Intergroup Contact, Intergroup Anxiety, and Attitudes towards the Opposing Group in Divided Society

The negative attitudes and negative emotions play a key role in maintaining the hostilities between the groups of a divided society. Evidence suggests that intergroup contact can improve or worsen intergroup attitudes. The current study examined the mediating role of intergroup anxiety on quantity of interethnic contact and acculturation attitudes and emotional responses to contradictory conflict narratives in a divided society with a background of armed conflict in the past. The study was conducted among 202 Albanians and 239 Serbs in Kosovo. The results indicate that as more as they meet members of the opposing group the less they feel intergroup anxiety and the more they show acculturation attitudes towards the opposing group among both Albanians and Serbs. However, such mediating role of intergroup anxiety was not found on emotional responses to contradictory conflict narratives, except among Serbs who live in certain enclaves. The findings are discussed in terms of context, reconciliation, and maintenance of frozen conflict.

Science through a tribal lens: A group-based account of polarization over scientific facts

Previous research has confirmed the prominent role of group processes in the promotion and endorsement of disinformation. We report three studies on a psychological framework derived from integrated threat theory—a psychological theory which describes how perceived threat leads to group polarization and prejudice—composed of the following constructs: group belongingness, perceived threat, outgroup derogation, and intergroup anxiety. Our pilot study suggested that need to belong and intergroup anxiety predict antiscientific beliefs (pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy theories), thus justifying the general applicability of integrated threat theory. Study 1 investigates the transition from weak to strong critical thinking regarding pseudoscientific doctrines. Besides greater outgroup derogation and perceived threats among strong critical thinkers, the model does not perform well in this context. Study 2 focuses on the intergroup conflict around anthropogenic global warming, revealing the strong predictive power of the model. These results are discussed in relation to the distinctive psychological profiles of science acceptance and rejection.

Testing an Immersive Virtual Environment for Decreasing Intergroup Anxiety among University Students: An Interpersonal Perspective

This study examined the use of an immersive virtual environment (IVE) in decreasing intergroup anxiety among university students. In Dinner-time360 , the students engaged in an interpersonal encounter by sharing a virtual dinner table with someone from another linguistic or cultural group. A control group watched the documentary in a traditional 2D format. The re-sults showed that the documentary reduced intergroup anxiety in both situa-tions, particularly among students with high anxiety who engaged in the IVE. For the IVE viewers, the decrease in intergroup anxiety was connected to two interpersonal elements: perceptions of the character’s immediacy and an in-creased level of homophily. These findings provide insights into the possibil-ities of IVEs in multicultural learning among university students.

Acculturation Processes and Communication

Acculturation processes and communication is a research area studying how communication changes when two or more cultures meet. Much research has focused on how sojourners or immigrants adapt their communication to meet the demands of a new cultural environment, while some scholars are interested in how the host culture or people change as a result of immigrants’ communication and culture. Communication broadly refers to attitudes, feelings, and behaviors associated with message exchanges in interpersonal interaction and the media. Historically, anthropologists have been studying acculturation among immigrants since the 1930s. Lysgaard and Oberg developed the U-curve model of cultural adaptation that moves from a honeymoon period into culture shock and onto adjustment, while Gullahorn and Gullahorn proposed the W-curve model linking the phenomenon of initial entry culture shock with reverse culture shock at the reentry into the home country. Communication scholar Young Yun Kim started using a communication approach to study acculturation and developed an interactive theory of communication acculturation in the 1970s. Since then, several theories have been developed to examine the role of communication in acculturation processes. Overall, research findings have indicated that longer lengths of stay in the host culture, social contact with the host people, host language competence, host media use, identification with the host culture, and social support from the host people all help sojourners or immigrants improve their attitudes and skills in interaction with the host people and satisfaction living in the host culture. Several factors have also been found to mediate the relationships between acculturation and communication, including uncertainty reduction, intergroup anxiety, intercultural communication apprehension, and personal-enacted and personal-relational identity gaps.

Meeting of minds: Narratives as a tool to reduce prejudice toward stigmatized group members

This study investigates a mechanism of mediated intergroup contact effects that occurs through experiencing social presence of a stigmatized outgroup character. Conceiving narrative texts as a context for mediated intergroup contact, we experimentally test ( N = 505) the effects of narrative perspective (first vs. third person) and the photograph of the outgroup protagonist (present vs. absent) on perceived social presence of the outgroup character. We further test whether experiencing the outgroup protagonist as socially present affects intergroup outcomes (i.e., perspective-taking, intergroup anxiety, outgroup knowledge, and outgroup attitudes). Findings indicate that first-person narratives are more effective than third-person narratives in inducing social presence of the stigmatized outgroup character; photos, unexpectedly, did not have such an effect. Social presence, in turn, plays a key role in facilitating positive intergroup outcomes from reading online narrative texts. The implications of our findings are discussed.

Factors Influencing Transcultural Self-Efficacy Among Nurses With Foreign Patient Care Experience

Introduction As the cultural diversity among patients increases, it becomes important for nurses to be prepared and efficient in providing culturally congruent care. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing transcultural self-efficacy (TSE) among Korean nurses. Methodology A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used, and 131 nurses with foreign patient–care experience were recruited from a university tertiary hospital Results The mean TSE score of participants was 5.27 out of 10 ( SD = 1.50). The practical subscale of TSE was the lowest, while the affective subscale was the highest. A regression analysis revealed that education level, cultural competence, and intergroup anxiety are predictors explaining 58.8% of its variance ( F = 27.5, p < .001). Discussion A low level of TSE causes avoidant behavior and ineffective communication in foreign patient care, resulting in unsatisfactory clinical performance. Effective education programs and administration guidelines may be critical for nurses to improve their TSE.

Extended Intergroup Contact and Outgroup Attitude of Students in Public and Religious Homogeneous Schools: Understanding the Mediating Role of Ingroup Norms, Outgroup Norms, and Intergroup Anxiety

Previous studies had shown the benefits of extended intergroup contact for outgroup attitude, mainly when direct intergroup contact is blocked. However, there have not studies that attempt to directly compare the role of extended contact in outgroup attitude across different contexts. The present study aimed to fill the gap by examining the relationship of extended intergroup contact and outgroup attitude in three different contexts: public schools, moderate Islamic Boarding School, and fundamentalist Islamic Boarding School. These schools differ in the level of group heterogeneity. Possible mechanisms that could explain the relationship were also examined: ingroup norms, outgroup norms, and intergroup anxiety. Two correlational studies were conducted to test the hypotheses—study 1 employed 126 Muslim public high school students employed as participants, study 2 employed 112 participants from a more fundamentalist Islamic Boarding School and 230 participants from a more moderate Islamic Boarding Schools. Across studies, we found evidence that extended intergroup contact indirectly predicted outgroup attitude. However, different social contexts involve different mechanisms. This difference is attributed to direct intergroup contact.

Prejudice against veiled Muslim women: The role of right-wing authoritarianism and intergroup anxiety

A series of terrorist acts involving women in various parts of the world, including in Indonesia, allegedly perpetrated by radical Muslim groups, has reinforced stereotypes and created prejudice against veiled Muslim women. This study aims to explain the role of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and intergroup anxiety as antecedents of prejudice against veiled Muslim women. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the study sample (N = 403) were residents of Surabaya, selected using accidental sampling. RWA, intergroup anxiety, and prejudice against veiled Muslim women were measured using a questionnaire, while the research hypothesis was analyzed using multiple regression. The results show that RWA and intergroup anxiety play significant roles in explaining prejudice against veiled Muslim women (R = 0.826; R2 = 0.682; F = 428.68; p 0.001), with the relative contribution of RWA and intergroup anxiety being 34% and 66% respectively. The results and implications of the study are discussed in detail. The theoretical implication of the research is that RWA and intergroup anxiety play roles as antecedents of prejudice against veiled Muslim women.