The effect on judgment of attributing religious affiliation to a terrorist suspect.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects and correlations of the perceived religious affiliation on a fictitious terrorism case. Participants were 402 French adults who completed a questionnaire after reading a scenario involving the arrest of a person (French vs. North African; man vs. woman) wearing an explosive belt. They indicated the level of the perpetrator's religious affiliation and judged her/him and the act. The participants' level of social dominance orientation (SDO) was measured and studied along in its two dimensions. The results showed an effect of ethnicity on perceived religious affiliation, which was correlated with judgment and mediated the effect of social dominance on judgment. The implications of this study are discussed in terms of intergroup interactions and religious prejudice.

Blood pressure and psychological distress among North Africans in France: The role of perceived personal/group discrimination and gender.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and (physical and mental) health indicators among North African women and men living in France. METHODS: This study included 82 North Africans, aged 18-64 years. Perceived discrimination was measured at both group level (PGD) and personal level (PPD). The physical health indicator was blood pressure. The mental health indicator was self-reported psychological distress. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses showed that higher levels of PGD predicted higher blood pressure. PPD was not related to blood pressure. PPD was positively related to psychological distress among women, but not among men. CONCLUSION: PPD and PGD are associated with physical and mental health indicators in different ways among North African women and men in France.

Empathy arousal and emotional reactions to victims of the gender pay gap.

Men and women are well aware of the gender pay gap. The present study involved four experiments (N = 341, student sample, N = 203 general population sample) in which we indirectly measured empathy by asking participants to rate the non-complex and complex emotions they felt when reading a scenario in which a woman described her pay situation. Experiments 1 (equal pay vs. unequal pay) and 2, 3 & 4 (angry vs. depressed reaction to pay inequality) investigate differences in empathy arousal between men and women by assessing their emotions. Globally, both men and women identified correctly emotions expressed by the women victim of pay inequity. On complex emotions, women express more other suffering emotions than men, only in Experiment 4. Coupled with expression of guilt/shame for men only, these results are discussed in the perspective of future research.

Peers and teachers as the best source of social support for school engagement for both advantaged and priority education area students.

Promoting student's school engagement is a major goal in our society. The literature has shown that students' proximal sources of social support can play a fundamental role in facilitating this engagement. The purpose of this study was (1) to compare perceived support from four sources (mother, father, teacher, and peers) as a function of two different middle-school student backgrounds, a priority education area and a privileged area; (2) and (3) to examine the contribution of these main sources of social support, either directly or indirectly (through sense of school belonging) to school engagement; and (4) to test whether perceived social support is more strongly related to school engagement, directly or indirectly, among students from priority education school compared to students from the advantaged area. In all, 623 middle-school students (aged 11-16) from either a privileged or priority education area participated in this study. The results showed that the mother was perceived as providing more support, followed by the father, the teachers, and the peers. Students from the priority education area perceived more support from their teachers than their counterparts from the more privileged area did. A path analysis showed that each source of social support, except for maternal support, contributed to school engagement. Peers and teachers emerged as the best source of support for school engagement, having significant direct effects among students from the priority education area and both direct and indirect (through the sense of school belonging) effects among students from the advantaged area. Peer support also appears to have a double-edged effect on school engagement among students in the priority education area. This study contributes to enlightening the phenomenon of school engagement in adolescence by clarifying the role of social support and the related mediating process. Being perceived as an important source of social support by students is not enough to contribute to their sense of school belonging and school engagement.

Psychological and sociological factors influencing police officers' decisions to use force: A systematic literature review.

AIM: Police action is frequently discussed and almost always monitored. The aim of this systematic review is to identify the psychological and social factors underlying police officers' decisions to use force. METHODOLOGY: Scientific articles were selected from six databases (PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, HeinOnline, ScienceDirect, PubMed). RESULTS: We found 923 articles matching our search, and 52 were retained based on their results regarding the psychological factors underlying police officers' decisions to use force and the decision-making process itself. We found that the most frequently studied factors were belonging to an ethnic minority, carrying a conducted energy device (CED), the police department's policies and managerial organization, and the environment in which the encounter occurred. However, it seems that the most predictive factor in the decision to use force is the resistance and behavior of the suspect.