campaign for Scottish independence.
What did the researchers do and find?
We conducted a survey with 202 respondents living in Scotland. We assessed how respondents perceived the EU-referendum process, whether they had the impression that the UK had fundamentally changed due to the referendum outcome, how they felt about being a citizen of the UK, and to what extent they considered emigration and supporting a new independence campaign. Our results show that the more Scots perceived the referendum process as having violated their expectations of political processes in the UK, the more likely they were to consider emigration and the more they intended to support a campaign in favour of Scottish independence. Furthermore, our results suggest that the impression that the UK as a whole has changed underlies the relation between perceptions of the referendum process as having violated expectations and emigration considerations, whereas feeling negatively about being a UK-citizen underlies the relation between perceptions of the referendum process as having violated expectations and support for Scottish independence.
What do these findings mean?
The present study suggests that three factors need to be considered when trying to understand how people react to geo-political events. The first is how they perceive the processes related to this event. If these processes are perceived as violating expectations, intentions to leave the country or to support separatist movements may be more pronounced. For policy makers seeking to avoid these reactions, this means that they should prevent their behaviours from being perceived as violating expectations. The second and third factor that need to be considered are an individual’s perception of the group they live in and their personal relation to this group. This suggests that identity-related dynamics may not only shape voting behaviour, but political processes more broadly.
The debate about false positives in psychological research has led to a demand for higher statistical power. To meet this demand, researchers need to collect data from larger samples—which is ...important to increase replicability, but can be costly in both time and money (i.e., remuneration of participants). Given that researchers might need to compensate for these higher costs, we hypothesized that larger sample sizes might have been accompanied by more frequent use of less costly research methods (i.e., online data collection and self-report measures). To test this idea, we analyzed social psychology studies published in 2009, 2011, 2016, and 2018. Indeed, research reported in 2016 and 2018 (vs. 2009 and 2011) had larger sample sizes and relied more on online data collection and self-report measures. Thus, over these years, research improved in its statistical power, but also changed with regard to the methods applied. Implications for social psychology as a discipline are discussed.
When contributing to groups on social networking sites (SNS), not all group members necessarily adhere to the group's norms (i.e., its explicit or implicit rules); in other words, they show ...norm-deviant behavior. Despite the popularity of groups on SNS and the frequency of norm-deviant behavior within them, research has to date rarely investigated how members of online groups react to those behaviors. This article introduces a model based on the social identity approach regarding the responses to norm-deviations in Facebook groups and reports an experiment testing this model. In this experiment, deviant members were perceived as questioning what the group stands for (i.e., as subverting the group's identity). Perceptions of identity subversion, in turn, motivated group members to derogate and exclude the deviate. Furthermore, participants were found to ignore the deviate's contributions (i.e., not to recall them after reading the group's timeline). Taken together, the results suggest that group members perceive a deviate's behavior as questioning their group's image. This, however, does not seem to lead to a group's decay, but rather promotes a “natural purification” within the group through elimination of negative influences.
•We analyze effects of norm-deviations in SNS based on the social identity approach.•A study tests how members of Facebook groups react to others' norm-deviations.•Norm-deviations questioned group identity and motivated the deviate's exclusion.•Furthermore, group members ignored a deviant member's contributions.
Group members frequently face violations of group-based expectations by in- and outgroup members' behaviour. Responses to such violations include confronting the violators and escaping from the ...group. The current article presents a novel, integrative model explaining how and why violations of group-based expectations elicit these reactions. We argue that group members experience violations of expectations as threats to their social selves, which motivates them to react at all. Crucially adding to extant theorising, we argue that how group members react depends on their perceived control, a largely overlooked factor thus far. Herein, we synthesise our model's empirical basis, which spans studies on different violations (violations of ingroup norms, norms for cooperation, and expectations based on political ideology) and different group contexts (e.g., attitude-based lab groups, learning groups, Facebook groups). Moreover, we discuss boundary conditions for the model's applicability and its potential for integration with classic research on social identity management.
When detecting deviations from group norms, observers often respond by attempting to exclude the deviates or by leaving the group. Despite the commonalities between these two impactful responses, ...they have rarely been addressed simultaneously. Therefore, three experiments investigated how deviant behavior in small groups relates to observers’ intentions to exclude the deviate from the in-group and to leave that group themselves. Exclusion intentions are evoked by severe deviations from core elements of the group norm, mediated by heightened identity subversion (Studies 1–3). Study 3 demonstrated that leaving becomes more likely when perceived situational control is low—here evoked by acceptance of the deviant behavior by other in-group members, suggesting that aggravating conditions must be present for this response. Observing deviations seems to trigger leaving and exclusion intentions, yet they result from two distinct processes. We discuss our results in relation to work on group schism and literature on social exclusion.
Successful leadership requires leaders to make their followers aware of expectations regarding the goals to achieve, norms to follow, and task responsibilities to take over. This awareness is often ...achieved through leader-follower communication. In times of economic globalization and digitalization, however, leader-follower communication has become both more digitalized (virtual, rather than face-to-face) and less frequent, making successful leader-follower-communication more challenging. The current research tested in four studies (three preregistered) whether digitalization and frequency of interaction predict task-related leadership success. In one cross-sectional (Study 1, N = 200), one longitudinal (Study 2, N = 305), and one quasi-experimental study (Study 3, N = 178), as predicted, a higher frequency (but not a lower level of digitalization) of leader-follower interactions predicted better task-related leadership outcomes (i.e., stronger goal clarity, norm clarity, and task responsibility among followers). Via mediation and a causal chain approach, Study 3 and Study 4 (N = 261) further targeted the mechanism; results showed that the relationship between (higher) interaction frequency and these outcomes is due to followers perceiving more opportunities to share work-related information with the leaders. These results improve our understanding of contextual factors contributing to leadership success in collaborations across hierarchies. They highlight that it is not the digitalization but rather the frequency of interacting with their leader that predicts whether followers gain clarity about the relevant goals and norms to follow and the task responsibilities to assume.
Group norms determine which behavior members expect from each other. When members deviate from group norms, other members often (a) respond with confrontation (e.g., deviate-directed communication or ...exclusion of the deviate from the group), or (b) with escape, that is, with leaving the group themselves. However, to date, it is unclear under which specific circumstances these reactions occur. Two experiments were conducted to address this question. In both studies, participants perceived norm-deviant behavior of a group member to subvert the group's identity, which in turn predicted exclusion of the deviate and leaving the group. Group leaving, however, was especially likely when the norm-deviation was perceived to change the group's norm, either due to being accepted (vs. not accepted) by others (Study 1) or due to being shown by a group leader (Study 2). Furthermore, norm-deviations by a leader resulted in a lower social identification with the group, which in turn predicted leaving. These findings suggest that group members leave their group in response to others' norm-deviations only if these deviations induce changes in the group norm and, thereby, reduce the fit between members' self-concepts and the group.
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