Perceiving multiple truths: Does dialectical thinking harmonize colourblind and multicultural ideals?

Multicultural and colourblind approaches to managing diversity are often conceptualized to be antagonistic. However, in principle, both have underlying motives for social justice, making it important to understand how they may be psychologically reconciled. In the present research, we examined dialectical thinking as an individual characteristic or condition under which people may endorse them in a conciliatory way. Across five studies (three pre-registered; N = 1899), using well-established materials that have measured and experimentally manipulated dialectical thinking, we found that individual differences in dialectical thinking were a replicable factor that moderated the relationship between colourblind and multicultural ideals. By contrast, situational priming of dialectical thinking did not reliably impact this relationship. Therefore, people with a greater propensity to view issues from multiple perspectives and to reconcile seemingly contradictory information appear more likely to take a harmonized approach to endorsing colourblind and multicultural ideals. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Does county-level implicit national exclusion predict political participation among Asian Americans?

OBJECTIVES: Asian Americans are often perceived as perpetual foreigners even when they are born and raised in the country. Such national exclusion is particularly evident when considering implicit biases that reveal American is more strongly associated with White than Asian identity. In the current research, we examined if living in a region where people implicitly associate American nationality more strongly with White over Asian identity predicts the political participation of Asian Americans living within the same region. METHOD: Data from 36,838 participants through Project Implicit between 2004 and 2008 provided context-level information on implicit and explicit national exclusion (i.e., American = White belief), while data from 3,748 Asian Americans through the 2008 National Asian American Survey provided an index of political participation. RESULTS: Using data from 61 U.S. counties, multilevel modeling revealed that in counties with higher levels of implicit national exclusion of Asian Americans, Asian Americans reported higher (not lower) political participation. This effect emerged even after controlling for several additional county-level variables. Similar analyses using an explicit measure of context-level national exclusion yielded convergent findings. CONCLUSIONS: Asian Americans reported greater political participation in counties with higher aggregate-levels of implicit and explicit American = White associations. Possible mechanisms accounting for the unexpected and counterintuitive relation between the national exclusion of Asian Americans and political participation among Asian Americans are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Warmth and competence perceptions of key protagonists are associated with containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 35 countries.

It is crucial to understand why people comply with measures to contain viruses and their effects during pandemics. We provide evidence from 35 countries (Ntotal = 12,553) from 6 continents during the COVID-19 pandemic (between 2021 and 2022) obtained via cross-sectional surveys that the social perception of key protagonists on two basic dimensions-warmth and competence-plays a crucial role in shaping pandemic-related behaviors. Firstly, when asked in an open question format, heads of state, physicians, and protest movements were universally identified as key protagonists across countries. Secondly, multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses revealed that warmth and competence perceptions of these and other protagonists differed significantly within and between countries. Thirdly, internal meta-analyses showed that warmth and competence perceptions of heads of state, physicians, and protest movements were associated with support and opposition intentions, containment and prevention behaviors, as well as vaccination uptake. Our results have important implications for designing effective interventions to motivate desirable health outcomes and coping with future health crises and other global challenges.

Social control and solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic: The direct and indirect effects of causal attribution of insufficient compliance through perceived anomie.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis which called for two crucial modes of social regulation: social control and social solidarity. In the present pre-registered study, we examine how the perceived non-compliance with health measures relates to attitudes towards these modes of social regulation, as well as to the role played by the perception of disintegrated and disregulated society (anomie). Using data from an online cross-sectional survey conducted in Belgium in April 2020 (N = 717), results show that the causal attribution of the crisis to insufficient compliance was differentially associated with support for social control and social solidarity behaviours. Specifically, greater attribution to insufficient compliance was associated with a perceived breakdown in the social fabric (disintegration), which explained stronger support for social control and fewer solidarity-based actions. Perceived disregulation, conversely, was associated with less support for social control and more support for social solidarity. Therefore, the perception of the pandemic and associated perceived anomie tend to polarize citizens' attitudes towards these two modes of social regulation. In this way, prosocial behaviours might be inhibited by communications that attribute the pandemic's causes to incivility. Other implications of our findings for the social psychological literature on communities' reactions to the pandemic are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Psychological impact of far-right terrorism against Muslim minorities on national distress, community, and wellbeing.

The Christchurch mosque shootings on March 15th, 2019 was the deadliest incident of mass violence in New Zealand for over a century. The present study investigated the psychological impact of these terrorist attacks targeting a specific minority community on the psychological functioning of the wider New Zealand population by examining changes in terrorism anxiety, sense of community, psychological distress, and wellbeing. Data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Survey (N = 47,951; age range 18-99 years, M = 48.59, SD = 13.86; 62% female) collected across a year, including approximately 6 months following the terrorist attack, was used. Regression discontinuity analyses found a statistically significant increase in terrorism anxiety and sense of community following the attacks, yet counterintuitively, no significant change in psychological distress or wellbeing. These findings provide unique insight into the psychological implications of politically motivated violence for the wider population when terrorism is directed toward a specific minority group.

Developing an Engineering Design Process Assessment using Mixed Methods.

Recent reforms in science education worldwide include an emphasis on engineering design as a key component of student proficiency in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines. However, relatively little attention has been directed to the development of psychometrically sound assessments for engineering. This study demonstrates the use of mixed methods to guide the development and revision of K-12 Engineering Design Process (EDP) assessment items. Using results from a middle-school EDP assessment, this study illustrates the combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques to inform item development and revisions. Overall conclusions suggest that the combination of quantitative and qualitative evidence provides an in-depth picture of item quality that can be used to inform the revision and development of EDP assessment items. Researchers and practitioners can use the methods illustrated here to gather validity evidence to support the interpretation and use of new and existing assessments.

Simulation of cardiac emergencies with real patients.

BACKGROUND: Simulation training with manikin simulators for medical emergencies is increasingly used in medical training. The assessment of a manikin, in particular history and examination, is very different to that of a real patient. We sought to combine aspects of traditional simulation training with the assessment of real hospital in-patients. STUDY DESIGN: In-patients who had recently experienced a cardiac emergency were asked to recall their symptoms as if they were still present. Medical students assessed these patients in the role of foundation year-1 (FY1) doctors, supervised by core medical trainee (CMT) doctors, and were encouraged to formulate a differential diagnosis and initial management plan. The students filled in a questionnaire prior to, immediately after and 1 week after each simulation session. This included a self-assessment of confidence in managing cardiac emergencies, as well as knowledge-based questions on aspects of assessment and management of cardiac emergencies. We sought to combine aspects of traditional simulation training with the assessment of real hospital in-patients RESULTS: Confidence in managing cardiac emergencies was initially low, but significantly increased after one simulation training session (p < 0.001). This increase was sustained on re-assessment 1 week after the training session (p < 0.001). In addition to the increase in confidence, a significant and sustained increase in knowledge score was also observed (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Simulation training with real patients led to an immediate and sustained increase in self-assessed confidence. There was also an increase in medical knowledge of the assessment and management of cardiac emergencies. This simulation technique is inexpensive, easily reproducible and can be used to complement learning from traditional simulation training with manikins.