Abundant research suggests that the study of lay theories helps to explain intergroup relations. Building on this work as well as ‘‘interactionist’’ theories for understanding social behaviour from developmental and social psychology, we propose an integrative social-developmental perspective examining how lay perceivers’ characteristics (e.g., age, race, psychological motivations) interact wit...

Recent research has begun to elucidate the neural basis of higher order social concepts, such as the mechanisms involved in intergroup relations, and moral judgments. Most theories have concentrated on higher order emotions, such as guilt, shame, or empathy, as core mechanisms. Accordingly, psychopharmacological and neurobiological studies have investigated the effects of manipulating serotonin...

Hierarchies in the correlated forms of power (resources) and status (prestige) are constants that organize human societies. This article reviews relevant social psychological literature and identifies several converging results concerning power and status. Whether rank is chronically possessed or temporarily embodied, higher ranks create psychological distance from others, allow agency by the h...

Various exposure assessment strategies were compared in the study of the relation between dust exposure and 11-year lung function change in 1,172 miners with 36,824 concurrently measured personal dust samples available from the 1969-1981 US National Study of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis. A miner's average exposure was assessed by calculating average exposures based on dust samples taken from ea...

Three experiments investigated how perceived foreign threats to the United States can influence Americans' endorsement of assimilation and multiculturalism as models for foreign and domestic intergroup relations. The initial study, conducted during the 6-month anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (9/11), discovered that a diverse group of Americans preferred assimilation as ...

This research investigated the effects of linguistic ostracism, defined as any communication setting in which a target individual (or group) is ostracized by another individual (or group) in a language that the target has extremely limited ability to understand. Participants were included or ostracized by their group members during a computer-mediated group discussion. Half of the ostracized pa...

Reminders of in-group wrongdoing can prompt defensive responses that affect intergroup relations. Across two studies, American participants were randomly assigned to have their American identity increased (or not), then read a passage describing the negative treatment of Native American Indians by perpetrators described as either early Americans (i.e., in-group members) or European settlers (i....