Letters from Russia: impact of imaginary contact, epistolary contact, and narrative on intergroup attitudes of adolescents

Introduction: Prejudices might negatively influence the well-being of people they concern and often lead to discrimination. Hence, it’s important to search for effective ways to improve intergroup attitudes and implement them during education. One of the most effective known methods is intergroup contact. However, as it’s not always possible to implement, it’s important to search for more accessible methods. The article proposes a new form of reducing prejudices, i.e. a letter of contact with fictitious outgroup members. In such interaction, people receive a letter and are asked for a reply. The method is based on two concepts of improving attitudes: imaginary contact and narrative about positive intergroup interaction. Its effectiveness in improving attitudes was experimentally tested and compared to a typical imaginary contact task. Method: Participants were 179 high school students. They were divided into three experimental conditions: replying to a letter from an outgroup member; replying to a similar letter from an ingroup member; imagining interaction with an ingroup member. After the manipulation, participants completed an intergroup attitudes questionnaire. Results: What had an impact on intergroup attitudes was the perceived pleasure of the task, while the type of manipulation had no effects. Conclusions: Results suggest that in manipulations based on imaginary contact or narration, responses are probably influenced not by imaging interaction with an outgroup member, but by the positive character of the task, which probably has an impact on attitudes by priming a good mood. This calls into question the effectiveness of methods of imaginary contact and narrative about the contact. They probably temporarily affect mood but have no influence on prejudice.

THE VISUALIZATION OF A MODEL OF INTER-GROUP INTERACTION IN ORGANIZATIONS

В статье предложен способ разработки и визуализации модели межгруппового взаимодействия. Описанный способ основан на использовании когнитивных карт. В настоящее время, благодаря развитию информационных технологий, появилось большое количество корпоративных информационных систем, позволяющих сотрудникам организации осуществлять свою трудовую деятельность удаленно. Однако для повышения эффективности удаленного взаимодействия целесообразно уделять большее внимание способам визуализации и представления удаленного взаимодействия. Предложенная модель межгруппового взаимодействия ориентирована на анализ эффективности трудовой деятельности сотрудников, работающих удаленно с корпоративной информационной системой. The article proposes a method for developing and visualizing a model of intergroup interaction. The described method is based on the use of cognitive maps. Currently, thanks to the development of information technologies, a large number of corporate information systems have appeared that allow employees of the organization to carry out their work remotely. However, to increase the effectiveness of remote interaction, it is advisable to pay more attention to the methods of visualization and presentation of remote interaction. The presented model of intergroup interaction is focused on the analysis of labor efficiency of employees working remotely with a corporate information system.

“You wouldn’t celebrate September 11”: Testing online polarisation between opposing ideological camps on YouTube

Online communication is increasingly associated with growing polarisation in society. In this research, we test a dual-pathway model of online polarisation via intergroup and intragroup interaction of supporters of opposing ideological camps on YouTube. The interaction occurs over a video parody promoting a campaign to change the date of Australia Day celebrations, a divisive issue entailing contrasting narratives about Australian identity, meanings of Australia Day, and interpretations of colonial history. To capture ideological polarisation, we conducted computerised linguistic analysis of polarised talk in the form of comments and replies ( N = 1,027) from supporters and opponents of the campaign. The indicators used to capture polarisation are social identification, position certainty, and psychological distance (as reflected by increased anxiety and hostility). Our results show that most polarisation (in the form of increased hostility) occurs in conditions of expression of outgroup dissent (the intergroup interaction pathway) and the most debated content on the online forum revolves around themes relevant to group identity. In addition to contributing to the understanding of group process in an online context, another key contribution of this research is providing a theory-driven method and blueprint to detect polarisation in social media data.

Detecting Early Widespread Metal Use in the Eastern North American Arctic around AD 500–1300

In the first millennium AD, peoples across the North American Arctic began to use and exchange metal. A group known as the Late Dorset (AD 500–1300) were the first to widely exchange metal in the Eastern Arctic. However, due to differential taphonomic processes and past excavation methods, metal objects in existing collections are rare although geographically widespread. This has led to metal being seen as a broadly exchanged but uncommon raw material among Late Dorset. This article expands the known scale of Late Dorset metal use by analyzing the blade slot thicknesses of bone and ivory objects from sites across the Eastern Arctic and comparing them to the thicknesses of associated lithic and metal endblades. These results demonstrate that Late Dorset used metal at least as frequently as stone for some activities. Given the few and geographically discrete sources, metal would have been exchanged over thousands of kilometers of fragmented Arctic landscape. The lack of similar evidence in earlier periods indicates intergroup interaction increases significantly with the Late Dorset. It is through these same vectors that knowledge and information would have flowed. Metal, consequently, represents the best material for understanding the maximum extent and intensity of their interaction networks.

“You wouldn’t celebrate September 11” - Testing Online Polarisation Between Opposing Ideological Camps on YouTube

Online communication is increasingly associated with growing polarisation in society. In this research, we test a dual-pathway model of online polarisation via intergroup and intragroup interaction of supporters of opposing ideological camps on YouTube. The interaction occurs over a video parody promoting a campaign to change the date of Australia Day celebrations, a divisive issue entailing contrasting narratives about Australian identity, meanings of the Australia Day, and interpretations of colonial history. To capture ideological polarisation, we conducted computerised linguistic analysis of polarised talk in the form of comments and replies (N=1,027) from supporters and opponents of the campaign. The indicators used to capture polarisation are social identification, position certainty, and psychological distance (as reflected by increased anxiety and hostility). Our results show that most polarisation (in the form of increased hostility) occurs in conditions of expression of outgroup dissent (the intergroup interaction pathway) and the most debated content on the online forum revolves around themes relevant to group identity. In addition to contributing to the understanding of group process in an online context, another key contribution of this research is providing a theory-driven method and blueprint to detect polarisation in social media data.

Positive Emotions, More Than Anxiety or Other Negative Emotions, Predict Willingness to Interact With Robots

Like early work on human intergroup interaction, previous research on people’s willingness to interact with robots has focused mainly on effects of anxiety. However, existing findings suggest that other negative emotions as well as some positive emotions also have effects. This article systematically examines the roles of positive and negative emotions in predicting willingness to interact with robots, using an integrative analysis of data across five studies that use diverse interaction conditions and several types of robots. We hypothesize and find that positive emotions account for more variance than negative emotions. Practically, the findings suggest new strategies for interventions, aimed at increasing positive emotions to increase willingness to engage in intergroup interaction. No existing work has examined whether positive emotions are stronger predictors than negative emotions for willingness for human intergroup interaction, an important topic for future research.