In recent years, terrorism and radicalization has been a consistent issue that many countries have faced. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been the most recent in a long trail of organizations that have sought to strike terror against the western world. However, ISIS is distinguished from other groups, like Al-Qaeda, in that ISIS supports a complex propaganda machine. Although ISIS is not the first organization to use the social media platform, they are the first to use it with such diversity. The two main channels that ISIS uses to spread their propaganda messages are through social media sites such as Twitter and through online journals such as the Dabiq. Recent research has attempted to determine how recruitment messages are being received and which messages trigger recruitment. It is the goal of this paper to determine which messages are salient, and the psychological constructs that support them. By coding messages for appeals to identity, need for cognitive closure, time pressure, and appeals to ideology, the researchers expect that the two main channels of ISIS propaganda differ in their messages. We hypothesize that Twitter messages will be targeted towards novice ISIS sympathizers, whereas the Dabiq will be focused on already-radicalized individuals who have moved past the introduction of the radical ideology.

Due to high profile police shootings, collective action movements addressing racial bias in policing, such as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, have come to the forefront of societal concern. Though these movements and actions directly address police use of force against Black people, a number of non-Black racial minority individuals and organizations have declared solidarity and joined in protests with BLM. This study takes an intersectional approach to examine racial intraminority attitudes (i.e., racial minorities' attitudes toward other racial minority outgroups) toward support for and participation in protests against police excessive use of force and the BLM movement, through its relationship with modern racist beliefs and racial centrality. Participants completed a survey assessing perspectives on policing, racial protests, and BLM, along with racial identity measures. Results show significant differences in both support for and participation in protests and BLM, with women and Black people reporting higher in both outcomes than men and other racial groups, respectively. Within some racial groups, women show higher overall support for (Latinx, White) and participation in (Black, White) protests and BLM than men in the same racial group, though these differences were not found for other groups. Within each intersecting race and gender group, these effects were mediated by levels of modern racism, highlighting a common factor between all groups and an important point of possible malleability and intervention. Further, the relationship between race and gender identities and modern racism was moderated by racial centrality for some groups (Black and Latina women), though this relationship was again not universally found. By examining within group differences, this study highlights the importance of taking an intersectional approach to understand intraminority attitudes and relations as they pertain to participation in collective action movements towards social change. This study has implications for the generalizability of a number of social psychological theories on minority-minority intergroup race relations (i.e., Black-Latinx), as much of the past literature focuses on majority-minority intergroup relations (i.e., Black-White). Additionally, results from this study may provide useful information for community organizers and social justice activists in promoting intergroup collaboration and coalition building towards more equitable social change that is both more tailored for specific groups and more generalizable across groups.

Background: Previous studies have consistently identified an association between higher levels of education and lower levels of anti-immigrant sentiment, but the underlying reasons for this relationship remain unclear. Therefore, this research aims to help explain why education matters for attitudes toward immigrants. This thesis consists of two studies, where in I examine the role of two features of education, specifically the aquistition of knowledge and social relationships. In the first study, I analyze how two aspects of teaching in schools are associated with anti-immigrant sentiment. I examine education as a means to knowledge by investigating whether the content of education, such as critical thinking and multicultural education, is inversely related to students' prejudice. I also look into the certification of teachers and whether this has a similar effect. In the second study, I investigate the school as an arena for social interaction and examine the relationship between outgroup contact and prejudiced attitudes. Previous research has found that outgroup contact, especially contact in the form of outgroup friendship, is effective in reducing prejudice. Based on these previous findings, I study how the Secondary Transfer Effect (STE) of friendship with a specific outgroup member is associated with attitudes towards other ethnic or racial groups. Method: The two studies rely on a cross-sectional survey of Swedish high school students (aged 16-18) administered by 'Forum för levande historia' (Forum for living history) and Statistics Sweden during the 2009-2010 academic year. Additionally, survey participants' responses are matched to registry data. This thesis also uses multilevel (MLM) and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models. Results: Results show that both aspects of education are correlated with lower levels of anti-immigrant sentiment. The first study, in which education is a means to knowledge, demonstrates that education focused on critical thinking and multiculturalism are negatively correlated with anti-immigrant sentiment. Furthermore, results show that more exposure to teachings about xenophobia and racism is associated with less prejudice. However, when controlling for exposure to critical thinking, as well as learning about religions and cultures, the results show that exposure to learning about xenophobia and racism are no longer significant. Moreover, there is a negative association between exposure to teachers with a teaching certification or teaching degree and prejudice. Results from the second study, in which the school functions as an arena for social interaction, shows that positive attitudes associated with intergroup friendship not only generalize to the ethnic outgroup of that friend but, more importantly, also to other secondary outgroups. STEs are most frequently found where boundaries between ingroups and outgroups are perceived to be the thickest. Thus, the presence of STEs appears to be group-specific. Previous research on perceived social distance in Sweden and other countries help shed light on these findings. In summary, the results of this thesis provide evidence of two different complimentary accounts of the negative relationship between education and prejudice.

現在台灣的國家（族群）認同正處在一個不明的階段，不僅是族群間有對立的國族意識型態，對第三國－日本的態度似乎也出現族群之間的不同。本研究目的就在瞭解台灣的不同族群之間是否有不同的對日態度，以及族群認同的工具性是否涉入其中。抽樣295位台灣民眾所得的研究結果顯示，不同族群認同者確實有不同的對日態度。族群自我認同為「台灣人」者比起其他族群認同類別者給予日本比給予中國更多的好評，另外，他們也覺得中國比較沒有那麼親近，同時也對日本負面歷史行為做出更有利的歸因。此外，台灣人民的台灣意識為其「族群認同」對親日態度預測力的中介變項。研究結果以選擇性遺忘、建構認同及三角群際關係來加以解釋，亦即，後殖民時期台灣人民的對日態度為建構自身認同所展現的工具性態度，目的在對抗主要外團體中國，不能只是解釋為殖民主義的影響。 / This study was set to investigate how people in Taiwan perceive Japan and China differently in terms of their ethnic identities. Taiwan has experienced the Japanese colonial regime and the Nationalist regime consecutively each for about fifty years. Over the century, Taiwan has kept searching for its collective identity, and China remains the number one threat to its nation-building project. From 295 sampled Taiwan people, we found different ethnic self-identifiers showed different attitudes toward Japanese. Those who identify themselves with Taiwanese showed most positive attitudes toward Japanese, regardless of the fact that they are mostly offspring of people having been through Japan colonial regime. To be more specific, they tended to evaluate Japan better than China, to rate China less close, and to make more “Japanese-serving attribution” when reasoning about Japanese's historical brutality during the Second World War. Moreover, the correlation between Taiwan people's ethnic identities and their attitudes toward Japanese has been found mediated by Taiwan political ideology. The results were discussed by referring to instrumentality of ethnic identification and selective forgetting of collective history in order to reconstruct a new ethnic identity.

This study investigated the nature of opinions and attitudes expressed in letters to South African newspapers regarding selected incidents of interracial controversy, namely the Botes (2010) and Forum for Black Journalists (FBJ) (2008) incidents. A qualitative and quantitative content analysis of these letters was conducted to gauge the attitudes that writers displayed towards members of their cultural group (ingroup) and members of other cultural groups (outgroups). The results of the qualitative analysis indicated that individuals in a racial group have different perspectives of in- and outgroup members. The results of the quantitative analysis, however, showed that the majority of writers tend to display positive attitudes towards ingroup members and negative attitudes towards out groups. The dominance of positive attitudes towards ingroups and negative attitudes towards outgroups can be attributed to myths and discourses circulating in postapartheid South Africa and the current social climate in general. The study concluded that although individuals’ attitudes may differ from the stark negative attitudes displayed towards outgroups during the apartheid era, negative attitudes towards outgroups persist. / Communication Science / M. A. (Communication Science)

The moderation function of in-group status position on the relationship between group-based guilt and reparation intention was tested in a 2 (group-based guilt: low versus high) x 2 (status loss: weak versus strong) factorial between-subjects design, using an online survey software program named Qualtrics. The target population was white South African undergraduate students born after 1988 and registered at the University of South Africa. The results of the first Experiment confirmed the hypothesis, that the relationship between group-based guilt and reparation intention becomes less significant the more participants perceive a loss of status for their in-group. However, the hypothesis could not be confirmed in Experiment 2. The results are presented and discussed in detail / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Social dominance theory (SDT) and Social identity theory (SIT) are theoretical frameworks that have been conceptualised and examined in societies that predominantly have stable intergroup relations. The present study sought to examine both theoretical frameworks in a context that is undergoing social change. Three cross-sectional studies were conducted amongst black and white students from a South African University. Results indicated that there was no difference in the desire for group-based inequality (i.e. social dominance orientation, SDO) amongst groups affected by social change, when group status was measured subjectively. Yet, when group status was determined sociologically, dominant group members had significantly higher SDO levels. Furthermore, results indicated that the perception of social change had a conditional effect on the relationship between SDO and support for affirmative action amongst white participants, in that when white participants perceived higher in-group status loss, higher SDO levels predicted opposition towards affirmative action. Racial in-group identification had a conditional effect on the relationship between perceived social change and support for affirmative action amongst black participants; when black participants had higher racial in-group identification, greater perception of social change predicted support for affirmative action. Lastly, amongst black participants, hierarchy-attenuating legitimising myths had a conditional effect on the relationship between SDO and support for affirmative action. Specifically, when colourblindness or Ubuntu were endorsed, higher SDO predicted support for affirmative action. However, when these hierarchy-attenuating legitimising myths were rejected, higher SDO predicted opposition towards affirmative action. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This paper aims to address possible psychoanalytical explanations for the heinous acts in which terrorists, particularly ISIS, engage. It focuses on Harold D. Lasswell’s principles of the id, ego, and superego as well as Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory. Within the framework of these two theories, relevant psychological and social psychological theories are discussed in order to explore a possible connection between the psyche of violent perpetrators and their actions. By exploring these connections, I find that there may be more nuanced psychological explanations for these violent acts, which could lead to new methods of weakening perceived biases, intergroup conflicts, and extremist behavior.

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Introduction: Precompetitive emotions are important for team functioning, performance and satisfaction of being a team member. Social identity constitutes a necessary base for positive emotions (Lindwall et al., 2016). Limited research calls for further examination of the intensity and the directionality of precompetitive group-based emotions in team performance and the influence of different targets of social identity. Objective: To examine two levels of social identities and their influence on precompetitive group-based emotions and perceived directionality. Methods: Seventy-one Swedish senior football players (Mage = 25.35 ± 5.50 years of age) including both males (n = 36; Mage = 27.53 ± 5.63 years of age) and females (n = 35; Mage = 23.11 ± 4.40 years of age), completed an online survey including measurements of identification (Ray et al., 2008; Campo et al., 2019a) and I-PANAS (Thompson, 2007), with the additional inclusion of the direction scale (Jones & Swain, 1992). Results: Identification as a football player influenced precompetitive positive emotions (PE) toward opponents. Precompetitive PE toward both teammates and opponents showed a tendency to be facilitative for performance. Findings also showed gender differences for identification as a football player, precompetitive PE toward teammates and directionality of precompetitive PE and NE toward teammates. Conclusions: The present study further extends the importance of identification and group-based emotions in team sports and how group-based emotions affect team sport athletes. Coaches might adjust their communication to enhance identification of the team before and during competition and ultimately increase team performances. / Introduktion: Emotioner innan tävling är viktiga för lagets funktion, prestation och tillfredsställelse med att vara en medlem i laget. Social identitet är en nödvändig bas för positiva emotioner (Lindwall et al., 2016). Då det endast finns begränsad forskning krävs ytterligare undersökning av intensiteten och riktningen av grupp-baserade emotioner innan tävling i lagprestationer och dess påverkan av olika nivåer av social identitet. Syfte: Att undersöka två nivåer av sociala identiteter och deras inflytande på grupp-baserade emotioner innan tävling och dess riktning (påverkan) för prestation. Metod: Sjuttioen svenska seniorfotbollsspelare (Målder = 25.35 ± 5.50 år) med både män (n = 36; Målder = 27.53 ± 5.63 år) och kvinnor (n = 35; Målder = 23.11 ± 4.40 år) genomförde en online enkät innehållande mätningar av identifiering (Ray et al., 2008; Campo et al., 2019a), I-PANAS (Thompson, 2007) med den extra riktningsskalan (Jones & Swain, 1992). Resultat: Identifiering som fotbollsspelare påverkade positiva emotioner (PE) innan tävling mot motståndare. PE gentemot både lagkamrater och motståndare visade en tendens att främja prestation. Resultaten visade också könsskillnader för identifiering som fotbollsspelare, PE gentemot lagkamrater och riktning för PE och NE gentemot lagkamrater. Slutsats: Den aktuella studien utökar betydelsen av identifikation och grupp-baserade emotioner i lagidrotter och hur grupp-baserade emotioner påverkar lagidrottare. Tränare skulle kunna anpassa sin kommunikation för att höja lagidentifiering före och under tävling och slutligen förbättra lagprestation.