Political Psychology – Lecture 4 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]

Procedural justice refers to the fairness of decision-making procedures and whether authorities treat people with respect and can be trusted. Distributive justice refers to fairness of outcomes. Procedural justice is more important for people than distributive justice.

The intergroup threat theory states that the higher levels of perceived threat result in higher levels of national identification. The greater levels of identification, the greater support for collective action. This occurs in both majorities and minorities.

There are three types of threat:

1. Realistic threat
   This refers to a threat to material sources.
2. Symbolic threat
   This refers to a threat to own’s own culture, values and religious beliefs.
3. Intergroup anxiety
   This refers to anxiety felt about anticipating contact with unfamiliar outgroup members.

Ethnicity is less important for cultural identification. Ethnicity and culture are less important for civic identification. National identification is often associated with less positive attitudes. Out-group prejudice may occur under conditions of threat.

There is a positive correlation between ethnic and cultural identity conceptualization. There is a negative correlation between ethnic/cultural and civic identity conceptualization. A higher ethnic identity conceptualization is related to more prejudice and this does not hold for higher civic identity conceptualization.

Realistic threat (1), sense of control (2), British identification (3), collective relative deprivation (4), symbolic threat (5) and relative gratification (6) were the key variables for wealthy citizens who voted leave during the Brexit. European identification was the key variable for wealthy citizens who voted remain during the Brexit.

British identification (1), realistic threat (2), collective relative deprivation (3), symbolic threat (4) and sense of control (5) were the key variables for poorer citizens who voted leave during the Brexit. European identification (1) and relative gratification (2) were the key variables for poorer citizens who voted remain during the Brexit.

Acculturation refers to the process of cultural and psychological change that follows from intercultural contact. The cultural changes include alterations in a group’s customs (1), changes in economic life (2) and changes in political life (3). The psychological changes include alterations in an individual’s attitudes towards the acculturation process (1) and changes in cultural identities (2).

The four acculturation strategies are assimilation (1), integration (2), separation (3) and marginalization (4). Integration leads to the best adaptation. Separation leads to good psychological adaptation but not to good cultural adaptation. Assimilation and marginalization both are maladaptive.

People who use the integration or assimilation strategy do not perceive a lot of discrimination whereas people who use the marginalization or separation strategy do.

The ideological asymmetry hypothesis states that members of high-status groups will be more invested in maintaining current hierarchical relationships than will members of low-status groups. Group identification is positively correlated with the endorsement of hierarchy enhancing ideologies among members of high-status groups. Group identification is negatively correlated with the endorsement of hierarchy enhancing ideologies among members of low-status groups.

People can have high or low support for social inequality and high or low support for social diversity.

Collective action frames are sets of collective beliefs that serve to create a state of mind in which participation in collective action appears meaningful. A person’s orientation towards collective action is affected by identification with the group (1) and endorsement of social ideologies (e.g. social diversity) (2). An ideology of diversity could facilitate collective action on behalf of one’s group.

Identification mediates the relationship between ideology and collective action orientation. The beliefs about social diversity and social inequality predict collective action orientation and are mediated by identification with ethnic group.

The endorsement of social diversity beliefs was associated with greater ethnic group identification for immigrants. The rejection of social inequality was associated with greater ethnic group identification for non-white natives.

The high-status groups are more likely to favour assimilation and less likely to endorse multiculturalism.

Grievances refer to a sense of indignation about the way authorities are treating a social or political problem. This is a predictor of collective action.

There are several factors that play a role in whether aggrieved people engage in collective action:

• Efficacy
  This states that the availability of resources and the presence of opportunities might play a key role as groups with more resources and opportunities are more likely to succeed in mobilizing collective action and it helps redress the grievances at an affordable cost.
• Identity
  This states that collective action fulfils collective identity needs meaning that the more a person identifies with a group, the more likely the person is to take part in collective action.
• Emotions
  This states that people can be approach or avoidance orientated and this influences whether people engage in collective action.
• Social embeddedness
  This states that social embeddedness is important in providing the resources necessary for opposition movements and collective action. It fosters conventional and unconventional political participation.

Fear is associated with feelings of less efficacy and anger is associated with feelings of more efficacy. Emotions amplify already existing motivations.

Dual identity refers to the multiple identities a person can have simultaneously. The identification with a subordinate entity does not exclude the identification with a superordinate entity. A dual identity might provide more satisfaction with one’s situation than other forms of cultural adaptation and people with a dual identity are more likely to join collective action.

Identification with exclusive categories is stronger than identification with inclusive categories. Perceived unfairness plays a strong role for people with dual identities.

Higher levels of political cynicism lowers the likelihood that people will participate in collective action. It is associated with procedural unfairness. Political cynicism reduces action participation depending on whether it is accompanied by perceived unfairness.

The social embeddedness cluster consists of feelings of efficacy and embeddedness in social networks. The grievance cluster consists of political cynicism, perceived unfairness and identity.

Immigrants felt anger when discriminated against if they felt efficacious and fear if they did not.