Mir Rabiul Islam

Social Identification and Political Preferences for One Nation: The Role of Symbolic Racism

Abstract The relationship between measures of racial prejudice and support for Pauline Hansons One Nation Party was examined in two postal surveys based on a random sample of names from electoral rolls covering the McMillan electorate (a marginal rural Victorian seat). Support for Pauline Hanson and likelihood of voting for One Nation were strongly related to a scale measuring an Australian version of the construct of symbolic racism, and were moderately related to a measure of blatant, old-fashioned racism. Symbolic racism is defined as the use of affective responses and beliefs that are well accepted within a dominant majority racial group as justifying its advantaged position. Symbolic racism was strongly related to a measure of relational orientation, reflecting concern over the relative position of ones own and other racial groups. This suggests that symbolic racism beliefs may be motivated by social identity processes, where white European Australians regard their culture as the real, mainstream A...

The role of personality variables in predicting attitudes toward people with intellectual disability: An Australian perspective.

BACKGROUND Personality dimensions such as openness and agreeableness have been found to be associated with prejudice levels towards several minority groups. Yet these variables have been mostly ignored by existing research into attitudes towards people with intellectual disability (PWID), which has primarily focused on contact and demographic variables. The current study investigated the relationship between personality dimensions and attitudes toward PWID. METHODS An online survey was completed by 466 adult participants recruited through a variety of sources. The survey consisted of a well-validated attitude survey, the Big Five inventory, contact related and demographic questions. RESULTS The hypothesis that higher levels of the personality dimensions openness and agreeableness would be significantly associated with positive attitudes towards PWID was supported. However the effect was relatively weak and the strongest predicting factor of positive attitudes was increased quality of contact with PWID. More positive attitudes were also associated with females, more highly educated and younger participants. CONCLUSIONS Results provide support for an integrated (including person and situational factors) theoretical approach to attitudes research in this field. Practically, results support programmes that stimulate and promote quality interactions between PWID and the wider community.

The Changing Role of Women in Resilience, Recovery and Economic Development at the Intersection of Recurrent Disaster: A Case Study from Sirajgang, Bangladesh

Two million people were affected in the floodplains and low-lying areas in Sirajgang in 2012. Seven hundred and fifty families were made homeless and forced to live in small temporary huts on the river protection embankments. Unemployment rose alarmingly and the jobless left their villages to find work in larger cities, leaving behind their vulnerable and insecure families. Consequently, women were increasingly required to take on totally unfamiliar roles. Our research utilised in-depth interviews with women managing without the support of their husbands. Key findings highlighted that community resilience would improve if these women were engaged at the local operational level of disaster management.

Cultural differences in athlete attributions for success and failure: The sports pages revisited

Self-serving biases in attribution, while found with relative consistency in research with Western samples, have rarely been found in Japanese samples typically recruited for research. However, research conducted with Japanese participants to date has tended to use forced-choice and/or reactive paradigms, with school or university students, focusing mainly on academic performance or arbitrary and/or researcher-selected tasks. This archival study explored whether self-serving attributional biases would be shown in the real-life attributions for sporting performance made by elite Olympic athletes from Japan and Australia. Attributions (N = 216) were extracted from the sports pages of Japanese and Australian newspapers and rated by Australian judges for locus and controllability. It was hypothesized that Australian, but not Japanese, athletes would show self-serving biases such that they attributed wins to causes more internal and controllable than the causes to which they attributed losses. Contrary to predictions, self-serving biases were shown to at least some extent by athletes of both nationalities. Both Australian and Japanese men attributed wins to causes more internal than those to which they attributed losses. Women, however, attributed wins and losses to causes that did not differ significantly in terms of locus. All athletes tended to attribute wins to causes that were more controllable than the causes to which losses were attributed. Results are inconsistent with a large body of research suggesting that Japanese do not show self-serving biases in attribution, and are discussed in the light of differences in methodology, context, and participants that may have contributed to these effects.

Adaptive flood mobilities in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT Global climate change has altered the efficacy of traditional responses to flooding in Bangladesh and has necessitated the adoption of new actions, social networks and mobilities to strengthen the ongoing viability of the community. These changes need to be accompanied by appropriate government responses. We examined these changing mobilities in Bangladesh by first classifying them according to the relevant characteristics of emergency mobilities as described by Adey (anticipation, coordination, absence and difference) and then applying, as appropriate, one or more of Sheller and Urry’s six essential bodies of mobility theory to provide a dynamic analysis from which to generate policy responses. Major findings specific to Bangladesh include the criticality of social networks and the mobility of gender roles due to flood-related migration. The policy implications, situated at the confluence of cultural tradition, the imperative to survive and current government policy which does not encourage mobility, focus on reconceptualising the use of land space to envisage a new paradigm of support for emergency mobility and resourcing people movement. Future research could apply this novel data analysis approach to other migration situations, with the purpose of informing emergency mobility policy.