Assessing the evidence of perspective taking on stereotyping and negative evaluations: A p-curve analysis

Perspective taking is conceptualized as the ability to consider or adopt the perspective of another individual who is perceived to be in need; it has shown mixed results in stereotype reduction and intergroup attitude change across many social science disciplines. The inconsistent results raise concerns about the robustness of the perspective-taking phenomenon. The present study uses p-curve analysis to examine whether evidential value existed among two sets of published experimental studies where perspective taking was operationalized in two different paradigms. Despite low statistical power, we found that both sets of studies revealed some evidential value of the effects of perspective taking. The theoretical and methodological implications of perspective-taking studies are discussed as well.

ABOUT RENEGADES AND OUTGROUP HATERS: MODELING THE LINK BETWEEN SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND INTERGROUP ATTITUDES

Polarization between groups is a major topic of contemporary societal debate and research. Formal models of opinion dynamics try to explain how intergroup polarization arises from simple first principles of social interaction. In existing models, intergroup attitudes affect social influence in the form of homophily or xenophobia, fixed tendencies of individuals to be more open to influence from ingroup members or distance themselves from attitudes of outgroup members. These models generate polarization between groups, but they neglect a central insight from empirical research. Intergroup attitudes are themselves subject to social influence in interactions with both in- and outgroup members. A model is proposed in which the attitude which is subject to social influence is also an intergroup attitude. It affects in turn the influence process itself. Furthermore, it is shown how this changes model predictions about process and conditions of polarization between groups. More complex patterns of intergroup relations emerge than in a model with fixed xenophobia. Especially, a renegade minority (‘outgroup lovers’) is found to have a key role in avoiding mutually negative intergroup relations and even elicit reversed polarization, resulting in a majority of individuals developing a negative attitude towards their ingroup and a positive one for the outgroup.

Attitudes Toward Multiculturalism and Assimilation and Contact with Members of Outgroup

Multicultural societies face the challenge of advancing intergroup relations. The group status in the society determines the presence of attitudes as well as mutual intergroup relations. The outgroup contact is one of the opportunities that assists the advancement of relations in the society.The goal of this study is to examine the differences of attitudes toward multiculturalism and assimilation in the majority and minority groups, and to which level we can predict the attitudes toward multiculturalism and assimilation based on the ethnic identity and contact with outgroup members. In this esearch, 361 youngsters are included. They are eighth and ninth grade students from five elementary schools in the city of Tetova, R. Macedonia. Of them, 166 study in Macedonian language, 195 in Albanian. To see the difference between the majority and minority group regarding the multicultural and assimilation attitude, t-test was used; for the prediction of intergroup attitudes, we used regressive analysis. The findings show that the minority group favors more multiculturalism while the majority group favors assimilation. As strong predictors of intergroup attitude, except ethnic identity, ethnic identification and outgroup contact appear as well. In order to advance the intergroup attitudes and relations as well as develop a multicultural society, the presence of outgroup members contact is important.