Fixed or Fluid? Sexual Identity Fluidity in a Large National Panel Study of New Zealand Adults.

Sexual orientation has been defined as an enduring aspect of the self, but emerging evidence reveals that people's sexual attractions, behaviors, and identities can shift over time. To examine this possibility, we present a large longitudinal analysis of sexual orientation identity fluidity among New Zealand adults (Ntotal = 45,856; age = 18-99; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority (LGB+) ns = 746-3,387). Over seven years, 5.7% of participants changed sexual identities at least once. Change was bi-directional (i.e. toward and away from LGB+ identities) and most common in people who initially reported a plurisexual identity. Although women reported higher rates of plurisexuality than men, they were not more fluid in their identities, contradicting the notion of male fixedness and female plasticity in sexuality. Moreover, openness to experience was associated with increased odds of changing from a heterosexual to a plurisexual identity, while political liberalism and lower conscientiousness were associated with increased odds of changing from a heterosexual to a plurisexual identity and more identity changes over time. Overall, our study shows that sexual identity can be fluid into adulthood and has implications for how we understand contemporary human sexuality.

The political system through a partisan lens: Within-person changes in support for political parties precede political system attitudes.

Although political party support and attitudes towards the political system are closely related, the temporal ordering of these associations is unclear. Indeed, prior research identifies both partisan-led change in system attitudes and system attitude-led change in party support. Using a ten-year (2010-2020) national probability sample of New Zealand adults (N = 66,359), we test these associations by modelling the within-person cross-lagged effects between conservative and liberal party support, and political system justification. During conservative-led governments, increases in conservative party support predicted increases in political system justification more strongly than vice versa. The 2017 shift to a liberal-led government was met with an immediate reversal of the effects of party support on system justification, but the effect of system justification on party support took a full year to reverse. These results demonstrate people's perceptions of the fairness of the political system depend on their support for the party in power.

Political attitude change over time following COVID-19 lockdown: Rallying effects and differences between left and right voters.

Restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 have required widespread compliance over long periods, but citizens' attitudes to these often change over time. Here, we examine the time course of political attitudes in New Zealand over the months before and after the announcement of the country's first nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 using a large-scale national survey (Ns = 41,831-42,663). Government satisfaction increased immediately following the lockdown announcement and remained elevated 5 months later. Trust in institutions and political efficacy also increased gradually over the same period. However, these trends varied by political party vote: Compared to center-left voters who supported the largest governing party, center-right voters who supported the opposition party returned to baseline levels of government satisfaction quicker and showed more pronounced dips in their satisfaction with the economy. These same attitudes also predicted compliance with COVID-19 guidelines. Results illustrate a rally-around-the-flag effect during the pandemic and suggest that support wanes faster among center-right (opposition party) voters.

Cyberbullying Toward Maori Is Rife in New Zealand: Incidences and Demographic Differences in Experiences of Cyberbullying Among Maori.

Previous research on cyberbullying has focused almost entirely on examining its prevalence among dominant ethnic populations, leaving it unclear how common cyberbullying is among indigenous peoples. Our study draws on a large sample of Maori adults aged 18-83 years (n = 6,529) who completed the questionnaire-based Maori Identity and Financial Attitudes Study in 2017. We analyzed reports of cyberbullying according to demographic characteristics, namely gender, age, sexual orientation, and multiple ethnic affiliations. On average, 19.3 percent of participants reported ever experiencing cyberbullying, and 4.1 percent reported experiencing cyberbullying within the past month. Young adults (aged 18-25) experienced the most, and incidences progressively declined among older cohorts. Women and those identifying as a minority sexual orientation reported higher rates of cyberbullying than men and heterosexuals. Those identifying as Maori as one of their multiple ethnicities reported higher rates of cyberbullying than those who identified as Maori only. Together, these findings provide a detailed investigation of the prevalence of cyberbullying in a large national indigenous sample. Previous data show that cyberbullying is common among adolescents and adults in New Zealand; however, our data indicate an even higher prevalence among the Maori. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed in light of Maori mental health outcomes.

To meat, or not to meat: A longitudinal investigation of transitioning to and from plant-based diets.

Concerns over potential negative effects of excessive meat consumption on both the environment and personal health, coupled with long-standing debates over animal rights, have motivated research on the prevalence and predictors of plant-based versus meat-based diets. Yet few studies have examined longitudinal trends in dietary behaviours using large national samples. We address this gap by examining the prevalence, predictors, and annual change in the self-reported dietary behaviour of a large national probability sample of New Zealand adults (categorised as omnivore, vegetarian, or vegan; Ns = 12,259-50,964). Consistent with our pre-registered hypotheses, omnivore was the most prevalent dietary category (94.1%). Moreover, higher levels of conservative ideologies (i.e., political conservatism, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, and Social Dominance Orientation), lower subjective health, lower environmental efficacy, and lower disgust sensitivity predicted having an omnivore (vs. vegetarian or vegan) diet. Longitudinal analyses further revealed that the probability of shifting from an omnivore diet to a vegetarian or vegan diet over a one-year period was low, and that veganism was the least stable dietary category. Both gender (men) and political conservatism predicted lower probabilities of transitioning from meat to no-meat diets over time.

Ideology before party: Social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism temporally precede political party support.

Although an extensive literature on political ideology and party support has developed, studies examining the temporal ordering of these variables remain lacking. We address this oversight and argue that because ideologies provide a framework for understanding the world, they should forecast changes in party support over time. Accordingly, a random intercepts cross-lagged panel model estimated the annual within-person associations between social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and party support in nine waves of a New Zealand representative longitudinal panel sample from 2009 to 2017 (N = 31,537). As hypothesized, SDO and RWA predicted within-person increases in support for the centre-right National Party, but decreases in support for the centre-left Labour Party. Reciprocal associations from party support to ideology were approximately half the magnitude. These results provide some of the most robust evidence to date of the oft-assumed, but largely untested, premise that SDO and RWA predict change in party support.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown on trust, attitudes toward government, and well-being.

The contagiousness and deadliness of COVID-19 have necessitated drastic social management to halt transmission. The immediate effects of a nationwide lockdown were investigated by comparing matched samples of New Zealanders assessed before (Nprelockdown = 1,003) and during the first 18 days of lockdown (Nlockdown = 1,003). Two categories of outcomes were examined: (a) institutional trust and attitudes toward the nation and government and (b) health and well-being. Applying propensity score matching to approximate the conditions of a randomized controlled experiment, the study found that people in the pandemic/lockdown group reported higher trust in science, politicians, and police, higher levels of patriotism, and higher rates of mental distress compared to people in the prelockdown prepandemic group. Results were confirmed in within-subjects analyses. The study highlights social connectedness, resilience, and vulnerability in the face of adversity and has applied implications for how countries face this global challenge. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

If They Say "Yes," We Say "No": Partisan Cues Increase Polarization Over National Symbols.

Real-world tests of the impact of partisan cues on voters are scarce because they require assessing how citizens' attitudes changed toward an issue from before to after it became politically divisive. During the 2015-2016 New Zealand flag referendums, the leader of the (center-right) National Party and then-Prime Minister, John Key, championed changing the flag-a move strongly contested by the (center-left) Labour Party. Accordingly, we measured New Zealanders' attitudes toward changing the flag using national longitudinal panel data collected in 2013, before the change was proposed, and again in 2016 at the height of the debate (Ns = 6,793-6,806). Registered voters who supported the National Party were more likely to shift from opposing to supporting the flag change, whereas those who supported the Labour Party were more likely to shift from supporting to opposing the change. These data demonstrate the powerful impact of partisan cues on political attitudes in a real-world setting.

The Diversity and Prevalence of Sexual Orientation Self-Labels in a New Zealand National Sample.

In this study, we asked participants to "describe their sexual orientation" in an open-ended measure of self-generated sexual orientation. The question was included as part of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N = 18,261) 2013/2014 wave, a national probability survey conducted shortly after the first legal same-sex marriages in New Zealand. We present a two-level classification scheme to address questions about the prevalence of, and demographic differences between, sexual orientations. At the most detailed level of the coding scheme, 49 unique categories were generated by participant responses. Of those who responded with the following, significantly more were women: bisexual (2.1 % of women, compared to 1.5 % of men), bicurious (0.7 % of women, 0.4 % of men), and asexual (0.4 % of women and less than 0.1 % of men). However, significantly fewer women than men reported being lesbian or gay (1.8 % of women, compared to 3.5 % of men). Those openly identifying as bicurious, bisexual, or lesbian/gay were significantly younger than those with a heterosexual orientation. This study shows diversity in the terms used in self-generated sexual orientations, and provides up-to-date gender, age, and prevalence estimates for the New Zealand population. Finally, results reveal that a substantial minority of participants may not have understood the question about sexual orientation.

Demographic and psychological predictors of panel attrition: evidence from the New Zealand attitudes and values study.

This study examines attrition rates over the first four years of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a longitudinal national panel sample of New Zealand adults. We report the base rate and covariates for the following four distinct classes of respondents: explicit withdrawals, lost respondents, intermittent respondents and constant respondents. A multinomial logistic regression examined an extensive range of demographic and socio-psychological covariates (among them the Big-Six personality traits) associated with membership in these classes (N = 5,814). Results indicated that men, Maori and Asian peoples were less likely to be constant respondents. Conscientiousness and Honesty-Humility were also positively associated with membership in the constant respondent class. Notably, the effect sizes for the socio-psychological covariates of panel attrition tended to match or exceed those of standard demographic covariates. This investigation broadens the focus of research on panel attrition beyond demographics by including a comprehensive set of socio-psychological covariates. Our findings show that core psychological covariates convey important information about panel attrition, and are practically important to the management of longitudinal panel samples like the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study.