European Journal of Social Psychology

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2582pmid: N/A

Watkins, Hanne M.; Laham, Simon

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2393pmid: N/A

How does war influence moral judgments about harm? While the general rule is “thou shalt not kill,” war appears to provide an exception to the moral prohibition on intentional harm. In three studies (n = 263, n = 557, n = 793), we quantify the difference in moral judgments across peace and war contexts, and explore two possible explanations for the difference. The findings demonstrate that third‐party observers judge a trade‐off of one life for five as more morally acceptable in war than in peace, especially if the one person is from an outgroup of the person making the trade‐off. In addition, the robust difference in moral judgments across “switch” and “footbridge” trolley problems is attenuated in war compared to in peace. The present studies have implications for moral psychology researchers who use war‐based scenarios to study broader cognitive or affective processes. If the war context changes judgments of moral scenarios by triggering group‐based reasoning or altering the perceived structure of the moral event, using such scenarios to make decontextualized claims about moral judgment may not be warranted.

Kavanagh, Christopher M.; Jong, Jonathan; McKay, Ryan; Whitehouse, Harvey

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2514pmid: 31598015

A cross‐sectional study was conducted with 605 practitioners of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) to test the hypothesis that high arousal rituals promote social cohesion, primarily through identity fusion. BJJ promotion rituals are rare, highly emotional ritual events that often feature gruelling belt‐whipping gauntlets. We used the variation in such experiences to examine whether more gruelling rituals were associated with identity fusion and pro‐group behaviour. We found no differences between those who had undergone belt‐whipping and those who had not and no evidence of a correlation between pain and social cohesion. However, across the full sample we found that positive, but not negative, affective experiences of promotional rituals were associated with identity fusion and that this mediated pro‐group action. These findings provide new evidence concerning the social functions of collective rituals and highlight the importance of addressing the potentially diverging subjective experiences of painful rituals.

Cohen, Racheli; Pliskin, Ruthie; Halperin, Eran

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2527pmid: N/A

In down‐regulating intergroup fear, an intense emotion common to intractable intergroup conflicts, people may employ various fear‐reducing appraisals. Adopting a motivated reasoning perspective, we posited that the contents of individuals’ ideological beliefs influence the contents they employ to down‐regulate fear, with rightists preferring ingroup‐empowering content and leftists preferring outgroup‐weakening content. In Study 1, rightists (vs. leftists) reported greater use of ingroup‐empowering reappraisal to down‐regulate fear, but no differences emerged in the use of outgroup‐weakening reappraisal. Study 2 manipulated the contents’ perceived instrumentality in reducing fear, to examine this as an alternative mechanism. Perceived instrumentality influenced participants’ behavioral content preferences ahead of a fear induction, but the manipulation did not mitigate the right‐left differences in ingroup‐empowering reappraisal use once participants were confronted with the stimulus, replicating Study 1. Study 3 extended these findings, identifying ideological differences in two additional fear‐reappraisal themes and in the attitudinal outcomes of fear regulation.

Moynihan, Andrew B.; Igou, Eric R.; van Tilburg, Wijnand A. P.

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2499pmid: N/A

Belief in free will is founded on the idea that people are responsible for their behavior. People who believe in free will derive meaning in life from these beliefs. Conformity refers to succumbing to external pressures and imitating others’ behaviors. Sometimes, conformity involves a loss of self‐awareness, which reduces perceived meaninglessness. We tested if disbelief in free will increases perceived meaninglessness and if people subsequently become more conformist to address this negative existential perception. We conducted three studies to test this hypothesis. In Study 1, experimentally induced disbelief in free will resulted in perceived meaninglessness. In Study 2, perceived meaninglessness correlated with conformity. Finally, in Study 3, perceived meaninglessness mediated the relationship between disbelief in free will and conformity, especially under high self‐awareness. We conclude that perceptions about meaning play a central role in the relationship between disbelief in free will and conformity.

Tilburg, Wijnand A. P.; Sedikides, Constantine; Wildschut, Tim; Vingerhoets, Ad J. J. M.

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2519pmid: N/A

Nostalgia increases meaning in life (MIL), but how so? In four experiments—using varied operationalizations of nostalgia, diverse populations, and complementary methodologies—we identified a serial process. We hypothesized and found, in Experiment 1, that self‐continuity boosts MIL. We hypothesized and found, in Experiment 2, that nostalgia increases MIL through self‐continuity. Finally, we hypothesized and found, in Experiments 3–4, that nostalgia fosters social connectedness, which plausibly heightens self‐continuity, which in turn strengthens MIL. The findings clarify an intricate pathway through which nostalgia renders life more meaningful.

Petkanopoulou, Katerina; Rodríguez‐Bailón, Rosa; Willis, Guillermo B.; van Kleef, Gerben A.

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2521pmid: N/A

Expressing anger can engender desired change, but it can also backfire. In the present research we examined how power shapes the expression of anger. In Study 1, we found that powerless individuals were less inclined to express their anger directly but more inclined to express it indirectly by sharing it with others. Powerless participants’ reluctance to express anger directly was mediated by negative social appraisals. In Study 2, we replicated the effect of power on direct anger expression in a situation in which participants had actual power (or not). Anger was evoked in the laboratory using an ecologically valid procedure, and participants were given an opportunity to express anger. Study 3 showed that powerless participants expected direct anger expression to arouse more anger than fear in the target, whereas the opposite was true for indirect anger expression. Powerful participants always expected to elicit more fear than anger in the target.

Costa, Luiza Lopes Franco; Esteves, Ana Beatriz Dillon; Kreimer, Roxana; Struchiner, Noel; Hannikainen, Ivar

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2523pmid: N/A

Using hypothetical divorce cases we examine the role of gender stereotypes in decisions about child custody. Good mothers received greater custody allocations than did good fathers across a tightly matched pair of vignettes in three culturally distinct samples: Argentina, Brazil, and the United States (Study 1). Two follow‐up studies indicated that the warmth dimension of stereotype content partly accounted for the asymmetry in custody awards: The proportion of maternal‐primary custody was predicted by the tendency to ascribe warmth‐related traits—such as friendliness, generosity, or trustworthiness—to mothers (Study 2) and associate them with female over male nouns (Study 3). We also found that endorsing shared custody mitigated the asymmetry in custody awards documented in our studies. Together, these results highlight the interplay of stereotyped attitudes and egalitarian commitments in the context of judicial decisions about child custody.

Jedinger, Alexander; Burger, Axel M.

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2524pmid: N/A

Using data from the Austrian National Election Study (Study 1) and the American National Election Study (Study 2), this research investigated the role of right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) in shaping attitudes toward governmental action related to the redistribution of wealth. We show that RWA is a relevant variable in explaining attitudes toward redistribution policies, and that the association between RWA and redistribution attitudes is moderated by political sophistication. RWA was associated with opposition to redistribution policies among individuals high in political sophistication, while among individuals low in political sophistication, RWA was either associated with support for redistribution policies (Study 1) or unrelated to redistribution attitudes (Study 2). Results suggest that exposure to the political discourse in a society affects how psychological needs and motives are related to preferences regarding the redistribution of wealth through the government.

Mattavelli, Simone; Richetin, Juliette; Perugini, Marco

doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2518pmid: N/A

In associative evaluative learning, attitudes can originate from intersecting regularities between a target and both positive‐ and self‐related stimuli. Liking for a focal target is primarily driven by its reference to one source, but it might be qualified by the reference to a contrast target. This contribution focuses on how the nature of positive and contrast sources affects learning via intersecting regularities. In two studies (N = 199 and N = 185), the self and another positive category lead to increased implicit and explicit liking, regardless of the contrast source's valence. In Study 3 (N = 128), confronting the self and the positive category in the same paradigm yields only implicit preferences for self‐related targets. Both implicitly and explicitly, this preference for self‐ over positive‐related target was moderated by self‐positivity. Our findings confirm the robustness of learning via intersecting regularities and suggest that the self is a special evaluative source.