Political Identity and Perceived Threat Predict Negative Perceptions of Outgroup Facial Expressions

Social group identity plays a central role in political polarization and inter-party conflict. Here, we use ambiguously valenced faces to measure affective biases in the processing of political in and outgroup faces and explore predictors of negativity toward political outgroups. Participants identifying as Democrats and Republicans categorized happy, angry, and surprised faces as positive or negative. Whereas happy and angry faces convey positive and negative valence respectively, surprised faces are ambiguous in that they readily convey positive and negative valence. Thus, surprise is a useful tool for characterizing bias. Face stimuli were assigned to the participants’ political in or outgroup, or a third group with an unspecified affiliation (baseline). Participants also completed measures of strength of political identification and perceived outgroup threat. We found a significant interaction of facial expression and group membership, such that outgroup faces were categorized more negatively than ingroup and baseline, but only for surprise. Strength of identification moderated the relationship between threat and the magnitude of outgroup negativity, such that increased outgroup threat predicted greater negativity towards the outgroup (relative to the ingroup), and this effect was exacerbated by stronger ingroup identification. There was also an interaction of facial expression and political affiliation, with Republicans categorizing surprise more negatively than Democrats across all group conditions. Our findings reinforce the importance of political identity on inter-party affective biases and are consistent with ideological differences in bias. Further, strength of political identification and perceived outgroup threat are established as potential mechanisms underlying political polarization and inter-party conflict.

An image worth a thousand words? Expressions of stakeholder identity perspectives in place image descriptions

Purpose This paper aims to explore how place identity can be expressed in residents’ place image descriptions, addressing differences and similarities in place identity expressions between residents’ descriptions of the image of their place and the image of the place as described to others. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews were conducted with residents of a Swedish city. Place image descriptions were analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings Different types of identity perspectives manifest in the place image descriptions of residents. Respondents’ associations reflect place, person and social group identity perspectives, including their own perspective as residents, but also as visitors, or a combination of both. Priming is needed when gathering place image perceptions, to establish which underlying identity perspective is expressed. Research limitations/implications This study offers a Nordic perspective on the organic communication of place image. The scope and qualitative nature of this study is a limitation to its generalizability but also suggests a rich ground for future cross-cultural studies on the topic. Practical implications Results point to the importance of accurately formulating questions to catch stakeholders’ place image. Insights are offered into how stakeholders communicate Nordic place image perceptions when engaging in communication about a place and into the effects of identity on organic place brand communication. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to explore how key stakeholders’ lenses to interpret a place brand are activated in the communication of place image, and how this influences their descriptions of the place.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE: INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CULTURAL ORIENTATION, SOCIAL GROUP IDENTITY, COPING STYLE, AND SOCIAL CONFORMITY

Social influence is a broad term used to understand how and why the presence of others changes individuals' attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs. It takes a variety of forms and one of them is social conformity. The present study was conducted to clarify the relationships between cultural orientation, social group identity, and coping style as potential predictors of social conformity among adults in Malaysia and Singapore. Participants completed self-report measures of cultural orientation, social group identity, coping style, and social conformity. Preliminary results showed that social conformity was negatively associated with vertical individualism and emotion-based coping. Social group identity was found to be positively associated with various forms of cultural orientation but not with social conformity. In addition, individuals were more likely to report higher group identity when their personal opinions were consistent with majority members in a social group. Finally, emotion-based coping was the most significant predictor of social conformity, with vertical individualism as another significant predictor. In the context of social influence, the current research unravels the relationships between cultural orientation, social group identity, coping style, and social conformity. The findings also illuminate that collectivist cultures are not generally more prone to conform to majority opinions.

Reformulasi Identitas Buddha Jawi Wisnu dan Sam Kaw Hwee Ke Dalam Buddhayana di Lampung Reformulating Identity of Buddha Jawi Wisnu and Sam Kaw Hwee Into Buddhayana in Lampung

The formulation of a social group identity is strongly influenced by the historical context and institutional site in which reformulation of social identity occurred. As a result, the group has a common understanding and categories that unite them into sameness identity. It is what we have seen on the Sam Kaw Hwee Buddhist sect group as well as Buddha Jawi Wisnu sect group who in early New Order regime changed their identity into becoming Buddhayana Buddhist sect in Lampung. At a glance, the Majelis Buddhayana Indonesia (MBI, or Indonesian Buddhayana Council) was a meeting point of which Javanese and Chinese are encountered. Furthermore, MBI is regarded as a shared identity for most Buddhists in Lampung. This paper wants to explain the background and the process of reformulating new social identity, as well as the impacts around it.The paper is based on a qualitative research that tries to understand the early formation of Buddhayana sect as the largest Buddhist sect in Lampung. MBI was as a new social identity resulting from interaction and negotiation its followers with external group who threatened the Buddhist group in Lampung in the past.Abstrak Terbentuknya identitas suatu kelompok sosial sangat dipengaruhi konteks sejarah dan situasi tertentu yang menyebabkan munculnya kesamaan pemahaman dan kategori yang menyatukan kelompok tersebut. Demikian pula terhadap kelompok penganut sekte Buddha Sam Kaw Hwee dan Buddha Jawi Wisnu yang kemudian, karena kesamaan-kesamaan yang ada, membentuk identitas baru menjadi sekte Agama Buddha Buddhayana di Lampung di awal Orde Baru. Saat ini Majelis Buddhayana Indonesia (MBI) diterima secara meluas dalam melakukan pembinaan dan pengorganisasian umat Buddha di Lampung, yang terdiri dari etnis Jawa dan Tionghoa. MBI hadir sebagai identitas bersama dan wadah bagi sebagian besar umat Buddha di Lampung. Tulisan ini hendak menjelaskan latar belakang dan proses reformulasi identitas tersebut, serta dampak yang muncul di sekitar itu. Tulisan hasil penelitian kualitatif ini menunjukkan bahwa Buddhayana sebagai aliran yang terbesar umat Buddha di Lampung, semakin kokoh sebagai identitas sosial yang dihasilkan dari interaksi dan negosiasi dengan pihak eksternal yang dilalui dengan cukup menegangkan pada masanya.

Interactions between social groups of colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus) explain similarities in their gut microbiomes

The gut microbiome is structured by social groups in a variety of host taxa. Whether this pattern is driven by relatedness, similar diets, or shared social environments is under debate because few studies have had access to the data necessary to disentangle these factors in wild populations. We investigated whether diet, relatedness, or the 1-meter proximity network best explains differences in the gut microbiome among 45 female colobus monkeys in 8 social groups residing at Boabeng-Fiema, Ghana. We combined demographic and behavioural data collected May-August 2007 and October 2008-April 2009 with 16S rRNA sequencing of faecal samples collected during the latter part of each observation period. Social group identity explained a large percentage of the variation in gut microbiome beta-diversity. When comparing the predictive power of dietary dissimilarity, relatedness, and connectedness in the 1-meter proximity network, the models with social connectedness received the strongest support, even in our analyses that excluded within-group dyads. This novel finding indicates that microbes may be transmitted during intergroup encounters, which could occur either indirectly via shared environments or directly via social contact. Lastly, some of the gut microbial taxa that appear to be transmitted via 1-meter proximity are associated with digestion of plant material, but further research is needed to investigate whether this type of gut microbe transmission yields health benefits, which could provide an incentive for the formation and maintenance of social bonds within and between social groups.

"Unmotivated Bias" and Partisan Hostility: Empirical Evidence

Extreme partisan animosity has been on the rise in the US and is prevalent around the world. This hostility is typically attributed to social group identity, motivated reasoning, or a combination thereof. In this paper, I empirically examine a novel explanation: the ``unmotivated'' cognitive bias of overprecision (overconfidence in precision of beliefs). Overprecision could cause partisan hostility indirectly via inflated confidence in one's own ideology, partisan identity, or perceptions of social distance between the parties. Overprecision could also cause this hostility directly by causing excessively strong inferences from observed information that is either skewed against the out-party or simply misunderstood. Using a nationally representative sample, I find consistent support for direct effects of overprecision and mixed support for indirect effects. The point estimates imply a one standard deviation increase in a respondent's overprecision predicts as much as a 0.71 standard deviation decline in relative out-party favorability.