Falling through the cracks: Modeling the formation of social category boundaries.

Social categorizations divide people into "us" and "them", often along continuous attributes such as political ideology or skin color. This division results in both positive consequences, such as a sense of community, and negative ones, such as group conflict. Further, individuals in the middle of the spectrum can fall through the cracks of this categorization process and are seen as out-group by individuals on either side of the spectrum, becoming inbetweeners. Here, we propose a quantitative, dynamical-system model that studies the joint influence of cognitive and social processes. We model where two social groups draw the boundaries between "us" and 'them" on a continuous attribute. Our model predicts that both groups tend to draw a more restrictive boundary than the middle of the spectrum. As a result, each group sees the individuals in the middle of the attribute space as an out-group. We test this prediction using U.S. political survey data on how political independents are perceived by registered party members as well as existing experiments on the perception of racially ambiguous faces, and find support.

A methodology for analyzing and forecasting sociopolitical destabilization.

The article presents a methodology for the analysis of political crises meant to assess the current situation of sociopolitical (in)stability of the developing and developed societies in question, provide an inertial forecast of the developing situation in a given period, analyse threats to stability threats, and examine possible measures to counteract such threats and their likely influence on the situation. The methodology is based on modeling sociopolitical stability in the country in question with the help of an elaborate logical-mathematical model.

How does symbolic success affect redistribution in left-wing voters? A focus on the 2017 French presidential election.

Redistribution preferences depend on factors such as self-interest and political views. Recently, Deffains et al. (2016) reported that redistributive behavior is also sensitive to the actual experience of success or failure in a real effort task. While successful participants ('overachievers') are more likely to attribute their success to their effort rather than luck and opt for less redistribution, unsuccessful participants ('underachievers') tend to attribute their failure to external factors and opt for more redistribution. The aim of the present study was to test how the experience of success (symbolic success) and political views interact in producing redistributive behavior in an experimental setting. The study was conducted during the 2017 French presidential election. Our sample was biased towards left-wing, and most participants reported voting for Mélenchon, Hamon or Macron. Our findings reveal that 1) Macron voters redistribute less than Hamon voters who themselves redistribute less than Mélenchon voters, 2) overachievers redistribute less than underachievers only among Mélenchon voters. This suggests that redistributive behavior is governed primarily by political opinions, and that influence by exogenous manipulation of symbolic success is not homogenous across left-wing political groups.

How Politico-Economic Systems Shape Individuals' Value of Elderly Care: Evidence From the German Reunification.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Perceptions of how societies should care for the elderly people can differ among countries. This study examines to what extent individuals' value of informal care is shaped by the politico-economic system in which they grew up and if this value adjusts once an individual lives in a different politico-economic system. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We use data from the German Family Panel and take advantage of the unique setting of the German separation and reunification. Probit models are used to examine the effect of being born in East Germany on individuals' value of informal care relative to employment at different birth cohorts and survey waves (N = 14,093). Average marginal effects are calculated. RESULTS: Twenty years after reunification, East Germans who spent their adolescence under communism exhibit a higher value of informal care relative to employment than West Germans who grew up in a western social market economy. Differences in values between East and West Germans do not significantly converge over time. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Individuals' value of informal care is deeply shaped by the politico-economic system in which they grew up. If immigration policies are introduced to increase the care for elderly people, differences in individuals' cultural perceptions of elderly care should be considered as these will not suddenly adjust.

Actual threat, perceived threat, and authoritarianism: an experimental study

Archival, correlational, and experimental studies converge showing strong links between societal threat and authoritarianism. However, inconsistent with the social cognitive studies showing that our perception of the reality is systematically biased, the literature on the threat-authoritarianism relations has largely ignored the connection between the actual societal threat and its perception. In this study, we analyzed the relation between objective societal threat and authoritarians' perception of it, hypothesizing that authoritarians would tend to overestimate societal threat and that such overestimation would increase the endorsement of authoritarian attitudes and the preference for authoritarian political systems. Using an experimental approach, we studied the relations between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), actual societal threat (manipulated as low vs. moderate), and perceived societal threat working with an Italian community sample (N = 209, Mage = 29.70, SD = 9.53, 64.1% women). Actual threat and RWA equally predicted participants' threat perception, while their interaction did not. In turn, threat perception further increased RWA and support to authoritarian political system. We discussed the results in terms of a vicious circle whereby authoritarians overestimate societal threat and such overestimation reinforces authoritarian attitudes

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A latent class analysis of cognitive empowerment and ethnic identity: An examination of heterogeneity between profile groups on dimensions of emotional psychological empowerment and social justice orientation among urban youth of color.

Psychological empowerment (PE) encompasses key aspects of youth development and civic engagement. Empowerment scholarship has largely focused on the intrapersonal or emotional component of PE, which considers perceptions of control and self-efficacy, specifically in the sociopolitical sphere. Fewer studies have assessed the interactional or cognitive component of PE. Even less have examined the empirical association aspects of PE, including cognitive empowerment, with conceptually related variables, such as ethnic identity. Those studies that are present have shown that the association between aspects of PE and ethnic identity are complex. The current study of urban high school students of color (N = 383; 53.1% female; 75% Hispanic/Latinx) investigates the heterogeneity present between cognitive empowerment and ethnic identity. Latent class cluster analyses were conducted and five distinct profile groups emerged. Differences were observed on the basis of profile groups of cognitive empowerment and ethnic identity on self-reported dimensions of emotional PE (e.g., leadership and policy control) and social justice orientation. The majority of study participants were clustered in groups that identified moderate to high levels of both cognitive empowerment and ethnic identity. Results provide useful insights for theory and programming.

Words hurt: Political rhetoric, emotions/affect, and psychological well-being among Mexican-origin youth.

We examined the effect of political rhetoric on the targets of that rhetoric. Drawing from scholarship on anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant rhetoric found readily in various media and scholarship on emotions, we tested four hypotheses. Hypotheses 1 and 2 predicted that positive and negative political rhetoric would increase and decrease positive and negative emotions, respectively. Hypotheses 3 and 4 then predicted that emotional responses to positive or negative political rhetoric would influence perceived stress, subjective health, and subjective well-being. Data collection occurred between August 2016 and June 2017 at a university in California. A sample of 280 Mexican-origin youth, defined broadly as having at least one ancestor born in Mexico or the participant themselves born in Mexico, participated in an experiment where they were randomly assigned to one of three study conditions: viewing (1) positive or (2) negative political rhetoric about immigrants and Latinos in general, or (3) neutral rhetoric as a control condition before providing qualitative responses to open-ended questions and completing measures of positive and negative affect, perceived stress, subjective health, and subjective well-being. Qualitative responses indicated that negative and positive political rhetoric elicited a range of negative emotions and positive emotions, respectively. Quantitative analysis with independent samples t-tests, ANOVA, and linear regression models found that negative political rhetoric elicited higher negative affect than positive and neutral rhetoric, and positive rhetoric elicited higher positive affect than negative and neutral rhetoric. Negative emotional responses, in turn, were associated with participants' higher perceived stress, lower subjective health and lower subjective well-being. Conversely, positive emotional responses were associated with lower perceived stress, higher subjective health, and higher subjective well-being. Positive political rhetoric, by eliciting positive emotions, can have a salubrious effect. Altogether, these findings suggest that political rhetoric matters for the targets of that rhetoric.

What Is Central to Political Belief System Networks?

A central challenge for identifying core components of a belief system is examining the position of components within the structure of the entire belief system. We test whether operational (i.e., positions on issues) or symbolic (i.e., affective attachments to political groups and labels) components are most central by modeling a political belief system as a network of interconnected attitudes and beliefs. Across seven waves of representative panel data from New Zealand, we find that symbolic components are more central than operational components (ds range = 0.78-0.97). Symbolic components were also closer than operational components in the network to self-reported voting (d = -2.43), proenvironmental actions (ds = -1.71 and -1.63), and religious behaviors (d = -0.74). These findings are consistent with perspectives that emphasize the importance of symbolic politics in tying belief systems together and motivating behavior, and further the link between political belief system research and network science.

What inverted U can do for your country: A curvilinear relationship between confidence in the social system and political engagement.

We examined the link between political engagement and the tendency to justify the sociopolitical system. On one hand, confidence in the system should be negatively related to political engagement, insofar as it entails reduced desire for social change; on the other hand, system confidence should also be positively related to political engagement to the extent that it carries an assumption that the system is responsive to citizens' political efforts. Because of the combination of these 2 opposing forces, the motivation for political engagement should be highest at intermediate levels of system confidence. Five studies revealed a negative quadratic relationship between system confidence and normative political engagement. In 2 representative surveys, Polish participants with moderate levels of system confidence were more likely to vote in political elections (Study 1) and to participate in solidarity-based collective action (Study 2). Two field studies demonstrated a negative quadratic relationship between system confidence and actual participation in political demonstrations (gender equality and teachers' protests in Poland; Studies 3 and 4). This pattern of results was further corroborated by analyses of data from 50 countries drawn from the World Value Survey: we observed negative quadratic relationships between system confidence and collective action as well as voting. These relationships were stronger in democratic (vs. nondemocratic) regimes (Study 5). Our results suggest that some degree of system confidence might be useful to stimulate political engagement within the norms of the system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Neoliberalist influences on nursing hospital work process and organization.

OBJECTIVES:: To describe and analyze the influence of the neoliberal economic and political model on the nursing hospital work process and organization. METHOD:: Qualitative descriptive research, having as its scenery a university hospital. The subjects were 34 nursing workers. The data collection took place from March to July 2013, through semi-structured interview. The data treatment technique used was content analysis, which brought up the following category: working conditions precariousness and its consequences to the hospital work process and organization in the neoliberal context. RESULTS:: The consequences of neoliberalism on hospital work process and organization were highlighted, being observed physical structure, human resources and material inadequacies that harms the assistance quality. In addition to wage decrease that cause the need of second jobs and work overload. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS:: There is a significant influence of the neoliberal model on hospital work, resulting on working conditions precariousness. OBJETIVOS:: Descrever e analisar a influência do modelo econômico e político neoliberal na organização e no processo de trabalho hospitalar de enfermagem. MÉTODO:: Pesquisa qualitativa e descritiva, tendo como cenário um hospital universitário. Os participantes foram 34 trabalhadores de enfermagem. A coleta ocorreu de março a julho de 2013, por meio de entrevista semiestruturada. A técnica de tratamento dos dados foi a análise de conteúdo, que fez emergir a seguinte categoria: precarização das condições laborais e suas repercussões para organização e processo de trabalho hospitalar no contexto neoliberal. RESULTADOS:: Evidenciaram-se repercussões do neoliberalismo na organização e no processo de trabalho hospitalar, verificando-se inadequações na estrutura física, nos recursos humanos e materiais, que afetavam a qualidade da assistência. Além de perdas salariais que levam à necessidade de outros empregos e sobrecarga de trabalho. CONSIDERAÇÕES FINAIS:: Há forte influência do modelo neoliberal no trabalho hospitalar, resultando na precarização das condições laborais.