Saulo Fernández

When extended contact opens the door to future contact: Testing the effects of extended contact on attitudes and intergroup expectancies in majority and minority groups

The present research tests whether extended contact can predict positive intergroup expectancies, as well as positive intergroup attitudes, among majority and minority group members. Our results replicate and extend prior work by showing that extended contact predicts both positive intergroup attitudes and intergroup expectancies among both majority (Spanish) and minority (immigrant) participants, even when controlling for direct friendship and the quantity and quality of prior intergroup contact. These effects are partially mediated by intergroup anxiety, perceived ingroup norms, and perceived outgroup norms, and the positive effects of extended contact on intergroup attitudes were also partially mediated by the inclusion of ingroup in the self. Additionally, the mediating role of outgroup norms was stronger among immigrant participants than among Spanish participants. Implications of these findings and the value of extended contact for promoting positive intergroup expectancies and preparing people for future contact are discussed.

My Group's Fate Is My Fate: Identity-Fused Americans and Spaniards Link Personal Life Quality to Outcome of 2008 Elections

People differ in their reactions to the outcomes of their group. Whereas some may revel in victory and mourn in defeat, others may internalize victory but distance themselves from defeat. Here, we sought to relate these divergent reactions to two forms of alignment with groups–identity fusion and group identification. Investigations of the 2008 elections in the United States and Spain revealed that people who were “fused” with their political party internalized both victory and defeat, but highly identified persons internalized only victory. We discuss how these findings bear on the conceptual distinctions between identity fusion and group identification.

The Paradox of Humiliation The Acceptance of an Unjust Devaluation of the Self

Despite growing attention the study of humiliation is receiving, there is little consensus as to how humiliation differs from other related emotions. We here argue that humiliation shares central characteristics with anger, shame, and embarrassment, but also differs from these emotions in meaningful ways. In Study 1, participants read about a professor who demeaned a student’s work. We manipulated key appraisals of this scenario and measured humiliation, shame, anger, and embarrassment, as well as the tendencies for approach and avoidance. Results indicated that humiliation arises from accepting a devaluation of the self, which, simultaneously, is appraised as unjust. Moreover, humiliation is associated with tendencies for approach and avoidance simultaneously. We replicated these results in Study 2 in which participants referred to actual experiences in their lives during which they felt humiliated, ashamed, or angry. Taken together, results provide evidence of the unique nature of humiliation as a distinct, self-conscious emotion.

Responses to Endorsement of Commonality by Ingroup and Outgroup Members The Roles of Group Representation and Threat

Two experiments integrated research on the roles of common identity and social norms in intergroup orientations. Experiment 1 demonstrated that learning that ingroup members categorized the ingroup (Spaniards) and outgroup (Eastern European immigrants) within a common identity (European) produced more positive intergroup orientations toward immigrants. By contrast, learning that outgroup members held the same position elicited less positive orientations compared with a condition in which the information came from a neutral source. The effects were mediated by one-group representations. Experiment 2 also found that endorsement of a common identity generated more positive intergroup orientations when it was expressed by ingroup than outgroup members and revealed how this effect may be sequentially mediated by personal one-group representations and symbolic threat.

Higher Moral Obligations of Tolerance Toward Other Minorities: An Extra Burden on Stigmatized Groups

In four experiments, we tested whether members of stigmatized groups are expected to be more tolerant toward other minorities than members of non-stigmatized groups and assessed the consequences of disconfirming those expectancies. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that majority group members expected members of a stigmatized group to be more tolerant toward immigrants, particularly when the stigmatized minority was perceived as having overcome the negative consequences of its victimization. When this tolerance expectation was disconfirmed, stigmatized group members were judged more immoral than members of a non-stigmatized group that held the same intolerant attitudes. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that these effects were driven by the belief that stigmatized groups should derive benefits from their suffering. These findings suggest that stigmatized groups are judged according to stricter moral standards than non-stigmatized groups because majority group members need to make meaning of the undeserved suffering experienced by victims of social stigma.

Collateral damage for ingroup members having outgroup friends: Effects of normative versus counternormative interactions with an outgroup:

When people are aware that an ingroup member has an outgroup friend, they tend to improve their intergroup attitudes, which is known as the extended contact hypothesis. Thus far, no research has tested how the perceived degree of normativity of the intergroup interaction affects the evaluation of the ingroup member through which extended contact is experienced. Results of three studies showed that when contact was normative (i.e., positive contact with a liked outgroup, or negative contact with a disliked outgroup), the ingroup member was evaluated positively, while when the contact was counternormative (i.e., negative contact with a liked outgroup or positive contact with a disliked outgroup) the ingroup member was evaluated negatively. This effect was mediated by perceived threat posed by the ingroup member who experiences the intergroup contact and perceived similarity of the participant with the ingroup member (Experiments 2–3). In summary, the perceived normativity of the extended contact affects the perception of the ingroup member who experiences the contact, turning him/her into a “white” or a “black” sheep in the eyes of the ingroup.

Psicología Social y Psicología Positiva: algunas reflexiones

Resumen La Psicología Positiva abre nuevas avenidas de investigación y teoría para todas las áreas de la Psicología, la Psicología Social incluida, disciplina que, salvo excepciones (como el caso de Peter Suedfeld, que se describe brevemente), ha prestado escasa atención a los aspectos positivos de la interacción social. Como ejemplo del valor de la posible aportación de la Psicología Positiva a la Psicología Social, se propone el estudio de la exclusión social, en un intento de mostrar cómo cambia su comprensión cuando se la analiza bajo la óptica de la Psicología Positiva. Se finaliza con unas reflexiones generales sobre la forma en que Psicología Positiva y Psicología Social pueden colaborar mutuamente y complementarse para lograr sus respectivos objetivos.