Citizens can be active in their community through a diverse set of actions in real life or on online platforms. Since the emergence of the Internet, there has been continual debate about the impact ...of online activism on real-life activism: whilst some claim that “clictivism” creates the false sense of making a difference, and undermines real life activities, others say it actually fosters it. We therefore explored the relationship between online and offline activism, covering a range of engagement levels in eight different domains. Every offline activity had its online counterpart. The results draw from a probability sample of 1023 participants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo aged between 13 and 18 years. A unidimensional model fit the data better than a two dimensional model, suggesting that one factor underlies both online and offline forms of civic action. Our data demonstrate that online and offline activisms are not independent constructs, and that offline activism does not constrain online activism and vice versa. The two combine in a new, so called “hybrid activism”, comprised of very different forms of offline and online actions.
•Relationship between online and offline civic activism.•Probability sample of 1023 adolescents from five Balkan countries.•Activism measure combined eight different domains and six different forms of action, both online and offline.•Online and offline activism were positively correlated.•One factor model fitted data better than a two factor model, suggesting a new form of “hybrid activism”.
•Media use, psychological and socio-demographic predictors of addictive SNS use.•Representative sample, 2014 respondents, 861 SNS users, Serbia.•Very few (3%) SNS users reported addictive ...tendencies.•Path analysis identified relevance of three groups of predictors.•Addictive tendencies correlate with lower self-esteem and self-efficacy, higher introversion.
The popularity of social networking sites (SNS) changed to a great extent not only media environment, but also everyday life activities of modern humans. Despite their obvious benefits in terms of communication, there is evidence of addictive tendencies in SNS use. The study examined psychological and socio-demographic predictors of these addictive tendencies in Serbian SNS users drawn from a representative sample (N=2014), having in mind that Serbia has Facebook penetration rate over European average. Results indicate a low incidence of self-reported addictive tendencies, with some individual differences worth addressing. We developed and tested exhaustive model that included three sets of predictors (socio-demographic, psychological and exposure to traditional media), as well as restrictive models that systematically excluded group by group. Path analysis revealed that psychological traits were stronger predictors than socio-demographic ones: people with lower self-esteem, lower general self-efficacy and higher introversion were more likely to report addictive SNS use. Although our results in general support the so called “social compensation hypothesis”, it can be due to the focus on addictive tendencies instead of other indicators of SNS use.
Although the development of vaccines against COVID-19 may mark the rounding of the corner in the pandemic, several issues are delaying our exit out of it. The majority of people seem to be concerned ...about the vaccines and unwilling to take them, while also not being responsible enough when it comes to the rest of the guidelines. In this paper, we wanted to examine the levels of support for different official guidelines, as well as the reasons behind their rejection. In the representative study (N=1198) of Serbian adults (aged 18+) conducted in September 2020 we found that most people do comply with guidelines such as hand washing and mask-wearing, but do not want to be vaccinated. We also found that conspiracy beliefs, trust in science and institutions, and health risk perception all play an important role in predicting guidelines compliance along with vaccination intentions. Path analysis confirmed that conspiracy belief indirectly predicts health guidance compliance, lowering health risk perception and trust in science and institutions.
The study’s aims are to analyze the endorsement of the ethos of conflict (EoC) narrative in the Serbian-Albanian conflict among the adults in Serbia, its relation to political conservatism, and its ...role in pushing conservative political action. A total of N = 1613 adults (aged 18+) were recruited for face-to-face interviewing, in a representative sampling procedure, in December 2019 in Serbia. The results show high endorsement of EoC in the Serbian-Albanian fray; the mediation effect of EoC (having both high EoC and high conservatism is associated with greater political activism); the relation between EoC and political activism is moderated by age (the older population endorsing higher EoC was more politically active). In the future, we should address more actively the mobilizers of reactionary political actions in public and individual spheres, to better understand the mechanisms for achieving long-term peace.
Иако развој вакцина против коронавируса може значити скори заврше- так пандемије, неколико проблема одлаже наш излазак из здравствене кризе. Већина људи је, чини се, забринута када је реч о вакцинама ...и не жели да их прими, док исто- времено не поштује доследно све званичне здравствене препоруке. У овом раду смо желели да испитамо нивое подршке различитим здравственим препорукама, као и разлоге који стоје иза њиховог одбацивања. У студији на репрезентативном узорку (N = 1.198) одраслог становништва Србије (старијих од 18 година) спроведеној у септем- бру 2020. године пронашли смо да већина људи поштује препоруке као што су прање руку и ношење маски, али да не желе да буду вакцинисани. Такође смо пронашли да прихватање теорија завере, поверење у науку и институције и перцепција здравстве- ног ризика играју важну улогу у предвиђању поштовања здравствених мера, као и вак- циналних намера. Медијациона анализа је потврдила да веровање у теорије завере индиректно предвиђа поштовање мера, јер веровање у те теорије доводи до ниже пер- цепције здравственог ризика и нижег поверења у науку и институције.
It is compulsory that complex social concepts should be defined in different ways and approached from the perspective of different science disciplines. Therefore, it is difficult to precisely define ...them without overlapping of meaning with other similar concepts. This paper has made an attempt towards theoretical classification of the national identity and differentiate that concept in comparison to the other related concepts (race, ethnic group, nation, national background, authoritativeness, patriarchy). Theoretical assessments are classified into two groups: ones that are dealing with nature of national identity and others that are stating one or more dimensions of national identity, crucial for its determination. On the contrary to the primordialistic concept of national identity, describing it as a fundamental, deeply rooted human feature, there are many numerous contemporary theoretical approaches (instrumentalist, constructivist, functionalistic), emphasizing changeable, fluid, instrumentalist function of the national identity. Fundamental determinants of national identity are: language, culture (music, traditional myths), state symbols (territory, citizenship), self-categorization, religion, set of personal characteristics and values.
Nuzno je da slozeni drustveni pojmovi budu razlicito definisani i da se njihovom proucavanju pristupa sa stanovista razlicitih naucnih disciplina. Zato ih je tesko jasno definisati bez viska znacenja i preklapanja sa drugim slicnim pojmovima. U ovom radu pokusali smo da klasifikujemo teorijske prikaze nacionalnog identiteta, i da razgranicimo taj pojam u odnosu na druge srodne pojmove (rasa, etnicka grupa, nacija, nacionalna pripadnost, autoritarnost, patrijarhalnost). Teorijski prikazi su klasifikovani na one koji se bave prirodom nacionalnog identiteta, i one koji navode jednu ili vise dimenzija nacionalnog identiteta kljucnih za njegovo odredjenje. Nasuprot primordijalistickom shvatanju nacionalnog identiteta koje ga opisuje kao sustinsko, duboko ukorenjeno covekovo obelezje, stoje brojni drugi savremeni teorijski pristupi (instrumentalisticki, konstruktivisticki, funkcionalni) koji naglasavaju promenljivu, fluidnu, instrumentalnu funkciju nacionalnog identiteta. Kljucne odrednice nacionalnog identiteta su: jezik, kultura (muzika, narodna predanja), drzavna obelezja (teritorija, drzavljanstvo), samokategorizacija, religija, skup zajednickih osobina i vrednosti.
Vaccination hesitation and rejection is one of the major health risks in the epidemics of any infectious diseases with profound implications for public health in general. In order to provide a deeper ...insight into vaccine hesitation and rejection, we collected the data from individuals who did not take the COVID-19 vaccine in Serbia (N = 534), since the recently ended pandemic also confirmed the importance of these issues. We analyzed the associations between future vaccination intention and several psychological constructs including conspiracy ideation, concerns about contracting a disease and having major health problems, conservatism, pro-vaccination immediate social surroundings and empathy. An increased possibility for future vaccination was negatively related to conspiracy ideation and conservatism measures but positively associated with vaccination support from important others and threat perception of infectious disease and health concerns. Conspiracy beliefs mediated the links from both conservatism and vaccination support from important others toward future vaccinations intention, while threat perception of infection mediated the link between vaccination support and the criterion measure. Present findings enable a deeper understanding of vaccine hesitation and rejection and provide guidelines for psychologists and public health workers for facilitating vaccination against infectious disease.
Oklijevanje u cijepljenju i odbijanje cijepljenja glavni su zdravstveni rizici u epidemijama bilo koje zarazne bolesti, a koji imaju ozbiljne posljedice za opće javno zdravlje. Da bismo pružili dublji uvid u oklijevanje u cijepljenju i odbijanje cijepljenja, prikupili smo podatke od pojedinaca koji se nisu cijepili protiv bolesti COVID-19 u Srbiji (N = 534) jer je i nedavno završena pandemija potvrdila važnost tih pitanja. Analizirali smo povezanost između budućih namjera cijepljenja i nekoliko psiholoških konstrukata, uključujući vjerovanje u teorije zavjera, zabrinutost zbog potencijalne zaraze bolešću i ozbiljnih zdravstvenih problema, konzervativizam, neposredno društveno okružje koje podržava cijepljenje te suosjećanje. Povećana mogućnost budućega cijepljenja bila je negativno povezana s vjerovanjem u teorije zavjera i mjerama konzervativizma, ali pozitivno povezana s potporom cijepljenju važnih drugih osoba i percepcijom veće prijetnje od zaraznih bolesti i zdravstvenih problema. Vjerovanja u različite teorije zavjera posredovala su u vezama između konzervativizma i potpore cijepljenju važnih drugih osoba prema budućim namjerama cijepljenja, dok je percepcija prijetnje od zaraze posredovala u vezi između potpore cijepljenju i kriterijske mjere. Te spoznaje omogućuju dublje razumijevanje oklijevanja u cijepljenju i odbijanja cijepljenja te psiholozima i javnozdravstvenim djelatnicima daju smjernice za poboljšavanje obuhvata cijepljenja protiv zaraznih bolesti.
Conspiracy mentality is a general tendency to attribute significant events to the actions of malevolent actors, without referencing to a specific event. In two independent representative surveys of ...adult Serbian citizens (N1 = 1194; N2 = 1258) we validated Serbian version of the conspiracy mentality questionnaire (CMQ), a reasonably content-free tool designed to capture global conspiratorial beliefs. We successfully validated the adapted CMQ and replicated findings on two national representative samples. In both studies the results demonstrated: good psychometric properties of the CMQ and its predictive capacity for endorsing the international Conspiracy Theories (CTs) (Study 1) and the locally specific CTs (Study 2) over and above the measures of perceptions of political climate (trust in institutions, corruption perception, feeling of insecurity – Study 1), and generalized political attitudes (right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, political cynicism – Study 2). The study presents a unique adaptation and implementation of the CMQ in the non-English speaking country with very active and widespread conspiracy beliefs and a long history of conflicts.
The study’s aims are to analyze the endorsement of the ethos of conflict (EoC )narrative in the Serbian-Albanian conflict among the adults in Serbia, its relation to political conservatism, and its ...role in pushing conservative political action. A total of N = 1613 adults (aged 18+) were recruited for face-to-face interviewing, in a representative sampling procedure, in December 2019 in Serbia. The results show high endorsement of EoC in the Serbian-Albanian fray; the mediation effect of EoC (having both high EoC and high conservatism is associated with greater political activism); the relation between EoC and political activism is moderated by age (the older population endorsing higher EoC was more politically active). In the future, we should address more actively the mobilizers of reactionary political actions in public and individual spheres, to better understand the mechanisms for achieving long-term peace.
Immigrants are a popular target of conspiracy theories. Despite the urgent relevance of the topic all around the world today, the number of studies on conspiracy theories about migrants and ...immigration is limited. Helping to fill this important gap in the academic literature, the research analyses conspiracy theory beliefs about migrants and immigration in contemporary Serbia through survey data from a nationally representative sample (N = 1199). Expanding on the Weberian theory of rationality, the study proposes that people’s values about national sovereignty, social conservatism, and religiosity influence their predispositions to believe in conspiracy theories about migrants and immigration. The findings corroborate the argument by showing a statistically significant link between people’s political, social, and religious values and responses to conspiracy theories. The article concludes that values could play a significant role in people’s adoption of conspiracy theories.
PDF
