The cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese international students: an empirical study on sequential-mediated effects.

Using convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods, data from 432 Chinese international students in 10 countries, including the United Kingdom, South Korea, and the United States, were collected to construct a multivariate sequential-mediated mixed model for cross-cultural adaptation. SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 were employed for aggregated validity, discriminant validity, and sequential-mediated effects analysis. The study found that: Cultural adaptation stress is negatively correlated with positive coping and positively correlated with negative coping, with negative coping having a significant negative impact during the cross-cultural adaptation process. Positive coping is positively correlated with sports participation, while negative coping is negatively correlated with sports participation. Sports participation is positively associated with in-group identification and negatively associated with out-group bias. In-group identification has a positive impact on cross-cultural adaptation, whereas out-group bias cannot effectively predict cross-cultural adaptation.

The influence of social identity on attitudes toward wildlife.

Wildlife conservation depends on supportive social as well as biophysical conditions. Social identities such as hunter and nonhunter are often associated with different attitudes toward wildlife. However, it is unknown whether dynamics within and among these identity groups explain how attitudes form and why they differ. To investigate how social identities help shape wildlife-related attitudes and the implications for wildlife policy and conservation, we built a structural equation model with survey data from Montana (USA) residents (n = 1758) that tested how social identities affect the relationship between experiences with grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) and attitudes toward the species. Model results (r2 = 0.51) demonstrated that the hunter identity magnified the negative effect of vicarious property damage on attitudes toward grizzly bears (ß = -0.381, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.584 to -0.178, p < 0.001), which in turn strongly influenced acceptance (ß = -0.571, 95% CI: -0.611 to -0.531, p < 0.001). Our findings suggested that hunters' attitudes toward grizzly bears likely become more negative primarily because of in-group social interactions about negative experiences, and similar group dynamics may lead nonhunters to disregard the negative experiences that out-group members have with grizzly bears. Given the profound influence of social identity on human cognitions and behaviors in myriad contexts, the patterns we observed are likely important in a variety of wildlife conservation situations. To foster positive conservation outcomes and minimize polarization, management strategies should account for these identity-driven perceptions while prioritizing conflict prevention and promoting positive wildlife narratives within and among identity groups. This study illustrates the utility of social identity theory for explaining and influencing human-wildlife interactions.

La influencia de la identidad social sobre la actitud hacia la fauna Resumen La conservación de la fauna depende de condiciones de apoyo tanto sociales como biofísicas. La identidad social, como ser cazador o no, con frecuencia está asociada a las diferentes actitudes hacia la fauna. Sin embargo, no sabemos si las dinámicas dentro y entre estos grupos de identidad explican cómo las actitudes se forman y porqué son diferentes. Construimos un modelo de ecuación estructural con información de encuestas realizadas a 1,758 residentes de Montana (Estados Unidos) para conocer cómo la identidad social ayuda a formar la actitud relacionada con la fauna y las implicaciones que tiene para la conservación y políticas de fauna. El modelo analizó cómo la identidad social afecta la relación entre las experiencias con osos pardos (Ursus arctos horribilis) y la actitud hacia la especie. Los resultados del modelo (r2 = 0.51) demostraron que la identidad de cazador aumentaba el efecto negativo del daño indirecto a la propiedad sobre la actitud hacia los osos (ß=­0.381, 95% CI ­0.584 a ­0.178, p<0.001), lo cual en cambio tenía una gran influencia sobre la aceptación (ß=­0.571, 95% CI ­0.611 a ­0.531, p<0.001). Nuestros descubrimientos sugieren que la actitud de los cazadores hacia los osos probablemente se vuelve más negativa principalmente debido a las interacciones sociales del endogrupo en torno a las experiencias negativas; las dinámicas similares pueden llevar a los no cazadores a menospreciar las experiencias negativas que los miembros del exogrupo han tenido con los osos. Dada la influencia profunda que tiene la identidad social sobre la cognición humana y el comportamiento en una miríada de contextos, los patrones que observamos probablemente sean importantes en una variedad de situaciones de conservación de fauna. Para promover los resultados positivos de conservación y minimizar la polarización, las estrategias de manejo deberían considerar estas percepciones influenciadas por la identidad mientras se prioriza la prevención de conflictos y se promueven narrativas positivas de fauna dentro y entre los grupos de identidad. Este estudio demuestra la utilidad que tiene la teoría de identidad social para explicar e influenciar las interacciones humano­fauna.

Does Foreign-Accented Speech Affect Credibility? Evidence from the Illusory-Truth Paradigm.

In a pioneering study, Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010) observed that unknown statements are judged less credible when uttered with foreign accent compared to native accent. This finding was interpreted in terms of processing fluency; when intelligibility is reduced, the credibility of the message decreases. Here, we use the illusory truth paradigm to explore how accent affects credibility. In a between-participant design, participants were exposed to unknown statements uttered by native-accented or foreign-accented speakers. After a distractor task, the same statements were presented with new statements, and participants assessed their truthfulness. Truthfulness ratings were higher for repeated statements than for new statements, replicating the illusory truth effect. Contrary to the processing fluency hypothesis, the effect was similar in both the foreign-accented and native-accented speech groups. A new group of participants rated the speakers' voices on various social traits. A negative bias against foreign speakers was observed. However, this negative-bias did not affect truth ratings.The impact of foreign-accented speech on message credibility is discussed in the context of two factors, processing fluency and out-group stereotype activation.

Small Sample Size and Group Homogeneity: A Crucial Ingredient to Inter-Group Bias.

Applying a recently developed framework for the study of sample-based person impressions to the level of group impressions resulted in convergent evidence for a highly robust judgment process. How stimulus traits mapped on the resulting group impressions was subject to two distinct moderators, diagnosticity of traits, and the amplifying impact of early sample truncation. Three indices of diagnosticity-negative valence, extremity, and distance to other traits in a density framework-determined participants' decision to truncate trait sampling early and hence the final group judgments. When trait samples were negative and extreme and when the distance between high-density traits was small, early truncation of the trait samples fostered high group homogeneity and polarized impressions. Granting that mental representations of in-groups and out-groups rely on systematically different samples, our sampling approach can account for various inter-group biases: out-group homogeneity, out-group polarization and (because negative traits are more diagnostic) out-group derogation.

The Influence of Group Favoritism on Moral Judgment -- Evidence From Event-Related Potential.

When judging the morality of an action, individuals may exhibit a bias stemming from group favoritism. It leads to the expression of different moral evaluations of the same behaviors performed by different social groups. The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the influence of in-group favoritism (in-group vs. homogeneous out-group) and out-group favoritism (in-group vs. high-quality out-group) on moral judgments. Two experiments were conducted, showing a higher moral score of the in-group compared to the homogeneous out-group by participants. ERP data indicated that in-group stimulation triggered larger P2 amplitudes than homogeneous out-group. Additionally, a larger N400-like amplitude, localized to the right hemisphere, was observed during the evaluation of the homogeneous out-group. Significantly, when comparing the in-group to the high-quality out-group, there was no discernible difference in moral scores or ERP amplitudes. Overall, the results indicate that in-group favoritism can affect moral judgments, especially when assessing homogeneous out-groups, but it can be reduced by the characteristics of groups.

Understanding Links between Pandemic-Related Racial Attitudes and Out-Group Prosocial Behaviors.

The current study examined COVID-19 pandemic racial attitudes in out-group empathy and out-group prosocial behaviors. Participants included 467 young adults who completed measures of their racial attitudes during the pandemic, out-group perspective taking and empathic concern, and out-group prosocial behaviors. Results demonstrated that pandemic-related racial attitudes were significantly, positively associated with out-group perspective taking and out-group empathic concern, which both positively predicted multiple forms of out-group prosocial behaviors, including emotional, dire, compliant, and anonymous prosocial behaviors. These findings highlight the important role of perspective taking and empathic concern toward individuals outside one's own ethnic group in explaining how racial attitudes during the pandemic were associated with helping behaviors. Discussion focuses on how color-conscious attitudes during an unprecedented U.S. pandemic crisis might be one avenue for promoting prosociality and harmony.

The Role of In-Group and Out-Group Facial Feedback in Implicit Rule Learning.

Implicit learning refers to the fact that people acquire new knowledge (structures or rules) without conscious awareness. Previous studies have shown that implicit learning is affected by feedback. However, few studies have investigated the role of social feedback in implicit learning concretely. Here, we conducted two experiments to explore how in-group and out-group facial feedback impact different difficulty levels of implicit rule learning. In Experiment 1, the Chinese participants in each group could only see one type of facial feedback, i.e., either in-group (East Asian) or out-group (Western) faces, and learned the implicit rule through happy and sad facial expressions. The only difference between Experiment 2 and Experiment 1 was that the participants saw both the in-group and out-group faces before group assignment to strengthen the contrast between the two group identities. The results showed that only in Experiment 2 but not Experiment 1 was there a significant interaction effect in the accuracy of tasks between the difficulty levels and groups. For the lowest difficulty level, the learning accuracy of the in-group facial feedback group was significantly higher than that of the out-group facial feedback group, whereas this did not happen at the two highest levels of difficulty. In conclusion, when the contrast of group identities was highlighted, out-group feedback reduced the accuracy of the least difficult task; on the contrary, there was no accuracy difference between out-group and in-group feedback conditions. These findings have extensively important implications for our understanding of implicit learning and improving teaching achievement in the context of educational internationalization.

Which is More Important, Proposer Identity or Allocation Motive? Event-Related Potential in Economic Decision-Making.

Purpose: Most studies have supported the view that individuals prefer to reward the in-group and discriminate against the out-group in response to unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game. However, the current study advanced a different view, that is, the "black sheep effect", in which in-group members were punished more severely compared with out-group members. This study aimed to incorporate proposer identity and allocation motive as possible explanations for offer rejection. Methods: In the current study, the in-group and out-group identities were distinguished by their health condition, and the allocation motive was defined according to its benefit maximization. With a total of 89 healthy college student participants, a mixed design of 2 (proposer identity: out-group vs in-group) × 2 (allocation motive: selfish vs random) × 2 (offer type: unfair vs fair) was used in the Ultimatum Game. Event-related potential (ERP) technology was used, and ERPs were recorded while participants processed the task. Results: The behavioral result showed that the "black sheep effect" was found on the fair offer when a random allocation motive was used. Our ERP result suggested that feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 were modulated by proposer identity but not by allocation motive. However, the allocation motive interacted with proposer identity affecting FRN and P300 when the fair offer was proposed. Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that the "black sheep effect" was related to the experience of the out-group member, such as disadvantage or distress, but it was also modulated by allocation motive. Meanwhile, the out-group (depressed college students) captured more attention because they violated individual expectations, according to the P300. This finding plays an integral role in understanding the mechanism of response to the "black sheep effect".

Learning from in-group and out-group models induces separative effects on human mate copying.

Mate copying is a social learning process in which individuals gather public information about potential mates by observing models' choices. Previous studies have reported that individual attributes of female models affect mate copying, yet little is known about whether and how the group attributes of models influence mate copying. In the current behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, female participants were asked to rate their willingness to choose the depicted males as potential romantic partners before and after observing in-group or out-group female models accepting, rejecting or being undecided (baseline) about the males. Results showed that participants changed their ratings to align with the models' acceptance or rejection choices. Compared to rejection copying, the effect of acceptance copying was stronger and regulated by in- and out-group models, manifesting a discounting copying effect when learning from out-group models. At the neural level, for acceptance copying, stronger temporoparietal junction (TPJ) activity and connectivity between TPJ and anterior medial prefrontal cortex (amPFC) were observed when female models belonged to out-group members; meanwhile, the functional connection of TPJ and amPFC positively predicted the rating changes when learning from out-group models. The results indicated that participants might need more resources to infer out-group members' intentions to overcome the in-group bias during acceptance copying.

Trust game, survey trust, are they correlated? Evidence from China.

Trust Game and survey trust are the two most popular measurements in the field of trust research, but most studies conducted in developing countries have found low or even insignificant correlations between them, we therefore validated this phenomenon in the cultural context of the largest developing country, China. Within-country differences can be of the same magnitude as the between country differences, especially in a culturally diverse China. Thus, we focus on comparing the characteristics of trust in the South and North regions of China. Through zero-order correlation and hierarchical regression analysis, our findings are consistent with those of numerous developing countries: Trust Game is lowly correlated with in-group trust survey and not with out-group trust survey. On the other hand, we found that Chinese individuals exhibit a distinct pattern of in-group trust, and there is no fundamental difference in the characteristics of trust between the South and the North.

The influence of in-groups and out-groups on the theory-of-mind processing: evidence from different ethnic college students.

According to previous studies of theory of mind (ToM), social environment and cultural background affect individuals' cognitive ability to understand other people's minds. There are cross-group differences in ToM. The present study aimed to examine whether social environment and culture affect the ToM in Uygur and Han groups and whether the individual's cognitive ToM and affective ToM show in-group advantages. Han and Uygur college students were recruited as participants. The "self/other differentiation task" was used to measure cognitive ToM (Study 1), and the "Yoni task" was used to measure both cognitive and affective ToM (Study 2). We found that Han participants processed the cognitive and affective states of others faster and more accurately than Uygur ones. Uygur and Han participants processed in-group members' cognitive and affective states faster and more accurately. Furthermore, Uygur participants were more accurate in the cognitive ToM processing of in-group members, while Han participants were faster in the affective ToM processing of in-group members. The findings indicated that ethnic culture and group identify might influence ToM processing. Strengthening exchanges between ethnic groups may enable individuals to better process out-group members' psychological states.

Dust in the Wind: Ageism as Portrayed in Attitudes Toward Songs in Adulthood and Old Age.

Ageism was found to be prevalent across various life domains, but not in the music domain. This study aimed to examine whether negative ageist attitudes toward older adults are associated with music preferences across life. Subjects (n = 214, age range 30-92, M = 56.14, SD = 16.39) were exposed to old (1910-1946), intermediate (1979-1987), and new (2014-2018) songs, chosen by a focus group, rated each song, and completed scales assessing ageism and socio-demographics. Ageist attitudes were negatively associated with liking for old songs among young and middle-aged participants. Young participants demonstrated a negative link between ageist attitudes and liking for intermediate songs. No significant results were reported regarding new songs. This provides an initial indication that ageism may be connected to attitudes toward music. Future studies can examine effects of perceived "oldness" in music on participants' ageist attitudes, and negative attitudes toward new and intermediate songs alongside with examining negative attitudes toward younger adults.

Space-valence mapping of social concepts: Do we arrange negative and positive ethnic stereotypes from left to right?

Introduction: The body-specificity hypothesis states that in right-handers, positive concepts should be associated with the right side and negative concepts with the left side of the body. Following this hypothesis, our study postulated that negative out-group ethnic stereotypes would be associated with the left side, and positive in-group stereotypes would be associated with the right side. Methods: The experiment consisted of two parts. First, we measured the spatial mapping of ethnic stereotypes by using a sensibility judgment task, in which participants had to decide whether a sentence was sensible or not by pressing either a left or a right key. The sentences included German vs. Arabic proper names. Second, we measured implicit ethnic stereotypes in the same participants using the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT), in which Arabic vs. German proper names were presented in combination with positive vs. negative adjectives. Right-handed German native speakers (N = 92) participated in an online study. Results: As predicted, in the GNAT, participants reacted faster to German names combined with positive adjectives and to Arabic names combined with negative adjectives, which is diagnostic of existing valenced in-and outgroup ethnic stereotypes. However, we failed to find any reliable effects in the sensibility judgment task, i.e., there was no evidence of spatial mapping of positive and negative ethnic stereotypes. There was no correlation between the results of the two tasks at the individual level. Further Bayesian analysis and exploratory analysis in the left-handed subsample (N = 9) corroborated the evidence in favor of null results. Discussion: Our study suggests that ethnic stereotypes are not automatically mapped in a body-specific manner.

Trust, Forgiveness, and Peace: The Influence of Adolescent Social Identity in a Setting of Intergroup Conflict.

Following the signing of peace agreements, post-accord societies often remain deeply divided across group lines. There is a need to identify antecedents of youth's support for peace and establish more constructive intergroup relations. This article explored the effect of out-group trust, intergroup forgiveness and social identity on support for the peace process among youth from the historic majority and minorities communities in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The sample comprised of 667 adolescents (49% male; M=15.74, SD=1.99 years old) across two time points. Results from the structural equation model suggested that out-group trust was related to intergroup forgiveness over time, while forgiveness related to later support for the peace process. Strength of in-group social identity differentially moderated how out-group trust and intergroup forgiveness relate to later support for peace among youth from the conflict-related groups (i.e., Protestants and Catholics). Implications for consolidating peace in Northern Ireland are discussed, which may be relevant to other settings affected by intergroup conflict.

Inter-Group Face Recognition Bias Was Modulated by the Group Status.

Previous studies have shown that social categorization can induce an own-group face recognition bias. However, similar and better other-group face recognition emerged recently. In this research, we aimed to examine whether competitive cues and group status accompanied by social categorization can modulate the inter-group face recognition bias. Moreover, we investigated how the group identification of individuals with different statuses affected the inter-group face recognition bias. The results indicated that an own-group face recognition bias emerged for targets with in-group labels compared to out-group labels. Moreover, when the group labels signaled competitive cues, the own-group face recognition bias was reversed. Furthermore, low-status and similar-status individuals exhibited out-group face recognition bias, but high-status individuals did not. In addition, the higher the in-group identification scores of participants from the low-status group, the stronger the out-group face recognition bias. These results suggested that competitive cues would reverse the own-group face recognition bias and the group status would play a modulating role in face recognition bias.

Variation between species, populations, groups and individuals in the fitness consequences of out-group conflict.

Out-group conflict is rife in the natural world, occurring from primates to ants. Traditionally, research on this aspect of sociality has focused on the interactions between groups and their conspecific rivals, investigating contest function and characteristics, which group members participate and what determines who wins. In recent years, however, there has been increasing interest in the consequences of out-group conflict. In this review, we first set the scene by outlining the fitness consequences that can arise immediately to contest participants, as well as a broader range of delayed, cumulative and third-party effects of out-group conflict on survival and reproductive success. For the majority of the review, we then focus on variation in these fitness consequences of out-group conflict, describing known examples both between species and between populations, groups and individuals of the same species. Throughout, we suggest possible reasons for the variation, provide examples from a diverse array of taxa, and suggest what is needed to advance this burgeoning area of social evolution. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.

Oxytocin has 'tend-and-defend' functionality in group conflict across social vertebrates.

Across vertebrate species, intergroup conflict confronts individuals with a tension between group interests best served by participation in conflict and personal interest best served by not participating. Here, we identify the neurohormone oxytocin as pivotal to the neurobiological regulation of this tension in distinctly different group-living vertebrates, including fishes, birds, rodents, non-human primates and humans. In the context of intergroup conflict, a review of emerging work on pro-sociality suggests that oxytocin and its fish and birds homologues, isotocin and mesotocin, respectively, can elicit participation in group conflict and aggression. This is because it amplifies (i) concern for the interests of genetically related or culturally similar 'in-group' others and (ii) willingness to defend against outside intruders and enemy conspecifics. Across a range of social vertebrates, oxytocin can induce aggressive behaviour to 'tend-and-defend' the in-group during intergroup contests. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.

Parochial cooperation in wild chimpanzees: a model to explain the evolution of parochial altruism.

Parochial altruism, taking individual costs to benefit the in-group and harm the out-group, has been proposed as one of the mechanisms underlying the human ability of large-scale cooperation. How parochial altruism has evolved remains unclear. In this review paper, we formulate a parochial cooperation model in small-scale groups and examine the model in wild chimpanzees. As suggested for human parochial altruism, we review evidence that the oxytocinergic system and in-group cooperation and cohesion during out-group threat are integral parts of chimpanzee collective action during intergroup competition. We expand this model by suggesting that chimpanzee parochial cooperation is supported by the social structure of chimpanzee groups which enables repeated interaction history and established social ties between co-operators. We discuss in detail the role of the oxytocinergic system in supporting parochial cooperation, a pathway that appears integral already in chimpanzees. The reviewed evidence suggests that prerequisites of human parochial altruism were probably present in the last common ancestor between Pan and Homo. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.

Personal willingness to receive a Covid-19 vaccine and its relationship with intergroup psychology: Evidence from the Philippines and Pakistan.

High levels of vaccine hesitancy are an obstacle to the successful management of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research, we identify psychological correlates of reluctance to personally receive a Covid-19 vaccine, with a focus on intergroup relations. Insights are based on two survey studies conducted in traditionally underresearched settings, the Philippines (N = 289) and Pakistan (N = 275). Results show that trust in vaccines, concerning both the vaccine's efficacy and the vaccine's safety, was associated with willingness to use the vaccine. Perceptions of trust were related to intergroup psychology, such that vaccine donations from political opponents rather than allies were trusted less. This meant that in the Philippines, there was a preference to use vaccines from the United States over those from China, although the pattern was less clear in Pakistan. Having said this, the highest levels of trust and willingness to use vaccines in both countries were for vaccines offered by the World Health Organization (WHO). Last but not least, a perception of global common fate of all humans in the face of the pandemic was positively associated with willingness to get vaccinated, even when controlling for concerns about the vaccine's efficacy and safety. Implications are discussed in relation to intergroup psychology and public health management.

When out-groups are perceived as out of place: urban disorder sensitivity and environmental distance.

BACKGROUND: These studies aimed to determine whether a stronger preference for order, structure, and predictability in the urban environment (measured by the Space Intrusion subscale of the Urban Socio-Spatial Disorder Sensitivity Scale) and a higher score on the Out-Group Visual Encroachment scale are associated with more aversive reactions towards the idea of people of another race, ethnicity, or religion settling in the neighborhood. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: Participants were recruited through online snowball sampling (pilot study) as well as from among university students. Students were also asked to send links to the study to their acquaintances. The pilot study, as well as Study 1B, were conducted online, whereas in Study 1A the paper-pencil method was used. RESULTS: Scores on the Space Intrusion subscale and the Out-group Visual Encroachment scale were associated with outgroup negativity. Out-group Visual Encroachment was found to mediate the relationship between Space Intrusion and environmental distance toward Muslims. CONCLUSIONS: Perceiving out-groups as out of place is a joint product of environmental features (visual cues of belonging) and characteristics of the individual (sensitivity to urban disorder). The challenge for neighborhoods in times of increased migration is how to shape the public domain to increase the chances of strangers becoming more familiar.