Bernhard Leidner

Ingroup Glorification, Moral Disengagement, and Justice in the Context of Collective Violence

What aspects of ingroup identification can lead people to resist justice for the victims of their ingroup’s mistreatment? In three studies carried out in the United States and United Kingdom, in which participants read reports of mistreatment of prisoners and civilians by coalition troops in the Iraq war, ingroup glorification, but not ingroup attachment or other individual-difference variables, was a key predictor of lesser demands for justice, but only when the perpetrators belonged to the ingroup. This effect of glorification was mediated by two moral disengagement mechanisms focusing on the outgroup: minimization of the emotional suffering of the victims’ families and explicit dehumanization of the victim group. These findings further reinforce the difference between glorification and other forms of ingroup identification, demonstrating that glorification is problematic in maintaining and fostering intergroup relations because of its connection to moral disengagement.

Economic inequality is linked to biased self-perception

People’s self-perception biases often lead them to see themselves as better than the average person (a phenomenon known as self-enhancement). This bias varies across cultures, and variations are typically explained using cultural variables, such as individualism versus collectivism. We propose that socioeconomic differences among societies—specifically, relative levels of economic inequality—play an important but unrecognized role in how people evaluate themselves. Evidence for self-enhancement was found in 15 diverse nations, but the magnitude of the bias varied. Greater self-enhancement was found in societies with more income inequality, and income inequality predicted cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement better than did individualism/collectivism. These results indicate that macrosocial differences in the distribution of economic goods are linked to microsocial processes of perceiving the self.

Das Berliner Evaluationsinstrument für selbsteingeschätzte, studentische Kompetenzen (BEvaKomp)

Zusammenfassung. Im Rahmen des Bologna-Prozesses werden europaweit Bachelor-Studiengange eingefuhrt, deren Abschlusse berufsqualifizierend sind. Die beteiligten Lander haben sich auf einen Qualifikationsrahmen, d.h. auf eine Liste von studienfachunspezifisch formulierten Kompetenzen verstandigt, die in Lehrveranstaltungen vermittelt werden sollen. Inwieweit diese Kompetenzen tatsachlich von den Studierenden erworben werden, ist empirisch nachzuweisen. Bisherige Lehrveranstaltungsevaluationsinstrumente konnen zu diesem Zweck nur bedingt genutzt werden, denn sie messen eher den Prozess als das Ergebnis einer Veranstaltung. Deshalb haben wir ein Instrument entwickelt, das in sechs Subskalen mit insgesamt 29 Items den selbsteingeschatzten Zuwachs an Fach-, Methoden-, Prasentations-, Kommunikations-, Kooperations- sowie Personalkompetenz erhebt. In einer Stichprobe mit insgesamt 2507 Fragebogen wurde das Instrument entlang der klassischen Testtheorie uberpruft. Die Ergebnisse zeigen gute Reliabilitaten und die...

Dehumanization, Retributive and Restorative Justice, and Aggressive Versus Diplomatic Intergroup Conflict Resolution Strategies

The desire for justice can escalate or facilitate resolution of intergroup conflicts. Two studies investigated retributive and restorative notions of justice as the mediating factor of the effect of perceived outgroup sentience—an aspect of (mechanistic) dehumanization referring to the emotional depth attributed to others—on intergroup conflict resolution. Study 1 showed that for Palestinians, who see themselves as victims, perceived sentience of Israelis decreased retributive but increased restorative notions of justice, which, ultimately, increased support for conflict resolution by negotiation rather than political violence. Study 2 partially replicated Study 1’s findings with Jewish Israelis. The role of perceived sentience and its relationship to retributive and restorative notions of justice in protracted and nonprotracted conflicts and their resolution is discussed.

Universal biases in self-perception : better and more human than average

There is a well-established tendency for people to see themselves as better than average (self-enhancement), although the universality of this phenomenon is contested. Much less well-known is the tendency for people to see themselves as more human than average (self-humanizing). We examined these biases in six diverse nations: Australia, Germany, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and the USA. Both biases were found in all nations. The self-humanizing effect was obtained independent of self-enhancement, and was stronger than self-enhancement in two nations (Germany and Japan). Self-humanizing was not specific to Western or English-speaking cultures and its magnitude was less cross-culturally variable than self-enhancement. Implications of these findings for research on the self and its biases are discussed.

Academic Course Evaluation: Theoretical and Empirical Distinctions Between Self-Rated Gain in Competences and Satisfaction with Teaching Behavior

This article contributes to the conceptual and empirical distinction between (the assessment of) appraisals of teaching behavior and (the assessment of) self-reported competence acquirement within academic course evaluation. The Bologna Process, the current higher-education reform in Europe, emphasizes education aimed toward vocationally oriented competences and demands the certification of acquired competences. Currently available evaluation questionnaires measure the students’ satisfaction with a lecturer’s behavior, whereas the “Evaluation in Higher Education: Self-Assessed Competences” (HEsaCom) measures the students’ personal benefit in terms of competences. In a sample of 1403 German students, we administered a scale of satisfaction with teaching behavior and the German version of the HEsaCom at the same time. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the estimated correlations between the various scales of self-rated competences and teaching behavior appraisals were moderate to strong, yet the constructs...

Affective Dimensions of Intergroup Humiliation

Despite the wealth of theoretical claims about the emotion of humiliation and its effect on human relations, there has been a lack of empirical research investigating what it means to experience humiliation. We studied the affective characteristics of humiliation, comparing the emotional experience of intergroup humiliation to two other emotions humiliation is often confused with: anger and shame. The defining characteristics of humiliation were low levels of guilt and high levels of other-directed outrage (like anger and unlike shame), and high levels of powerlessness (like shame and unlike anger). Reasons for the similarities and differences of humiliation with anger and shame are discussed in terms of perceptions of undeserved treatment and injustice. Implications for understanding the behavioral consequences of humiliation and future work investigating the role of humiliation in social life are discussed.

Bringing science to bear-on peace, not war: Elaborating on psychology's potential to promote peace

We argue that psychological and contextual factors play important roles in bringing about, facilitating, and escalating violent conflict. Yet rather than conclude that violent conflict is inevitable, we believe psychologys contributions can extend beyond understanding the origins and nature of violent conflict, to promote nonviolence and peace. In this article, we summarize psychological perspectives on the conditions and motivations underlying violent conflict. Drawing on this work, we then discuss psychological and contextual factors that can mitigate violence and war and promote nonviolence and peace.

America and the Age of Genocide: Labeling a Third-Party Conflict “Genocide” Decreases Support for Intervention Among Ingroup-Glorifying Americans Because They Down-Regulate Guilt and Perceived Responsibility to Intervene

Drawing on research on the collapse of compassion and group processes and interrelations, four experiments investigated how labeling a conflict “genocide” affects distant bystanders’ support for intervention. The genocide label (compared with no label or the label “not a genocide”) weakened Americans’ support for intervention in a crisis analogous to Darfur. Ingroup glorification moderated this effect such that the genocide label decreased support at high levels of glorification (Studies 1-3). Ingroup attachment, if anything, moderated such that the genocide label increased support at high levels of attachment (Studies 1 and 3). Importantly, the effects occurred even when controlling for conservatism (Studies 1 and 3), gender, religion, military affiliation, and level of education (Study 2). Decreases in anticipated guilt over possible nonintervention (Studies 1 and 3) among high glorifiers, and a subsequent decrease in perceived obligation to intervene (Study 3), mediated the effect of the genocide label on support for intervention.

Empathic people have more friends: Empathic abilities predict social network size and position in social network predicts empathic efforts

Abstract Living in large groups and maintaining extensive social relationships, as humans do, requires special social capabilities. Past research has shown that social cognitive abilities predict people’s social network size. To extend these findings we explored the role of a social emotional ability, and investigated how empathic abilities shape people’s social network. In line with the social brain hypothesis the findings show that dispositional empathic abilities (IRI), and empathic concern specifically, predict how many close relationships people maintain. The study also found that emphatic abilities are strategically used in people’s social network, with more empathy exercised in the support group with closer relationships. The findings further demonstrate the social function of empathy and highlight the importance of understanding empathy in terms of its strategic exercise among various social relationships.