Simona Sacchi

I Belong, therefore, I Exist: Ingroup Identification, Ingroup Entitativity, and Ingroup Bias

Merging insights from the intergroup relations literature and terror management theory, the authors conducted an experiment in which they assessed the impact of death-related thoughts on a series of ingroup measures. Participants in the mortality-salience condition displayed stronger ingroup identification, perceived greater ingroup entitativity, and scored higher on ingroup bias measures. Also, perceived ingroup entitativity as well as ingroup identification mediated the effect of the mortality salience manipulation on ingroup bias. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of intergroup relations and terror management theory. A new perspective on the function of group belonging also is presented.

The Perception of the Other in International Relations: Evidence for the Polarizing Effect of Entitativity

In an international relations context, the mutual images held by actors affect their mutual expectations about the Others behavior and guide the interpretation of the Others actions. Here it is argued that the effect of these images is moderated by the degree of entitativity of the Other-that is, the extent to which it is perceived as a real entity. Two studies tested this hypothesis by manipulating the entitativity of the European Union (EU) among U.S. citizens whose images of the EU varied along the enemy/ally dimension. Results of these studies yielded converging evidence in support of the hypothesized moderating effect of entitativity. Specifically, entitativity showed a polarizing effect on the relationship between the image of the EU and judgments of harmfulness of actions carried out by the EU.

Impure Procedural Justice in Climate Governance Systems

Climate change governance is extremely challenging because of both the intrinsic difficulty of the issues at stake and the plurality of values and worldviews. For these reasons, the ethical concerns that characterise climate change should also be meaningfully addressed through a specific version of procedural justice. Accordingly, in this article we adopt an impure notion of procedural justice. On this theoretical basis, we define relevant fairness criteria and contextualise them for climate governance systems. Then, we empirically justify fairness criteria against a critical and divisive element for the future governance of the Green Climate Fund, i.e., the no-objection procedure. The article concludes with some considerations prompted by the analysis.

Procedural Justice in International Negotiations on Climate Change

International negotiations on climate change are among the most difficult ever conducted worldwide because, besides the intrinsic complexity of the issues at stake, they are still pervaded by a plurality of values and views of the world which ultimately produces harsh and apparently insurmountable conflicts among countries. For these reasons, and with a view to the greater applicability of procedural justice to diverse pluralistic contexts of analysis, the ethical issues that characterize climate negotiations can be more usefully addressed by means of a specific version of proceduralism – that is, impure proceduralism. The aim of the article is therefore to set out a notion of impure procedural justice suitable for climate negotiations. To this end, it defines and empirically tests relevant fairness criteria in the formal negotiating setting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Our analysis shows that the single most important determinant of impure proceduralism, as evinced by the test conducted on fairness criteria, is information. It is finally argued that information can be enhanced in order to increase the fairness of processes and procedures when, consistently with Hampshire’s principle of adversary argument, all parties have an opportunity to be heard whilst advancing their cases.

Maladaptive personality traits, defense mechanisms, and trans-negative attitudes

ABSTRACT Purpose: Although there is growing interest in trans-negative attitudes and behaviors, few studies have investigated the psychological variables associated with them. The present study aims to assess the relationship between psychopathological symptoms, defensive style, personality traits and negative attitudes toward transgender people. Methods: Participants (N = 165) were asked to complete several questionnaires assessing their psychopathological symptoms (SCL-90-R), defensive style (REM-71), maladaptive personality traits (PID-5-BF), antitransgender attitudes (ATTI), and sociodemographic characteristics. A four-step hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was carried out to investigate the predictive role of such variables on antitransgender attitudes. Results: We found a significant negative effect of mature defenses and a positive effect of antagonistic traits on trans-negative attitudes. Political and religious beliefs predicted trans-negative attitudes, whereas no effect was found for the other predictors. We also found a significant effect of age and an interaction effect between sexual orientation and gender, with heterosexual men showing higher levels of trans-negativity than non-heterosexual men. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of both personality and social constructs in predisposing to negative attitudes toward transgender people. Future research should therefore take into account both personality and social variables.

Testing Hypotheses About Social Targets

The information search process is a critical cognitive activity in many domains, such as in legal investigations and criminal judgments. Previous research focused on leading strategies, in particular on the use of open and matching questions. The present research aimed to explore the use of asymmetric questions, namely dichotomous queries for which the “yes” and “no” answers are not equally diagnostic, during social hypothesis testing. In Study 1 (N = 253) participants were asked to select questions to assess a social target on some moral and nonmoral attributes. Explicit instructions to avoid asymmetric strategies were introduced. In Study 2 (N = 98) participants were asked to play the role of a judge who is supposed to be impartial. Results showed that, although people spontaneously use asymmetric yes-no format questions during the information search on moral traits, in certain conditions the use of such strategies could be monitored. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.