Danny Osborne

An Attributional Analysis of Reactions to Poverty: The Political Ideology of the Giver and the Perceived Morality of the Receiver

An attributional analysis of reactions to poverty is presented. The article begins by discussing the perceived causes of poverty and their taxonomic properties (locus, stability, and controllability). One antecedent of causal beliefs, political ideology, is then examined in detail, followed by a review of the effects of causal beliefs on emotions and behavior. It is contended that helping the poor is a moral issue, but the moral evaluation concerns the targeted recipient of aid rather than the potential help giver. Persons perceived as responsible for their plight, a dominant construal for conservatives, elicit anger and neglect. In contrast, those seen as not responsible for their financial hardship, an outlook predominantly endorsed by liberals, arouse sympathy and help giving. Sympathy is the most important proximal determinant of aid. This analysis is extended to reactions to achievement failure, abortion, and rape. Policy implications are also examined.

Through Rose-Colored Glasses System-Justifying Beliefs Dampen the Effects of Relative Deprivation on Well-Being and Political Mobilization

Individual-based and group-based forms of relative deprivation (IRD and GRD, respectively) are linked with individual- and group-based responses to inequality, respectively. System justification theory, however, argues that we are motivated to believe that people’s outcomes are equitably determined. As such, endorsement of system-justifying beliefs should dampen people’s reactions to outcomes perceived to be unequal and ultimately undermine support for political mobilization. We examined these hypotheses in a national probability sample of New Zealanders (N = 6,886). As expected, IRD predicted individual-based responses to inequality (i.e., satisfaction with one’s standard of living and psychological distress) better than GRD. Conversely, GRD predicted group-based responses to inequality (i.e., perceived discrimination against one’s group and support for political mobilization) better than IRD. Each of these relationships was, however, notably weaker among participants who were high, relative to low, on system justification. These results demonstrate that system-justifying beliefs have a palliative effect on people’s experiences with inequality.

More Than a Feeling Discrete Emotions Mediate the Relationship Between Relative Deprivation and Reactions to Workplace Furloughs

A key insight from investigations of individual relative deprivation (IRD) is that people can experience objective disadvantages differently. In this study, university faculty (N = 953) who reported greater IRD in response to a mandatory furlough (i.e., involuntary pay reductions) were more likely to (a) voice options designed to improve the university (voice), (b) consider leaving their job (exit), and (c) neglect their work responsibilities (neglect), but were (d) less likely to express loyalty to the university (loyalty). Consistent with the emotions literature, (a) anger mediated the relationship between IRD and voice, (b) fear between IRD and exit, (c) sadness between IRD and neglect, and (d) gratitude between IRD and loyalty. IRD was inversely associated with self-reported physical and mental health via these different emotional pathways. These results show how discrete emotions can explain responses to IRD and, in turn, contribute to organizational viability and the health of its members.

Demographic and Psychological Predictors of Panel Attrition: Evidence from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study

This study examines attrition rates over the first four years of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a longitudinal national panel sample of New Zealand adults. We report the base rate and covariates for the following four distinct classes of respondents: explicit withdrawals, lost respondents, intermittent respondents and constant respondents. A multinomial logistic regression examined an extensive range of demographic and socio-psychological covariates (among them the Big-Six personality traits) associated with membership in these classes (N = 5,814). Results indicated that men, Māori and Asian peoples were less likely to be constant respondents. Conscientiousness and Honesty-Humility were also positively associated with membership in the constant respondent class. Notably, the effect sizes for the socio-psychological covariates of panel attrition tended to match or exceed those of standard demographic covariates. This investigation broadens the focus of research on panel attrition beyond demographics by including a comprehensive set of socio-psychological covariates. Our findings show that core psychological covariates convey important information about panel attrition, and are practically important to the management of longitudinal panel samples like the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study.

Missing in (Collective) Action: Ideology, System Justification, and the Motivational Antecedents of Two Types of Protest Behavior

Social-psychological models of collective action emphasize three antecedents of protest: (a) anger at perceived injustice, (b) social identification, and (c) beliefs about group efficacy. These models are extremely useful but have rarely incorporated ideological factors—despite the fact that protests occur in societal contexts in which some people are motivated to defend and bolster the status quo whereas others are motivated to challenge and oppose it. We adopt a system-justification perspective to specify when individuals and groups will—and will not—experience moral outrage and whether such outrage will be directed at defenders versus critics of the status quo. We describe evidence that epistemic, existential, and relational needs for certainty, security, and affiliation undermine support for system-challenging protests by increasing system-defensive motivation. We also discuss system-based emotions and backlash against protestors and propose an integrated model of collective action that paves the way for more comprehensive research on the psychological antecedents of social change.

After the disaster: Using the Big-Five to predict changes in mental health among survivors of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine individual differences in peoples resilience to changes in psychological distress following the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Design/methodology/approach – Data were based on a subsample of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS) – an annual nation-wide longitudinal study of New Zealand adults that began in 2009. In both waves of the NZAVS examined here, participants completed measures of the Big-Five, psychological distress, and demographic covariates. As such, the analyses, which focus on participants who were living in the Canterbury region before the 2011 earthquake (n=325), use measures of personality collected in late October of 2010 (Time 1) to predict changes in psychological distress after the devastation that unfolded on 22 February 2011. Findings – Time 1 levels of Emotional Stability were inversely associated with increases in psychological distress following the 2011 earthquake. Psychological distress assessed at Time 1...

Perceived discrimination predicts increased support for political rights and life satisfaction mediated by ethnic identity: a longitudinal analysis

OBJECTIVES The aim of the current research is to test predictions derived from the rejection-identification model and research on collective action using cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) methods. Specifically, an integration of these 2 literatures suggests that recognition of discrimination can have simultaneous positive relationships with well-being and engagement in collective action via the formation of a strong ingroup identity. METHOD We test these predictions in 2 studies using data from a large national probability sample of Māori (the indigenous peoples of New Zealand), collected as part of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (Ns for Study 1 and 2 were 1,981 and 1,373, respectively). RESULTS Consistent with the extant research, Study 1 showed that perceived discrimination was directly linked with decreased life satisfaction, but indirectly linked with increased life satisfaction through higher levels of ethnic identification. Perceived discrimination was also directly linked with increased support for Māori rights and indirectly linked with increased support for Māori rights through higher levels of ethnic identification. Study 2 replicated these findings using longitudinal data and identified multiple bidirectional paths between perceived discrimination, ethnic identity, well-being, and support for collective action. CONCLUSION These findings replicate and extend the rejection-identification model in a novel cultural context by demonstrating via cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal (Study 2) analyses that the recognition of discrimination can both motivate support for political rights and increase well-being by strengthening ingroup identity. (PsycINFO Database Record

Eyewitness identifications are affected by stereotypes about a suspect’s level of perceived stereotypicality:

Mistaken identifications are the primary cause of wrongful convictions. Though studies have examined when these errors are likely to occur, none have specified whom these errors are most likely to affect. We address this oversight by arguing that the type of crime committed affects whom eyewitnesses misidentify. Study 1 demonstrated that people have stereotypes about a perpetrator’s appearance that vary by the crime committed. Study 2 showed that these stereotypes affect identifications in a stereotype-consistent manner—participants who believed they saw a target accused of a stereotypically Black crime remembered him as being higher on perceived stereotypicality (viz., having more Afrocentric features) than did participants who believed they saw a target accused of a stereotypically White crime. This finding was replicated in Study 3 using a different pair of crimes. These studies demonstrate that the type of crime committed systematically affects whom eyewitnesses mistakenly identify.

Personality Resilience Following a Natural Disaster

We examine changes in the Big Six personality markers (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness to Experience, and Honesty–Humility) before and after the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes in a longitudinal study of New Zealand residents (N = 3,914). Results show remarkable stability in personality, save for one exception: Those who were affected by the earthquakes evidenced a slight decrease in Emotional Stability over the 2-year test–retest period relative to those unaffected by the earthquakes. These findings indicate that most aspects of personality are resilient following a major natural disaster. The slight decrease in Emotional Stability, however, points to a possible increase in vulnerability to depression and anxiety for those affected by the earthquakes. Our study provides important insights into a central question about stability and change in personality following major life events.

Vote Compass in the 2014 New Zealand election: Hearing the voice of New Zealand voters

Vote Compass – an online voter education tool originating in Canada – was used for the first time in New Zealand during the 2014 general election. During its inaugural run, over 330,000 New Zealanders visited the Vote Compass website to answer 30 policy- or issue-based questions. In return, respondents received a report on how close their views were to 10 political parties seeking office. Due to the large sample size, these data provided Television New Zealand with unique insights into voters’ views that could also be related to party policies and campaign events by academic commentators. After explaining the nature of the tool and describing the composition of the New Zealand-based team, this article examines the implications that Vote Compass has for party responsiveness and political marketing. In particular, we note the importance of Vote Compass not just for market-oriented policy, but for the overall leadership brand, including its ability to deliver on promised goods. The article also reflects on the contribution that the tool makes to voter engagement and democracy in general. Lastly, it provides a summary of the overall Vote Compass data from the main survey items and marketing-related post-election survey data in an appendix for academics to use in their own research and teaching in future.