In addition to sources (e.g. scripture) that directly disseminate religious agents' minds (e.g. attitudes), an egocentric model suggests one's own mind may serve as a basis for estimating religious agents' minds. However, the egocentric model is rarely directly tested for inferences of religious agents' minds, and such tests have largely been limited to correlational methodologies, morally charged

Citizens in democracies are increasingly dissatisfied with democratic governance, distrustful of elected officials and view politicians as aloof and detached. We argue that this is, in part, due to the overrepresentation of elites in political office. We conducted four studies (N = 2009) in the U.K. focusing on the education sector. That is, we explore the impact of the overrepresentation of privately

The Roma—an ethnic minority group in Europe—continues to face high levels of discrimination. This research explores how the quality of contact between Roma and non‐Roma is associated with collective action participation for Roma rights in Spain. It examines non‐Roma as potential allies (Study 1; N = 239) and Roma (Study 2; N = 259), while considering the roles of social class, social identification

Nigeria has one of the largest youth populations in the world. Across three rounds of a total of 17 focus group discussions in and around Abuja (N = 115), we discussed the sociopolitical situation in Nigeria before and after the national elections in 2023. Participants spoke of the need for change, and in their future‐thinking, they positioned youth as key drivers for change. Through a narrative analysis

Awe is a self‐transcendent emotion generating a range of benefits at the individual and at the societal level. Yet, research within the domain of intergroup relations is scarce. Across three studies—two experimental and one cross‐sectional (total N = 2113)—we explored whether, how and for whom awe is negatively related to prejudice towards sexual minority group members (LGBT individuals) among sexual

The military is widely regarded as an extension and tool of government and society, and unreliable military behaviour during operations can have far‐reaching strategic and political consequences. Historically, literature has focused on the role of leaders in preventing disaster, emphasizing their traits, styles and attributes. Building on the Social Identity approach and High‐Reliability Organization

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, confers important psychological benefits: positive affect, social connectedness, meaning in life, self‐continuity, self‐esteem, optimism, and inspiration. Is nostalgia equally beneficial in populations that have experienced a difficult upbringing? We explored boundaries of nostalgia's psychological benefits in an experiment among Gaza Strip youth (N

The war in Ukraine has deepened ideological divides, particularly in neighbouring countries such as Romania and Moldova. This study examines how pro‐Russian supporters in these nations construct narratives to sustain moral superiority while justifying the invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on Social Identity Theory (SIT) and theoretical models of social creativity and moral disengagement, we analyse how

Numerous studies have discussed the connection between social exclusion and prosocial behaviour, yet the conclusions have been inconsistent. We conducted a three‐level meta‐analysis on 83 effect sizes derived from 53 studies (N = 21,405). Overall, a significant yet weak negative correlation was found between social exclusion and prosocial behaviour (r = −.10, 95% CI [−0.17, −0.04]). Moderator analysis

Social identification and group norms have been identified as key social psychological determinants of engagement in protective public health behaviours, such as social distancing, in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Drawing upon both social identity and balanced identity theories, the research tests the utility of a Social Identity Model of Behavioural Associations (SIMBA)—which proposes reciprocal

Almost inherently, helping occurs between people with disparate resources. Consequently, the helping dynamic can reinforce power hierarchies, particularly regarding dependency‐oriented helping (that preserves the power hierarchy) rather than autonomy‐oriented helping (that may level power hierarchies). We posit that perceived social norms regarding helping disadvantaged groups affect the tendencies

Interindividual‐intergroup discontinuity refers to the finding that groups are more competitive than individuals. Research on this phenomenon has typically compared interindividual and intergroup interactions in mixed‐motive games where both players have equal power, neglecting power differentials that often characterize social interactions in everyday life. We had three key objectives. First, we tested

People may perceive economic inequality through moral lens, focusing on the unfair distribution of resources, or as a threat to their personal and social environment. This research examines how justice‐ and threat‐based concerns shape reactions to economic inequality. In Study 1 (N = 358), we identify elements of inequality perceived as unjust or threatening and explore how these are organized into

Prejudice is a pervasive problem that affects each and every one of us. Understanding how to reduce prejudice and promote better outcomes for both individuals and societies at large is an ambitious but essential task. For decades, social psychologists have theorized about and evaluated approaches to achieve just that, and there is one that stands out from the rest: facilitating intergroup contact,

System Justification Theory (SJT) proposes that members of disadvantaged groups perceive norms to express ingroup positivity. Adherence to these norms is assumed to result in open expressions of ingroup preferences on self‐report measures while being unrelated to ingroup preferences assessed with indirect measures. We tested these assumptions with members of three disadvantaged groups: participants

When individuals committed to a certain long‐term identity goal fall short of relevant activities, they experience the state of self‐incompleteness. This motivational state leads them to prioritize the identity goal pursuit by engaging in self‐symbolizing behaviours. The present research investigates whether inducing a deliberative mindset in incomplete individuals by offering a choice will lead to

Both psychology and historical studies have addressed the question of the diffusion of collective action events, although using very different methodological approaches and with differing concepts. In the present paper, we present a novel approach, combining historiographical research methods with analytic concepts from social psychology, to explore the psychological processes underlying riot diffusion

Research has documented the identity relevance of racism perception, such that White Americans tend to deny the prevalence of racism and inequality in the United States to a greater extent than do Americans from other ethnic‐racial groups. Across two studies (N = 971), we draw on temporal comparison theory to investigate how the identity relevance of such perceptions varies across past and future temporal

Research suggests that social fear of crime and prejudice towards minority groups may be linked. We investigated (Ntotal = 7712) whether prejudice towards a social group that is stereotyped as more criminal (refugees) is more strongly associated with social fear of crime than prejudice towards a group that is less (homosexual individuals); and whether prejudice predicts social fear of crime or vice

To examine how personal preferences and social norms can influence women's occupancy of organizational leadership roles, this research compared leadership roles that differ in their stakeholder focus on private profit (PP), producing gains for shareholders, or on purpose beyond profit (PBP), producing gains for the community and society. Consistent with the greater representation of women leaders in

Feeling positively connected to other people is a basic human need. If this need is threatened by feeling lonely, people might become more susceptible to conspiracy theories to help make sense of their surroundings. Simultaneously, conspiracy beliefs could lead to loneliness because they can strain existing relationships. Using two pre‐registered longitudinal studies, we investigated the reciprocal

A central issue in adoption research is understanding why some individuals adapt to their adoption experience while others face considerable difficulties. The social identity approach (SIA) offers a valuable framework for examining this. Recent research has increasingly shown that identifying with social groups can protect and promote well‐being. However, in the context of adoption, certain groups

Conspiracy theories and beliefs against LGBTQ+ people are a recurrent theme in the political agenda, depicting them as evil actors in a larger plot, seeking to undermine societal norms, institutions, and traditional values. Lessening LGBTQ+ conspiracy beliefs is crucial to reaching more social equality, and intergroup contact might represent a useful strategy. Study 1 (N = 253) investigated the associations

Social psychological processes related to identities and stereotypes—such as threat, belonging uncertainty, identity incompatibility and bias—can be ignited by features and practices in educational contexts, often further disadvantaging members of minoritised or underrepresented groups. Such psychological processes are consequential and predict hard academic outcomes such as attainment and progression

Conspiracy theories against outgroups (e.g., the Great Replacement Conspiracy [GRC]) are believed to fuel radicalisation. Two experimental studies with British and American samples (Ntotal = 1690) examined how different GRC narratives and political ideologies influence radical collective action against Muslims and ideologically opposed political elites. We predicted that the Muslim conspirator and

The way we use animals for human consumption, medicines, and entertainment causes problems for the environment, our health, and animal welfare. This research investigated an intervention aimed at reducing harmful attitudes and behaviours towards animals. As the underlying mechanism of prejudice towards animals is similar to human outgroup prejudice, we designed an intervention based on synthesized

A future time perspective is critical to domains where outcomes of choices are delayed and potentially catastrophic: such as with agriculture where management decisions today are critical to the viability of multiple outcomes in the future. Farmers are on the front lines of climate change where shifts in rainfall and temperature threaten the viability of crop production. This reality is compounded

When people think of a utopian future, what do they imagine? We examined (a) whether people's self‐generated utopias differ by how much they criticize, seek to change or escape from an undesirable present; and (b) whether these distinct types of utopian thinking predict system‐critical attitudes and intentions to change the status quo. Participants (N = 509) wrote about a future where a social issue

Previous research has relied on characteristics of relationship behaviours (e.g., choosing/avoiding intimacy) as evidence of prioritising potential rewards over the perceived risks (i.e., interpersonal risk tolerance). Across four studies (Ntotal = 1422), we drew from psychological risk–reward models of decision‐making to test whether perceived risks, benefits, and/or risk tolerance were associated

From the playground to the boardroom, social power profoundly shapes the way people think and behave. Social psychological research has offered a nuanced understanding of the diverse psychological and behavioural tendencies of powerholders. We add to this literature by proposing that powerholders also differ in how they construe the origin of their power. Specifically, we differentiate between perceiving

In two cross‐sectional and two experimental studies across both advantaged and disadvantaged group members (Ntotal = 1980 from two national contexts, UK and Italy), we explored if perceptions of group relative prototypicality may explain the association of positive and negative contact with collective action. Specifically, across studies, we investigated subgroup relative prototypicality with respect

In the European context, North African immigrants are often perceived as a threat to societal values and resources. Studies suggest that intersected identities (e.g., gay North African immigrant) may dilute the threat associated with one of those social categories (e.g., North African immigrant). However, the mechanisms underlying this dilution effect remain largely misunderstood. Three studies (NTotal

The impacts of extreme events can intersect with pre‐disaster systemic inequalities and deficiencies, exacerbating distress. This paper contributes to the existing literature by exploring the psychosocial processes through which stressors become traumatic during an extreme event. It does so by focusing on how mothers of children and/or adolescents in the United Kingdom experienced the COVID‐19 pandemic

This paper sheds light on how spaces become contested sites for identity construction and negotiation to take place. Applying the Social Representations Approach, a qualitative study of 10 focus group discussions (n = 39), was conducted in Singapore, Malaysia and the UK to explore how, and why racialised identity construction changed in each socio‐political context. The study challenged two underlying

We examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and endorsement of honour. We studied the SES‐honour link in 5 studies (N = 13,635) with participants recruited in different world regions (the Mediterranean and MENA, East Asian, South‐East Asian, and Anglo‐Western regions) using measures that tap into various different facets of honour. Findings from these studies revealed that individuals

Critical voices within social psychology have, for some time, emphasized that context matters for understanding psychological phenomena and processes. This special issue examines what a social psychology of context, and in context, can contribute to understanding contemporary geopolitics. We argue that, in examining the interplay between social psychology and contemporary geopolitics, we can understand

We propose a new motivational model that integrates self‐determination theory (with a focus on basic needs) with social‐psychological research on allyship and solidarity to better understand when and why allies may engage in different actions to address social injustice. We theorize that normative (e.g., donations and protesting) and non‐normative (e.g., blocking highways and disrupting events) solidarity‐based

In three studies (total N = 622), the effects of threat to control on subsequent moral judgement were examined. After recalling a lack‐of‐control experience, participants evaluated the morality of a protagonist's decisions in a series of incongruent moral dilemmas. We found that a control‐threatening reminder made moral judgements more utilitarian on the deontological–utilitarian dimension, which is

Knowledge production on marginalized identities is frequently shaped by epistemic violence, which limits both the scope and methodologies of research. One example of this is the case of Kurdish identity in Turkey, where we find that methodological and epistemic problems are evident particularly in social psychological research. To summarize social psychological studies on Kurdishness, Kurdish identity

Right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) refers to an adherence to conventional values and authorities with the power to penalize groups that are perceived to challenge the cohesion of ingroup norms. Correspondingly, RWA has repeatedly been linked to negative perceptions of minoritized groups, such as refugees or religious minorities. To investigate whether and how sociocultural factors add to and moderate

This paper examines the geopolitical implications of knowledge production in psychology through two studies that respond to the growing body of work on the ‘Decolonisation of Knowledge’ and the ‘Decolonisation of Psychology’ over the past two decades. By adopting a constructivist approach, particularly through the lens of Social Representation Theory (SRT), these studies explore the ways in which geopolitical

This article reports the development and validation of the Episodic Empowerment Scale (EES): A manipulation check designed to measure a momentary psychological state. In Study 1, participants (n = 125) completed a selection of candidate items after being exposed to a low‐ or high‐power manipulation. Exploratory factor analysis was used to reduce the number of items to a brief five‐item measure. We

Degrowth‐oriented climate change mitigation policies offer inspiring possibilities for future societies. However, they require radical change to individual and collective behaviours; and research has not yet fully addressed how people may anticipate future loss and threat when confronted with such policies. This study proposes a twofold examination of anticipated reactions to pro‐environmental degrowth‐oriented

Social psychological research on race and racism has shown that claims about racism are not always accepted or received as valid reports. In this paper, I offer racial epistemics as one mechanism by which race‐talk takes place. I examine how ascribing category‐bound entitlements to experiential or other knowledge about racism is variously realised and complicated in the production of claims about racism

Over the last two decades, Social Network Analysis (SNA) has become a standard tool in various social science disciplines. In social psychology, however, the use of SNA methodology remains scarce. This research identifies gaps in SNA use in Social Psychology and offers pathways for its further development. It reviews all empirical papers using SNA published in high‐ranking social psychology journals

Collective continuity, the perception of the ingroup as an enduring temporal entity, has been linked with ingroup favouritism, negative attitudes and prejudice towards the outgroups. However, previous studies focused mainly on the perceived connection between the past and present of the group. We proposed that the expectation of a strong similarity between the present and future of the national ingroup

The ways people imagine possible futures with artificial intelligence (AI) affects future world‐making—how the future is produced through cultural propagation, design, engineering, policy, and social interaction—yet there has been little empirical study of everyday people's expectations for AI futures. We addressed this by analysing two waves (2021 and 2023) of USA nationally representative data from

Previous research on the link between temperature and prosociality has produced mixed findings. A recent meta‐analysis focusing on laboratory‐based research concluded that the effect was null, a conclusion that was subject to low ecological validity. This paper complements the discussion by investigating the link between ambient temperature and three indicators of real‐life prosociality in 164 regions

The climate and ecological crisis poses an unprecedented challenge, with scientists playing a critical role in how society understands and responds. This study examined how 27 environmentally concerned scientists from 11 countries construct the future in the context of climate change, applying a critical discursive psychology analysis. The degree to which the future is constructed as predetermined

The under‐reporting of family violence is a global problem. Multiple barriers to help‐seeking have been identified, including some associated with social identities like race, age and gender. This discursive psychology study examines identity and help‐seeking in social interaction. We analysed 200 calls classified by police call‐takers as family harm using conversation analysis and membership categorization

Collective action can be a crucial tool for enabling individuals to combat crime in their communities. In this research, we investigated individuals' intentions to mobilize against organized crime, a particularly impactful form of crime characterized by its exercises of power over territories and communities. We focused on individuals' views and perceptions of state authorities, examining how these

Hope is a future‐oriented emotion that attunes people to the possibility of positive change, and thus could potentially catalyse societal engagement with climate change. A recent meta‐analysis suggests that the relationship between hope and climate action is most robust when the target of hope is climate engagement (i.e. action hope) rather than climate change more broadly. Yet, this previous meta‐analysis

Infectious diseases pose significant challenges to public health, leading to illness and even death. Vaccinations are vital for protecting society, yet beliefs in conspiracy theories related to infectious diseases increase vaccine hesitancy. This paper delves into vaccination decisions in the context of COVID‐19, which continues to strain the health care system. While past research focuses on countering

This study aimed to examine how social representations of modern slavery and immigration become entangled in newspaper media. 2672 UK newspaper articles were collated from 2013 to 2022 and analysed using Content Analysis (Descendant Hierarchical Classification) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Two themes and corresponding extracts were identified from the content analysis output and analysed

One of the most robust findings in environmental psychology is that men report lower pro‐environmentalism than women. Whilst this difference is often attributed to personality or identity processes, there seems to be a lack of empirical research on potential ideological influences. We propose—and provide evidence through two correlational studies—that radical pro‐environmentalism is often akin to propositions

As described by early sociological research (Goffman, 1963, Behavior in public places: Notes on the social organization of gatherings), a typical behavioural pattern in public encounters between strangers is so‐called Civil Inattention (CI). CI describes a ritual of politely communicating having noticed the other while assuring non‐communication intentions. A typical example of showing CI is initially

Psychological ownership refers to the subjective feeling that something is mine. Although research shows that observed behaviours towards a target object can signal psychological ownership to others, we propose that trait cues—specifically, cues of dominance—also inform inferences of psychological ownership. Across four pre‐registered studies, we predict and find that another person's trait dominance