Effects of intergroup contact on explicit and implicit outgroup attitudes: A longitudinal field study with majority and minority group members.

A longitudinal field study tested the long-term effects (three years) of intergroup contact on both explicit and implicit outgroup attitudes. Participants were majority (Italian) and minority (immigrant) high-school students, who were tested at four waves from the beginning of their first year in high-school to the end of the third school year. Results revealed, first, a longitudinal association of quantity (but not quality) of contact with lower intergroup anxiety and more positive explicit attitudes, as well as bidirectional effects over time between explicit attitudes and intergroup anxiety, on the one hand, and quantity and quality of contact, on the other. Second, reduced intergroup anxiety mediated the association between quantity of contact and improved explicit attitudes over time. Third, the product of quantity and quality of contact longitudinally predicted more positive implicit outgroup attitudes over school years. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of findings.

Burnout following moral injury and dehumanization: A study of distress among Italian medical staff during the first COVID-19 pandemic period.

BACKGROUND: Italy was the first country outside Asia to deal with the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, and health care facilities and medical staff were not fully prepared. Research worldwide has documented the enormous effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care providers' mental health, including experiences of dehumanization, but less work has focused on factors which may influence the development of these outcomes in response to COVID-19-related stress. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association of dehumanization, self-efficacy, and alienation to burnout, depression, and PTSD among medical staff. Potential moderators included moral injury, professional role, COVID workload, and work in a critical care unit (CCU). METHOD: Participants were recruited through the Internet. The sample consisted of 270 medical staff members who completed a self-report survey online. Instruments included: Human Traits Attribution Scale for dehumanization; NYP-Queens Survey-Self-Efficacy Subscale for self-efficacy; Moral Injury Events Scale for moral injury; Alienation Scale for alienation; PTSD-8 for posttraumatic stress disorder; Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression; and a single item for burnout. The analytic plan included ANOVAs, zero-order correlations, logistic regression analyses, multiple linear regression models, and parallel mediation. RESULTS: Results show that dehumanization was associated with higher levels of burnout, PTSD, and depressive symptoms and effects were consistent across professional role and work context. Dehumanization was significantly associated with PTSD symptoms only among those who had increased COVID-19-related caseloads. Moral injury was positively associated with dehumanization, displayed an independent association with all 3 mental health outcomes, over and above dehumanization, and tended to exacerbate the effects of dehumanization. The effect sizes across analyses were small to medium. CONCLUSION: This research confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic stressed Italian medical staff in a way not documented in the prepandemic literature. There is a need to support staff in their complex relationships and communication with patients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Priming attachment security and outgroup humanization: The mediation role of intergroup emotions.

Individuals tend to dehumanize the outgroup. In this paper, we explore whether the activation of attachment security can attenuate dehumanization. Two studies were performed. In Study 1, attachment security was primed by showing pictures that depicted relationships with attachment figures; the outgroup was the homeless and humanization was measured considering the attribution of uniquely human and non-uniquely human emotions to this group. In Study 2, the sense of interpersonal security was activated by inviting participants to relive a recent interaction that left them with a feeling of safety and warmth. Outgroup members were the Roma, and humanization was measured considering the attribution of uniquely human and human nature traits to them. In Study 2, the mediation effect of intergroup emotions was investigated. In both studies, outgroup humanization effects were highlighted. In Study 2, these effects were mediated by increased empathy toward the outgroup. Interestingly, the positive impact of security activation was not moderated by chronic attachment orientations. Findings suggest strategies that can be used to improve intergroup relations in specific contexts and in society at large.

The Work-Related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale: An Italian Validation.

The main goal of the present study was to validate the Work-related Basic Need Satisfaction (W-BNS) scale in the Italian social context. Three studies were carried out. Study 1 was conducted on two samples of employees. Exploratory factor analysis and parallel analysis were run on the first sample, whereas confirmatory factor analyses were run on the second. Results supported the three-dimensional structure of the W-BNS scale. Study 2 was conducted on a third sample of employees. Results supported the construct validity of the scale, by showing that needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness were associated with job resources (social support, job autonomy, professional growth), low burnout, and job attitudes (job satisfaction, turnover intentions, commitment). In addition, results showed that responses to the scale were not affected by social desirability bias. Study 3 was conducted to evaluate the nomological validity of the scale (the sample grouped together all respondents from Studies 1 and 2). A model was tested in which organizational commitment mediated the relationship between basic needs and two outcomes (job satisfaction, intentions to leave). Organizational commitment was measured by using the Klein et al. Unidimensional Target-free scale (the KUT). Results supported the nomological validity of the scale. In line with our expectations, the three needs were associated with the KUT, which in turn mediated the effects of needs on the outcomes. Practical implications of findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Intergroup Contact and Outgroup Humanization: Is the Causal Relationship Uni- or Bidirectional?

The attribution of uniquely human characteristics to the outgroup may favor the search for contact with outgroup members and, vice versa, contact experiences may improve humanity attributions to the outgroup. To explore this bidirectional relationship, two studies were performed. In Study 1, humanity perceptions were manipulated using subliminal conditioning. Two experimental conditions were created. In the humanization condition, the unconditioned stimuli (US) were uniquely human words; in the dehumanization condition, the US were non-uniquely human and animal words. In both conditions, conditioned stimuli were typical outgroup faces. An approach/avoidance technique (the manikin task) was used to measure the willingness to have contact with outgroup members. Findings showed that in the humanization condition participants were faster in approaching than in avoiding outgroup members: closeness to the outgroup was preferred to distance. Latencies of approach and avoidance movements were not different in the dehumanization condition. In Study 2, contact was manipulated using the manikin task. One approach (contact) condition and two control conditions were created. The attribution of uniquely human traits to the outgroup was stronger in the contact than in the no-contact conditions. Furthermore, the effect of contact on humanity attributions was mediated by increased trust toward the outgroup. Thus, findings demonstrate the bidirectionality of the relationship between contact and humanity attributions. Practical implications of findings are discussed.

'And the best essay is ': Extended contact and cross-group friendships at school.

We conducted one experimental intervention based on extended contact principles aimed at fostering the formation of cross-group friendships within educational settings. Italian school children took part in a school competition for the best essay on personal experiences of cross-group friendships with immigrants, to be written in small groups. This manipulation was intended to favour the exchange of personal positive cross-group experiences, thus capitalizing on the benefits of extended contact. In the control condition, participants wrote an essay on friendship, without reference to cross-group relations. Results revealed that children who took part in the intervention reported a higher number of outgroup friends 3 months later. This indirect effect was sequentially mediated by pro-contact ingroup and outgroup norms and by outgroup contact behavioural intentions. This study provides experimental evidence that interventions based on extended contact can foster cross-group friendship formation. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The mediating role of psychophysic strain in the relationship between workaholism, job performance, and sickness absence: a longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: To test a theoretical model in which workaholism predicts both directly and indirectly, via psychophysic strain, job performance and sickness absences. METHODS: A multimethod study was performed examining a sample of 322 workers in a private company. The study was articulated into two phases, over a time period of 15 months. Workaholism was assessed using a self-report measure (time 1). Psychophysic strain was measured by the occupational physician, performance by the supervisor, and data on sickness absences were collected from the company's database (time 2). RESULTS: Results highlighted a positive relationship between workaholism and psychophysic strain. Psychophysic strain was negatively associated with job performance and positively associated with sickness absences. In addition, workaholism predicted sickness absences. CONCLUSION: Workaholism negatively affects the health of workers. This is associated with lower working performance and greater sickness absences.

Can intergroup contact improve humanity attributions?

In this paper, intergroup contact was evaluated as a strategy to favor outgroup humanization. We tested a double-mediation model, in which contact is associated with both decreased salience of intergroup boundaries and the adoption of a common identity. These recategorizations, in turn, are related to lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of empathy, both emotions being proximal predictors of outgroup humanization. The model was tested using structural equation modeling in the context of different intergroup relations: Italians versus immigrants (Study 1); Northern Italians versus Southern Italians (Study 2). Supporting the hypotheses, group representations and emotions mediated the relationship between contact and humanity attributions. The practical implications of results are discussed.

Nations' income inequality predicts ambivalence in stereotype content: how societies mind the gap.

Income inequality undermines societies: The more inequality, the more health problems, social tensions, and the lower social mobility, trust, life expectancy. Given people's tendency to legitimate existing social arrangements, the stereotype content model (SCM) argues that ambivalence-perceiving many groups as either warm or competent, but not both-may help maintain socio-economic disparities. The association between stereotype ambivalence and income inequality in 37 cross-national samples from Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Africa investigates how groups' overall warmth-competence, status-competence, and competition-warmth correlations vary across societies, and whether these variations associate with income inequality (Gini index). More unequal societies report more ambivalent stereotypes, whereas more equal ones dislike competitive groups and do not necessarily respect them as competent. Unequal societies may need ambivalence for system stability: Income inequality compensates groups with partially positive social images.

Evaluating the effects of a message on attitude and intention to eat raw meat: Salmonellosis prevention.

Salmonellosis is one of the most common foodborne human diseases. The risk of infection can be reduced by communication campaigns. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy of a food safety message that underlines that eating well-cooked meat is an effective strategy for preventing salmonellosis. The target audience was young adults (university students). They were presented with one of two messages, a prevention message or a control message. The prevention message proved to be very effective. First, it changed the attitude toward raw or rare meat, which after having read the prevention message was evaluated less positively and more negatively. Second, intentions to eat raw or rare meat were weaker in those who read the prevention message compared with those who read the control message. Third, after the message, participants in the experimental condition, but not in the control condition, associated the self-image more with well-done meat than with raw or rare meat.

The Stereotype Content Model: The Role Played by Competence in Inferring Group Status.

In the context of the Stereotype Content Model, we investigate the "backward" inferential process that leads from the competence stereotype to the structural attribute of status. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) Perceived competence affects attributions of status; (2) the less competent group is perceived as warmer (compensation effect); (3) membership leads to ingroup status enhancement. Two minimal groups were created; groups' competence and membership were manipulated. Findings supported the hypotheses: Group status was rated higher when the target group was described as competent; groups were rated warmer when lower in competence; group status was rated higher by members than non-members.

Pronorm and antinorm deviants: a test of the subjective group dynamics model.

The authors replicated the study by D. Abrams, J. M. Marques, N. Bown, and M. Henson (2000, Study 2), performed to test the subjective group dynamics model (J. M. Marques, D. Abrams, D. Paez, & C. Martinez-Taboada, 1998). Participants were students enrolled in the psychology department at an Italian university. The present study considered the relationship between students and professors, and the attitude object was limited enrollment for admission to the department. Participants evaluated either in-group or out-group members. Findings replicated those of Abrams et al., except the in-group pronorm deviant was perceived to be less typical and evaluated less positively than the normative members. This finding suggests that, during an intergroup conflict, perception of the typicality of deviants exaggerating the in-group norms--and thus their evaluations--may increase as long as deviance is not perceived to be too accentuated.