Immigration, Identity, and Anonymity: Intentionally Masked Intolerance in Ireland

Newcomers to Ireland confront a context of reception shaped by large-scale historical emigration and more recent immigration defined by an increasingly diverse set of origin contexts, both within and outside the European Union (EU). How has the Irish population responded to these groups, and how openly do Irish residents express their views toward different immigrant groups? We test this response using a survey experiment, which offered respondents an anonymous way to express any negative attitudes to immigrant groups they may have had. Results from the survey experiment show that Irish residents’ support for Black and Polish immigrations is overstated when expressed directly. In contrast, their sentiment toward Muslim immigrants is notably insensitive to the level of anonymity provided, indicating little difference between overt and covert expression of support (or antipathy). In other words, when race/ethnicity or EU origin is made salient, Irish respondents are more likely to mask negative sentiment. When Islam is emphasized, however, Irish antipathy is not masked. We find that in-group preferences, instead of determining support in an absolute sense, shape the reluctance with which opposition to immigrant groups is overtly expressed.

Fertility Outcomes, Heritability and Genomic Associations of In-Group Preference and In-Group Marriage

Using data from the Midlife Development in the USA (MIDUS) sample (3070 men and 3182 women) and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS; 2240 men and 2346 women), we aimed to investigate whether religious, ethnic and racial in-group preferences as well as religious homogamy are associated with reproductive outcome in terms of number of children. Using data from the MIDUS twin sample, we further estimated the inherited genetic component of in-group attitudes. Additionally, we analyzed the association of ∼50 polygenic scores (PGSs) recently published for the WLS study and in-group attitudes as an indicator of potential pleiotropic effects. We found in both samples that, with one exception, religious though not other in-group attitudes are associated with a higher reproductive outcome. Also, religious homogamy is associated with higher average number of children. The inherited component of all in-group attitudes ranges from ∼21% to 45% (MIDUS twin sample). PGSs associated with religious behavior are significantly positively associated with religious in-group attitudes as well as family attitudes. Further associations are found with PGS on life satisfaction (work) and, negatively, with PGS for any sort of addiction (smoking, alcohol and cannabis use), indicating pleiotropy. We conclude that the positive association between religious in-group attitudes as well as religious homogamy and reproductive outcome may indicate selective forces on religious in-group behavior. As all investigated in-group attitudes, however, have a substantial inherited component, we further speculate that potential previous reproductive benefits of racial and ethnic in-group preferences, if they ever existed, might have been substituted by religious in-group preferences.

Older adults across the globe exhibit increased prosocial behavior but also greater in-group preferences

Population aging is a global phenomenon with substantial implications across society1,2. Prosocial behaviors—actions that benefit others—promote mental and physical health across the lifespan3,4 and can save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined whether age predicts prosociality in a preregistered global study (46,576 people aged 18–99 across 67 countries) using two acutely relevant measures: distancing during COVID-19 and willingness to donate to hypothetical charities. Age positively predicted prosociality on both measures, with increased distancing and donations among older adults. However, older adults were more in-group focused than younger adults in choosing who to help, making larger donations to national over international charities and reporting increased in-group preferences. In-group preferences helped explain greater national over international donations. Results were robust to several control analyses and internal replication. Our findings have vital implications for predicting the social and economic impacts of aging populations, increasing compliance with public health measures and encouraging charitable donations.

Threshold-Enhanced PROMETHEE Group Decision Support under Uncertainties

As threshold determination is arduous when using PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations) to make decisions, this study proposes a comprehensive PROMETHEE-based group decision support for covering the uncertainties of threshold determination, risk preferences, and the evaluation itself. To reduce the difficulty on threshold determination, it explicitly offers statistical aggregation of individuals’ indifference and preference thresholds so as to obtain benefits from multiple sources of knowledge and experience. Three typical combinations are characterized that reflect conservative, balanced, and aggressive group preferences. We also derive 6 properties to illustrate the effects of threshold changes on preference changes. Despite variances among the individual rankings of alternatives, the rank differences within the group decisions do converge by the illustrative example. A larger interval of a conservative group preference generates more diverse ranks versus the other two group preferences. Moreover, PROMETHEE III has a power on managing inaccurate measurement. The introduction of S-shaped functions has the benefit of fitting behavioral decision making under uncertainty. Integrating these approaches together for a decision support, our proposal is less affected by rank variance and coherent with traditional group PROMETHEE under differentiated decision power.

Deliberation, Single-Peakedness, and Coherent Aggregation

Rational deliberation helps to avoid cyclic or intransitive group preferences by fostering meta-agreements, which in turn ensures single-peaked profiles. This is the received view, but this paper argues that it should be qualified. On one hand we provide evidence from computational simulations that rational deliberation tends to increase proximity to so-called single-plateaued preferences. This evidence is important to the extent that, as we argue, the idea that rational deliberation fosters the creation of meta-agreement and, in turn, single-peaked profiles does not carry over to single-plateaued ones, and the latter but not the former makes coherent aggregation possible when the participants are allowed to express indifference between options. On the other hand, however, our computational results show, against the received view, that when the participants are strongly biased towards their own opinions, rational deliberation tends to create irrational group preferences, instead of eliminating them. These results are independent of whether the participants reach meta-agreements in the process, and as such they highlight the importance of rational preference change and biases towards one’s own opinion in understanding the effects of rational deliberation.

The Role of Beliefs in Driving Gender Discrimination

Although there is ample evidence of discrimination against women in the workplace, it can be difficult to understand what factors contribute to discriminatory behavior. We use an experiment to both document discrimination and unpack its sources. First, we show that, on average, employers prefer to hire male over female workers for male-typed tasks, even when the two workers have identical résumés. Second, and most critically, we use a control condition to identify that this discrimination is not specific to gender. Employers are simply less willing to hire a worker from a group that performs worse on average, even when this group is, instead, defined by a nonstereotypical characteristic. In this way, beliefs about average group differences are the key driver of discrimination against women in our setting. We also document some evidence for in-group preferences that contribute to the gender discrimination observed. Finally, our design allows us to understand and quantify the extent to which image concerns mitigate discriminatory behavior. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, decision analysis.

Negotiating Peace with Your Enemy: The Problem of Costly Concessions

Why do some parties fail to settle conflict, even after long periods of fighting? Bargaining theory explains this through imperfect information, commitment problems, war entrepreneurs, and indivisible stakes. Integrating insights from social psychology into bargaining theory, this article proposes an additional bargaining obstacle. Conflict party members not only care about their in-group's welfare, but also want to avoid rewarding their opponent through concessions. A mutually acceptable agreement always contains concessions, yet when concessions are unpopular with key constituents, they are costly for leaders to make. This may result in a situation where leaders would prefer to settle but still decide to continue the war. Modifying a standard bargaining setup to account for this dilemma, the article demonstrates the difficulties of settling a conflict when out-group preferences are salient. It shows how events that increase the saliency of out-group preferences, such as major ceasefire violations, lead to a drop in public support for negotiations. The problem of costly concessions renders the search for a mutually acceptable agreement a delicate balancing act, particularly if constituents are isolated from the costs of war and political competitors mobilize around unpopular concessions.

Distributive Conflict and Interest Group Preferences in Deficit Countries

The politics of adjustment in deficit countries were characterized by strong domestic discontent, leading to significant political upheaval. Why did policymakers in these countries nonetheless implement unprecedented austerity and painful structural reforms? Zooming in on the domestic drivers of this adjustment choice, this chapter highlights mechanisms by which internal adjustment grew more politically feasible in deficit countries. The chapter draws on original survey data on the policy preferences of 359 economic interest groups in Ireland, Spain and Greece. It finds that while groups were consistently negative to a full range of scenarios by which external adjustment could be achieved in deficit countries, their preferences toward austerity measures and structural reforms varied much more widely. This variation, it is argued, facilitated the formation of pro-internal adjustment coalitions in deficit country contexts. Moreover, the chapter shows that opportunity costs mattered. While opposed to internal adjustment in absolute terms, a large majority of interest groups in deficit countries grew pliable to the prospect of it when faced with a choice between this and the alternative of abandoning the euro; even if internal adjustment programs were comprised of policies that groups themselves distinctly opposed.