Browsing by Author "Bilewicz, Michal"

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    High economic inequality is linked to greater moralization
    (2024) Kirkland, Kelly; Van Lange, Paul A. M.; Gorenz, Drew; Blake, Khandis; Amiot, Catherine E.; Ausmees, Liisi; Baguma, Peter; Barry, Oumar; Becker, Maja; Bilewicz, Michal; Boonyasiriwat, Watcharaporn; Booth, Robert W.; Castelain, Thomas; Costantini, Giulio; Dimdins, Girts; Espinosa, Agustin; Finchilescu, Gillian; Fischer, Ronald; Friese, Malte; Gomez, Angel; Gonzalez, Roberto; Goto, Nobuhiko; Halama, Peter; Hurtado-Parrado, Camilo; Ilustrisimo, Ruby D.; Jiga-Boy, Gabriela M.; Kuppens, Peter; Loughnan, Steve; Mastor, Khairul A.; McLatchie, Neil; Novak, Lindsay M.; Onyekachi, Blessing N.; Rizwan, Muhammad; Schaller, Mark; Serafimovska, Eleonora; Suh, Eunkook M.; Swann Jr, William B.; Tong, Eddie M. W.; Torres, Ana; Turner, Rhiannon N.; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Vinogradov, Alexander; Wang, Zhechen; Yeung, Victoria Wai Lan; Bastian, Brock
    Throughout the 21st century, economic inequality is predicted to increase as we face new challenges, from changes in the technological landscape to the growing climate crisis. It is crucial we understand how these changes in inequality may affect how people think and behave. We propose that economic inequality threatens the social fabric of society, in turn increasing moralization-that is, the greater tendency to employ or emphasize morality in everyday life-as an attempt to restore order and control. Using longitudinal data from X, formerly known as Twitter, our first study demonstrates that high economic inequality is associated with greater use of moral language online (e.g. the use of words such as "disgust", "hurt", and "respect'). Study 2 then examined data from 41 regions around the world, generally showing that higher inequality has a small association with harsher moral judgments of people's everyday actions. Together these findings demonstrate that economic inequality is linked to the tendency to see the world through a moral lens.
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    Moral Expansiveness Around the World: The Role of Societal Factors Across 36 Countries
    (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2022) Kirkland, Kelly; Crimston, Charlie R.; Jetten, Jolanda; Rudnev, Maksim; Acevedo-Triana, Cesar; Amiot, Catherine E.; Ausmees, Liisi; Baguma, Peter; Barry, Oumar; Becker, Maja; Bilewicz, Michal; Boonyasiriwat, Watcharaporn; Castelain, Thomas; Costantini, Giulio; Dimdins, Girts; Espinosa, Agustin; Finchilescu, Gillian; Fischer, Ronald; Friese, Malte; Gastardo-Conaco, Maria Cecilia; Gomez, Angel; Gonzalez, Roberto; Goto, Nobuhiko; Halama, Peter; Jiga-Boy, Gabriela M.; Kuppens, Peter; Loughnan, Steve; Markovik, Marijana; Mastor, Khairul A.; McLatchie, Neil; Novak, Lindsay M.; Onyekachi, Blessing N.; Peker, Mujde; Rizwan, Muhammad; Schaller, Mark; Suh, Eunkook M.; Talaifar, Sanaz; Tong, Eddie M. W.; Torres, Ana; Turner, Rhiannon N.; Van Lange, Paul A. M.; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Vinogradov, Alexander; Wang, Zhechen; Yeung, Victoria Wai Lan; Bastian, Brock
    What are the things that we think matter morally, and how do societal factors influence this? To date, research has explored several individual-level and historical factors that influence the size of our 'moral circles.' There has, however, been less attention focused on which societal factors play a role. We present the first multi-national exploration of moral expansiveness-that is, the size of people's moral circles across countries. We found low generalized trust, greater perceptions of a breakdown in the social fabric of society, and greater perceived economic inequality were associated with smaller moral circles. Generalized trust also helped explain the effects of perceived inequality on lower levels of moral inclusiveness. Other inequality indicators (i.e., Gini coefficients) were, however, unrelated to moral expansiveness. These findings suggest that societal factors, especially those associated with generalized trust, may influence the size of our moral circles.
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    Need Satisfaction in Intergroup Contact: A Multinational Study of Pathways Toward Social Change
    (AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC, 2022) Hassler, Tabea; Ullrich, Johannes; Sebben, Simone; Shnabel, Nurit; Bernardino, Michelle; Valdenegro, Daniel; Van Laar, Colette; Gonzalez, Roberto; Visintin, Emilio Paolo; Tropp, Linda R.; Ditlmann, Ruth K.; Abrams, Dominic; Aydin, Anna Lisa; Pereira, Adrienne; Selvanathan, Hema Preya; von Zimmermann, Jorina; Lantos, Nora Anna; Sainz, Mario; Glenz, Andreas; Kende, Anna; Oberpfalzerova, Hana; Bilewicz, Michal; Brankovic, Marija; Noor, Masi; Pasek, Michael H.; Wright, Stephen C.; Zezelj, Iris; Kuzawinska, Olga; Maloku, Edona; Otten, Sabine; Gul, Pelin; Bareket, Orly; Biruski, Dinka Corkalo; Mugnol Ugarte, Luiza; Osin, Evgeny; Baiocco, Roberto; Cook, Jonathan E.; Dawood, Maneeza; Droogendyk, Lisa; Loyo, Angelica Herrera; Jelic, Margareta; Kelmendi, Kaltrina; Pistella, Jessica
    What role does intergroup contact play in promoting support for social change toward greater social equality? Drawing on the needs-based model of reconciliation, we theorized that when inequality between groups is perceived as illegitimate, disadvantaged group members will experience a need for empowerment and advantaged group members a need for acceptance. When intergroup contact satisfies each group's needs, it should result in more mutual support for social change. Using four sets of survey data collected through the Zurich Intergroup Project in 23 countries, we tested several preregistered predictions, derived from the above reasoning, across a large variety of operationalizations. Two studies of disadvantaged groups (Ns = 689 ethnic minority members in Study 1 and 3,382 sexual/gender minorities in Study 2) support the hypothesis that, after accounting for the effects of intergroup contact and perceived illegitimacy, satisfying the need for empowerment (but not acceptance) during contact is positively related to support for social change. Two studies with advantaged groups (Ns = 2,937 ethnic majority members in Study 3 and 4,203 cis-heterosexual individuals in Study 4) showed that, after accounting for illegitimacy and intergroup contact, satisfying the need for acceptance (but also empowerment) is positively related to support for social change. Overall, findings suggest that intergroup contact is compatible with efforts to promote social change when group-specific needs are met. Thus, to encourage support for social change among both disadvantaged and advantaged group members, it is essential that, besides promoting mutual acceptance, intergroup contact interventions also give voice to and empower members of disadvantaged groups.
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    Social mindfulness predicts concern for nature and immigrants across 36 nations
    (2022) Kirkland, Kelly; Van Lange, Paul A. M.; Van Doesum, Niels J.; Acevedo-Triana, Cesar; Amiot, Catherine E.; Ausmees, Liisi; Baguma, Peter; Barry, Oumar; Becker, Maja; Bilewicz, Michal; Boonyasiriwat, Watcharaporn; Castelain, Thomas; Costantini, Giulio; Dimdins, Girts; Espinosa, Agustin; Finchilescu, Gillian; Fischer, Ronald; Friese, Malte; Gomez, Angel; Gonzalez, Roberto; Goto, Nobuhiko; Halama, Peter; Ilustrisimo, Ruby D.; Jiga-Boy, Gabriela M.; Kuppens, Peter; Loughnan, Steve; Markovik, Marijana; Mastor, Khairul A.; McLatchie, Neil; Novak, Lindsay M.; Onyishi, Ike E.; Peker, Mujde; Rizwan, Muhammad; Schaller, Mark; Suh, Eunkook M.; Swann, William B., Jr.; Tong, Eddie M. W.; Torres, Ana; Turner, Rhiannon N.; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Vinogradov, Alexander; Wang, Zhechen; Yeung, Victoria Wai Lan; Bastian, Brock
    People cooperate every day in ways that range from largescale contributions that mitigate climate change to simple actions such as leaving another individual with choice - known as social mindfulness. It is not yet clear whether and how these complex and more simple forms of cooperation relate. Prior work has found that countries with individuals who made more socially mindful choices were linked to a higher country environmental performance - a proxy for complex cooperation. Here we replicated this initial finding in 41 samples around the world, demonstrating the robustness of the association between social mindfulness and environmental performance, and substantially built on it to show this relationship extended to a wide range of complex cooperative indices, tied closely to many current societal issues. We found that greater social mindfulness expressed by an individual was related to living in countries with more social capital, more community participation and reduced prejudice towards immigrants. Our findings speak to the symbiotic relationship between simple and more complex forms of cooperation in societies.