From Non-Traditional Sexual Behavior to Non-Legitimate Victims: Moral Virtue, Victim Blame, and Helping Intentions Toward a Woman Victim of Image-Based Sexual Abuse.

Image-based sexual abuse represents an increasingly common form of gender-based violence, consisting of the act of non-consensually capturing, distributing, or threatening to distribute sexually explicit material depicting another person. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how women victims' noncompliance with traditional female sexuality influences bystanders' perceptions of the phenomenon. Specifically, we experimentally examined whether a woman's sexual agency (high vs. low) and the length (steady vs. transient) of the relationship with the perpetrator affected her moral evaluation, victim blaming, and participants' willingness to support her. A sample of 597 adults (65.7% women, Mage = 31.29 years) took part in the study. The findings indicated that while a transient (vs. steady) relationship with the perpetrator significantly lowered the woman's perceived moral virtue and increased the extent to which she was blamed for the incident, a high (vs. low) woman's sexual agency decreased participants' helping intentions towards her. Additionally, results showed that men were less likely than women to attribute moral virtue and help the victim. Lastly, through the mediation of moral virtue and victim blaming, the length of the relationship indirectly influenced participants' helping intentions.

Gendered Corruption: People's Reactions to Victims of Monetary Versus Sexual Extortion.

This research addresses the important issue of the connection between corruption and gender-based violence, an area that has gained increasing attention in recent years. It provides a new perspective by comparing the perception of victims of monetary corruption versus sexual corruption. Through an experimental study, we exposed participants to a fictitious scenario in which they witnessed an event of sex-based (vs. money-based) extortion. The results showed that the victims' decision to cave into the extortion (both money or sex-based) led to higher feelings of moral outrage and blame toward them, and a weaker moral perception. Moreover, victims were considered less moral and more prone to reputational damage when described as caving into sex-based (vs. money-based) extortion. Finally, a moderated mediation model showed that the reputational damage suffered by the woman also significantly mediated the relation between the decision to cave into the extortion and the helping intentions toward her, but only when the corruption involved sexual payment. These findings provide insights into the perception of victims of both money-based and sex-based extortion, highlighting the significant role of reputational damage and stigma in the context of sextortion.

Self-reported psychological symptoms and severe stress events, but not patients' gender, affect illness representation and medical advice by lay-referral network advisors.

People who experience symptoms tend to discuss their ailments with other individuals who create their own illness representations, acting as intuitive physicians. We conducted two experimental studies to examine lay-referral network advisors' (i.e., acquaintances) representation of illness etiology and their recommendation to undergo health screenings for a man or woman with physical (vs. both physical and psychological) symptoms and a severe stressful (vs. no stressful) period in life. The presence of psychological and physical symptoms (Studies 1 and 2) and severe stressful life events (Study 2) affects lay-referral network advisors' disease representation. These factors cause participants to attribute symptoms etiology to psychological rather than organic factors and recommend more psychological screenings rather than physical ones. The simultaneous presence of psychological and physical symptoms and severe stressful events increases the likelihood of attributing the illness etiology to psychological factors, which increases participants' willingness to recommend psychological screenings. Study variables were unaffected by patient gender. The main findings, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence in Fiji: How the Perpetrator Is "Rewarded" for Perceived Victim Suffering.

Although intimate partner violence is rampant in Fiji, limited research has investigated the perception of appropriate legal sanctions for the perpetrators. We explored whether victim characteristics and perceived victim suffering would independently or jointly influence perpetrator-directed legal sanctions. Undergraduates read an IPV passage with the victim portrayed as a sexual norm violator, a career-focused mother, or a control victim. At high levels of perceived victim suffering, participants "rewarded" the perpetrator by reporting less punitive reactions and reduced perceived culpability in the norm violating victim condition. No differences emerged at low levels of perceived suffering. Implications for the Metanorm Perspective are discussed.

"You are stealing our present": Younger people's ageism towards older people predicts attitude towards age-based COVID-19 restriction measures.

The COVID-19 pandemic emerged to be a fertile ground for age-based prejudice and discrimination. In particular, a growing literature investigated ageism towards older people at the individual and the interpersonal level, providing evidence of its prevalence, antecedents and negative consequences. However, less much is known on the phenomenon at the intergroup level. To fill this gap, the present correlational research investigated the effects of younger people's endorsement of ageism towards older people on the attitude towards COVID-19 restriction measures primarily targeted to older (vs. younger) population. In the autumn of 2020, five hundred and eighty-two Italian participants (83.3% females; M age = 20.02, SD age = 2.83) completed an online questionnaire. Results revealed that the younger people's endorsement of ageism towards older people increased the attribution of culpability for the severity of COVID-19 restriction measures to older (vs. younger) people, which, in turn positively affected the attitudes towards older (vs. younger) people isolation and support for selective lockdown on older population only. The main contributions of the study, limitations, future research directions, and practice implications are discussed.

Masculinity, Perceived Vulnerability to COVID-19, and Adoption of Protective Behaviors.

Epidemiological data show that men and women have similar probabilities of contracting COVID-19. However, men with COVID-19 tend to have more severe outcomes than women. We performed two studies to analyze the associations between gender, adherence to traditional masculinity ideology, perceived vulnerability to COVID-19, and the adoption of protective behaviors against COVID-19. In Study 1 (quota sample of the Italian adult population, N = 1,142), we found no differences between men and women in terms of the perceived probability of contracting COVID-19. However, compared to women, men perceived themselves to be less likely to suffer severe consequences if falling ill. In Study 2 (Italian community sample, N = 305), a moderated mediation model showed that adherence to traditional masculinity ideology moderated the association between being man and the perceived severity of the consequences of COVID-19, which, in turn, showed negative associations with three protective behaviors against COVID-19. The article ends with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this research.

Bringing Us Closer Together: The Influence of National Identity and Political Orientation on COVID-19-Related Behavioral Intentions.

A growing body of work has highlighted the importance of political beliefs and attitudes in predicting endorsement and engagement in prosocial behavior. Individuals with right-wing political orientation are less likely to behave prosocially than their left-wing counterparts due to high levels of Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Here, we aimed to extend prior work by testing how political values relate to COVID-19 discretionary behavioral intentions (i.e., prosocial and non-mandatory behaviors aimed at controlling the spread of the pandemic). Furthermore, we tested whether identification with the national group would influence the relationship between RWA and prosocial behavior. A cross-sectional study conducted on 350 Italian participants showed that right-wing political orientation had a negative effect on COVID-19 discretionary behavioral intentions via RWA. Furthermore, a moderated mediation model revealed that this effect was only significant for participants who are lowly identified with the national group. The results suggest that highlighting group belongingness might effectively motivate more conservative individuals to engage in prosocial behavior.

COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: the role of social identification and social and political trust on well-being and distress.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a global health crisis, leading people to change their interpersonal behaviours to contain the spread of the virus. Italy has rapidly become the country hit second hardest in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one in Western countries. To reduce the spread of the COVID-19, people are required to change their interpersonal behaviours, reducing their social interactions in close contacts. The lockdown impact on the economy as well as on social and psychological processes is relevant, we conducted an exploratory study to examine which social factors are associated with the psychological reactions of Italians during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants (n = 690) self-reported their social identification on three levels (i.e., Italians, Europeans and humankind), their trust toward social and political actors, and their level of welbeing, interdependent-happiness, and distress. Results showed that the relation between trust and the level of wellbeing and distress was mediated by identification with Italians and humankind, only the identification with humankind mediated the relationship between trust and the level of interdependent-happiness. The identification with Europeans did not emerge as a mediator in such relationships. The implications for dealing with COVID-19 lockdown in Italy are discussed.

Adding Insult to Injury: The Effects of Intimate Partner Violence Spillover on the Victim's Reputation.

This article examined indirect consequences for the victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) in terms of ostracism and reputational threats. Through an experimental vignette survey, we compared bystanders' reactions to either an intimate partner violence episode or a generic violence episode. A victim of IPV (vs. generic violence) received a more negative moral evaluation and was considered as more responsible for the violence perpetrated on her. This made participants not only anticipate a less positive reputation attributed to the victim but also report less willingness to approach and defend the victim and include her in relevant ingroups 1 year after the episode.

TV News and COVID-19: Media Influence on Healthy Behavior in Public Spaces.

The COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically changed our life. Despite the rapid growth of scientific publications about medical aspects of the pandemic, less has been explored about the effects of media communication regarding COVID-19 on healthy behaviors. Yet, the scientific literature has widely debated on how media can influence people's health-related evaluations, emotions, and behaviors. To fill this gap, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between media exposure, people's attitudes and emotions toward media contents, and healthy behaviors related to the use of public spaces, such as avoiding crowded places, wearing face masks, and maintaining social distance. A questionnaire referring to these variables was administered to an opportunistic sample of 174 participants in Italy during the off-peak period of the COVID-19 outbreak and before restrictions to mobility were extended to the whole country. Results showed that media exposure, the perception of social initiatives of prevention, and moderate levels of fear increase healthier behaviors in the use of public spaces. Perceiving alarming information did not significantly predict healthy behaviors in the use of public spaces. Results are discussed with reference to the previous literature. Suggestions to media communication to increase preventive behaviors during emergencies are also provided.

Trust predicts COVID-19 prescribed and discretionary behavioral intentions in 23 countries.

The worldwide spread of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) since December 2019 has posed a severe threat to individuals' well-being. While the world at large is waiting that the released vaccines immunize most citizens, public health experts suggest that, in the meantime, it is only through behavior change that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled. Importantly, the required behaviors are aimed not only at safeguarding one's own health. Instead, individuals are asked to adapt their behaviors to protect the community at large. This raises the question of which social concerns and moral principles make people willing to do so. We considered in 23 countries (N = 6948) individuals' willingness to engage in prescribed and discretionary behaviors, as well as country-level and individual-level factors that might drive such behavioral intentions. Results from multilevel multiple regressions, with country as the nesting variable, showed that publicized number of infections were not significantly related to individual intentions to comply with the prescribed measures and intentions to engage in discretionary prosocial behaviors. Instead, psychological differences in terms of trust in government, citizens, and in particular toward science predicted individuals' behavioral intentions across countries. The more people endorsed moral principles of fairness and care (vs. loyalty and authority), the more they were inclined to report trust in science, which, in turn, statistically predicted prescribed and discretionary behavioral intentions. Results have implications for the type of intervention and public communication strategies that should be most effective to induce the behavioral changes that are needed to control the COVID-19 outbreak.

Negative Affectivity, Authoritarianism, and Anxiety of Infection Explain Early Maladjusted Behavior During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

During the first phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, Italy experienced problems of public order and maladjusted behavior. This study assessed the role of negative affectivity, right-wing authoritarianism, and anxiety of COVID-19 infection in explaining a variety of the maladjusted behaviors (i.e., "China-phobic" discrimination, panic buying) observed with an Italian sample. Specifically, we examined the effect of Negative Affectivity and Right-Wing Authoritarianism on maladjusted behaviors, and the moderating role of anxiety of infection. Seven hundred and fifty-seven Italian participants completed an online survey between March 3rd to the 7th 2020, which was immediately before the lockdown. A moderated-mediation model was tested using a structural equation modeling approach. Results indicated that both Negative Affectivity and Right-Wing Authoritarianism were positively associated with COVID-19-related maladjusted behavior, and that Right-Wing Authoritarianism mediated the relationship between Negative Affectivity and maladjusted behavior. Furthermore, the effect of Right-Wing Authoritarianism on maladjusted behavior was greater for those with high anxiety of infection, and the indirect effect of Negative Affectivity on maladjusted behavior through Right-Wing Authoritarianism was moderated by infection anxiety. Findings highlight potential psychological paths that may inform communication strategies and public health initiatives aimed at promoting healthy behavior during an outbreak.

Sexualization of Sexual Harassment Victims Reduces Bystanders' Help: The Mediating Role of Attribution of Immorality and Blame.

Women's representation in social media is becoming increasingly sexualized, even when they are victims of sexual harassment (SH). In the present research, we adopted a bystander approach to investigate the role of victims' sexualization on bystanders' reactions to an episode of SH. In Study 1, female participants read a fictitious newspaper article that described a workplace SH episode: According to condition, the article included a picture of the victim who was wearing either sexualized or nonsexualized clothing. In Study 2, which also included male participants, we used a similar procedure and measured a series of traditional beliefs against women equality. As predicted, participants showed lower willingness to help the sexualized than nonsexualized victim: This effect occurred because they attributed lower morality to the victim and blamed her more for the SH event. Study 2 very well replicated Study 1 results and also showed that higher levels of endorsement of traditional masculine norms further enhanced biased perception of the sexualized (vs. nonsexualized) victim. Together, findings suggest that biased evaluations of workplace SH episodes associated with sexualized victims' appearance, consistent with traditional masculine norms, may have detrimental consequences by increasing legitimization and tolerance toward SH.

"If I Am Straight You Are Askew": Labelling Heterosexuals as Straight Worsen Gay Men's Perception.

A robust stream of research has shown the detrimental influence of slurs and derogatory epithets on attitudes toward minority groups. Extending prior work, we explored the influence of positive labels ascribed to the majority group on the evaluation of the minority group. Specifically, three studies tested the possibility that the label "straight," generally linked with the concept of morality, would promote a negative evaluation of gay men. Study 1 exposed English speakers to an individual person described as straight (vs. heterosexual) while Study 2 exposed English speakers to a target person described as straight (vs. heterosexual vs. no label). Study 3 considered a non-English sample (i.e., Italian adults) and experimentally induced the association between the straight label and the concept of heterosexuality. In each study, participants were asked to express their attitudes toward a gay target after the manipulation. Results showed that heterosexual participants exposed to the label "straight" reported more negative attitudes toward gay men than heterosexual participants exposed to the label "heterosexual" (or when they were not exposed to any label). Critically, such an effect emerged only among highly religious participants. Implications for policies and prejudice reduction are discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence and Same-Sex Couples: Examining the Antecedents of the Helping Intentions of Bystanders.

Researchers interested in intimate partner violence (IPV) have focused primarily on male-against-female cases. We conducted two experimental investigations to examine the influence of moral evaluation, attribution of responsibility, and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) on the willingness of bystanders to provide help to the victim in an IPV case involving a same-sex couple. Study 1 (N = 195) surveyed a heterosexual participant sample, and Study 2 (N = 120) surveyed a sample of gay and lesbian participants. In both studies, participants read a fictitious article describing an alleged IPV episode that occurred either in a male-male or a female-female couple. Each participant read an article describing one of two versions of a case of IPV: In one account, the victim admitted to infidelity and in the other, the victim did not confess to infidelity. The participants subsequently evaluated the victim and expressed their willingness (or lack thereof) to support and provide help to the injured party. In both studies, participants in the condition that included the admission of infidelity assessed the victim to be less moral and more responsible for the violent episode. Consequently, participants of both studies expressed lesser willingness to provide help to the victim. Moreover, in Study 1, the relationship between the admission of infidelity and the respondents' willingness to support the victim was moderated by RWA. Particularly, the admission of infidelity by the victim reduced the respondents' willingness to extend support only when they reported a medium to a high level of RWA ideology. By focusing specifically on same-sex IPV cases, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the reactions of witnesses with regard to IPV. Furthermore, it provides evidence about the underlying mechanisms mitigating the intervention of bystanders in such cases and identifies boundary conditions that exacerbate their (un)willingness to intervene.

Legitimizing Intimate Partner Violence: Moral Evaluations, Attribution of Responsibility, and (Reduced) Helping Intentions.

This article examines the influence of moral evaluations and attribution of responsibility on individuals' willingness to provide help if witnessing an intimate partner violence (IPV) episode. A total of 121 undergraduates read a fictitious article from a newspaper, allegedly describing an IPV episode. According to the experimental condition, participants read that the victim had either admitted infidelity or denied it. After reading the newspaper article, participants evaluated the victim on several dimensions (i.e., morality, competence, and sociability), rated the extent to which they deemed her responsible for the violence (i.e., the internal attribution of what happened), and expressed their willingness to provide help and support to the victim herself. In the admission condition, the victim was evaluated as less moral and more responsible for the episode of IPV. These evaluations, in turn, lowered the willingness to provide help to the victim. This study confirmed the role of moral evaluations and internal attribution on bystanders' reaction, and we present practical implications for intervention in a field, IPV, in constant need of updated validated evidence for efficient prevention strategies.

Genomic and physiological resilience in extreme environments are associated with a secure attachment style.

Understanding individual capability to adjust to protracted confinement and isolation may inform adaptive plasticity and disease vulnerability/resilience, and may have long-term implications for operations requiring prolonged presence in distant and restricted environments. Individual coping depends on many different factors encompassing psychological dispositional traits, endocrine reactivity and their underlying molecular mechanisms (e.g. gene expression). A positive view of self and others (secure attachment style) has been proposed to promote individual resilience under extreme environmental conditions. Here, we tested this hypothesis and investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms in 13 healthy volunteers confined and isolated for 12 months in a research station located 1670 km away from the south geographic pole on the Antarctic Plateau at 3233 m above sea level. Study participants, stratified for attachment style, were characterised longitudinally (before, during and after confinement) for their psychological appraisal of the stressful nature of the expedition, diurnal fluctuations in endocrine stress reactivity, and gene expression profiling (transcriptomics). Predictably, a secure attachment style was associated with reduced psychological distress and endocrine vulnerability to stress. In addition, while prolonged confinement and isolation remarkably altered overall patterns of gene expression, such alteration was largely reduced in individuals characterised by a secure attachment style. Furthermore, increased resilience was associated with a reduced expression of genes involved in energy metabolism (mitochondrial function and oxidative phosphorylation). Ultimately, our data indicate that a secure attachment style may favour individual resilience in extreme environments and that such resilience can be mapped onto identifiable molecular substrates.

System justification moderates the relation between hostile (but not benevolent) sexism in the workplace and state anxiety: An experimental study.

In an experimental vignette study performed with 92 Portuguese women, we analyzed the relations between exposure to hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS) in a workplace context, system justification (SJ), and anxiety, measured after participants were exposed to an HS, a BS, or a neutral communication about the context of the industry they would have worked in, if selected. The results indicated that both HS and BS fostered participants' anxiety, and that SJ moderated the relation between HS and anxiety. Anxiety was highest among participants low in SJ. Main contributions of the study, limitations, and possible future research directions are discussed.

The (Female) Graduate: Choice and Consequences of Women's Clothing.

This research investigates how female students choose their graduation outfit and how clothing affects observers' judgments. In Study 1, we manipulated the students' graduation outfit so as to look professional or sexy. Female peers, adults, and professors formed a first impression about the students, their thesis work and guessed their graduation scores (thesis points and final mark). All participant groups judged the professionally dressed students as more competent, as having put more effort in their thesis, and as having obtained better scores than when the same students dressed sexy. In Studies 2 and 3 we replicated previous findings by using photos portraying real students in their actual graduation outfits. We found that sexy clothing, considered inappropriate for the occasion, affected estimated and actual graduation scores negatively and that this effect was mediated by perceived incompetence. Results are discussed with respect to women's evaluation on the basis of their appearance.

Sexualization reduces helping intentions towards female victims of intimate partner violence through mediation of moral patiency.

This paper examines the influence of female sexualization on people's willingness to provide help in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV). We examined how sexualization may make women seem lacking moral patiency and moral virtue both of which may lead to a reduced willingness to help. In the first study, participants read a fictitious newspaper article describing an IPV incident. They were then presented with a picture of the ostensible victim depicting the woman with either a sexualized or non-sexualized appearance. Participants judged both the victim's moral patiency and morality, and then expressed their willingness to provide help to that victim. Although the sexualized victim was viewed as a lesser moral patient (Studies 1 and 2) and as less moral (Study 2), it was seeing the victim as unworthy of moral patiency rather than lacking moral virtue (immoral) that linked sexualization to reduced help. Controlling for participants' sexism and women's admission of infidelity, Study 2 replicated that sexualization reduced helping intentions through a lack of moral patiency. Practical implications are discussed.