Lorena Gil de Montes

Linguistic Signatures of Regulatory Focus: How Abstraction Fits Promotion More Than Prevention

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated how strategic inclinations associated with promotion versus prevention orientations--that is, eager approach versus vigilant avoidance, respectively--affect the use of language. It is hypothesized that eager promotion strategies used to attain desired end states entail using more abstract language than used with vigilant prevention strategies. This is shown to hold for experimentally induced relationship goals (Experiment 1) and communication goals (Experiment 2). In the 3rd experiment, the authors examined the impact of abstractly and concretely worded messages upon the behavioral intentions of chronically prevention- and promotion-oriented individuals and found support for the hypothesis that behavioral intentions to engage in specific activities are stronger when there is a fit between message wording and chronic orientation than when there is no fit. The broader implications of these findings are discussed.

Communication constraints on the linguistic intergroup bias

We examined whether the linguistic intergroup bias (LIB) is a context-free, invariant process or influenced by communicative purpose. The reported experiment shows that biased language use (positive behaviors of a partner and negative behaviors of an opponent are described with abstract predicates, negative partner and positive opponent behaviors are described with concrete predicates) occurs only when the communication has a clear purpose, but not when it does not. The implications of communicative purpose as a constraint on the psychological processes driving the LIB are discussed as well as the possible impact of biased language use upon recipients.

HIV- and AIDS-related stigma: psychosocial aspects in a representative Spanish sample.

This study evaluates the prevalence of HIV stigma in Spain and analyzes some variables that may affect its existence. In 2008, we conducted a computer-assisted telephone survey of 1607 people, representative of the Spanish population. Two-wave random stratified sampling was performed, first selecting the home and then the person, depending on the rates of age and sex. About 50% of the population feels discomfort about potential contact with people with HIV and tries to avoid it and 20% advocate discriminatory policies involving physical or social segregation of people with HIV. The belief that HIV is easily transmitted through social contact (15%) and blaming people with HIV for their disease (19.3%) are associated with stigmatization. Degree of proximity to people with HIV, political ideology, educational level, and age are also associated with the degree of stigmatization. According to these results, we suggest that, in order to reduce stigma, we need to modify the erroneous beliefs about the transmission pathways, decrease attributions of blame to people with HIV, and increase contact with them. These interventions should particularly target older people, people with a low educational level, and people with a more conservative political ideology.

Understanding an Ebola outbreak: Social representations of emerging infectious diseases:

This study examined the collective image of the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak, to understand how people incorporate this epidemic in their everyday thinking. A free association exercise elicited by Ebola was answered by 294 people from Spain and the content was analysed using Alceste software. First, results showed that Ebola was represented as inherently African. Second, it was also depicted as a global threat creating fear. People also felt anger, and they blamed political authorities and the mass media for the failure to manage this crisis. Finally, this research underlines the importance of the social representations to understand how current outbreaks are cognitively represented and emotionally faced as a key factor to appropriately manage future epidemics.

Ebola in the Public Sphere: A Comparison Between Mass Media and Social Networks

This study examines how Ebola is transformed from purely scientific knowledge to public’s thinking through media communication, using Spain as a case study. To do so, this research carried out a lexical analysis in both classic media communication and social network communication (Twitter). The results showed that traditional news used a reified discourse pattern prescribing the discourse of scientists and authorities. Tweets, in contrast, adhered to a consensual pattern of discourse, characterized by heterogeneity of representation and intensive symbolic ideas. The implications of this familiarization of knowledge about science via media communication and the effect of social networks on how we should face future epidemics are considered.

Enmarcamiento y el rechazo o aceptación de los aspectos generales y específicos de la Ley de Igualdad de Género en España: representaciones sociales y regulaciones normativas

Resumen En los dos estudios presentados se analiza el rol de los elementos periféricos y centrales de las representaciones sociales en función de a) la inducción de la implicación del self con el objeto vs. la no implicación y b) el enmarcamiento del mensaje (eliminar la discriminación vs. promocionar la igualdad) en el caso de la Ley Igualdad de Género en España. El primer estudio, manipulando el contexto normal (tú mismo) versus sustitución (la sociedad en general), produce una aceptación diferencial de la ley en general: mayor en la condición normal y menor en la de sustitución. El segundo estudio, añadiendo la condición de enmarcamiento—restaurativo vs. promoter—encuentra que el enmarcamiento no influye en la aceptación de los aspectos generales de la ley, y sí lo hace, sin embargo, en los aspectos específicos de la ley. Finalmente, se defiende la pertinencia de la teoría de las Representaciones Sociales para explicar las diferentes lógicas que el meta-sistema induce en la actuación de las operaciones cognitivas.

El sesgo lingüístico intergrupal: el efecto de la valencia de las categorías lingüísticas

ResumenEl nivel de abstraccion del lenguaje puede ser un medio de transmision y mantenimiento de estereotipos, tal como propone el Sesgo Linguistico Intergrupal (Maass et al.,1989). En este estudio se analiza el uso diferencial del nivel de abstraccion del lenguaje producidopor dos grupos en conflicto (HB y Gesto por la Paz) cuando dan razonamientos referentes a acciones bien congruentes o bien incongruentes con su propio grupo. Mediante un diseno 2 (congruencia de la accion) x 2 (valencia de los verbos utilizados en los razonamientos), se analizara si son los procesos motivacionales o los cognitivos los que llevan a los participantes a una utilizacion sesgada del lenguaje (Sesgo Linguistico Intergrupal). Finalmente, los resultados del estudio seran explicados haciendo referencia a las diferentes teorias que en este caso puedan explicar el Sesgo Linguistico Intergrupal, asi como al contexto socio-politico en que conviven ambos grupos.

Communication and representation of risk in health crises: the influence of framing and group identity / Comunicación en crisis sanitarias y representación del riesgo. La influencia del framing y la identidad grupal

Abstract Based on the Social Representations Theory (SRT) applied to the social construction of risk and the role played by group identities, this study examines the construction of risk created by the mass media in health epidemics. An experimental design with split-ballot questionnaire and 319 participants was used in which message framing (human interest vs. attribution of responsibility) and proximity (high vs. low) were manipulated for a high invulnerability identity (youth) vs. a low invulnerability identity (elderly) population. Results showed that the human interest framing increased the perception of risk, especially when the proximity of the epidemic was high; this effect was explained by people’s emotional response. Furthermore, youth projected the risk towards ‘the other’ in order to protect their invulnerability identity. Finally, we stress the importance of the SRT on a theoretical and applied level for risk communication in health crises.

Representaciones sociales y enmarcamiento: igualdad de género y regulaciones normativas

The framing of the message as promoter of gains or restorer of losses and its relationship with Self-orientations is analyzed in relation to the acceptance or rejection of the Law on Gender Equality, passed by the Spanish Parliament in 2007. Two independent studies were designed with psychology students (93 women and 47 men).The first study manipulated both the framing of the message and permanent Self-orientation; and the second manipulated the framing of the message, as well as inducing Self-orientations. Results show stability of core elements of the law and differences in specific aspects. The relevance and importance of the Theory of Social Representations to analyze this phenomenon is discussed.