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Surprisingly little research has explored the role of grit in consumer psychology. My dissertation addresses this gap by examining how grit influences consumer psychology, particularly focusing on uncovering the underlying mechanism between grit and consumer behaviors and exploring beliefs and attitudes on grit. Toward this goal, Essay 1 identifies the links between grit, a promotion regulatory focus, and variety seeking, while Essay 2 explores the role of consumers' political ideology on each facet of grit and moral consumer choices. In Essay 1, I propose that grit influences variety seeking, partially explained through a promotion regulatory focus. Three pilot studies, a main effects field study, and four experiments are used to empirically support links from grit to increased variety seeking, mediated by a promotion focus, and moderated by goal relevance. Essay 2 focuses on the influence of political ideology on grittiness. Multiple studies are used to test the proposed framework using various designs (surveys and experiments) and analysis techniques (e.g., SEM, ANOVA, and PROCESS), finding that unique types of grit, relative to consumers' political ideology, can significantly enhance or diminish intentions to make moral consumer choices. Together, this dissertation examines the important construct of grit in marketing and extends the current understanding of grit (e.g., dimensionality; promotion-focus). The essays offer robust evidence through field studies, consequential decisions, and various samples.

This thesis seeks to examine the levels of support for African American reparations amongst minorities. After providing a historical account of redress efforts separated racial group and discussing factors that influence reparations, I argue that minority groups possess cross-racial linked fate (minority linked fate) that significantly impacts their political attitudes concerning reparations for African Americans. Additionally, I argue that higher levels of minority-linked fate will equate to significant support for reparations. The probit regressions reaffirm the initial hypotheses that minority-linked fate has a significant impact on support for African American reparations. However, the racial groups most affected were not suspected initially.

Acknowledged as the defining challenge of our time, economic inequality has far reaching individual and societal consequences. It negatively affects productivity, decision-making, and health outcomes on the one hand, and political stability and economic growth on the other. Increased competition for resources not allocated at the top skews available reference frames and leads to adoption of unachievable standards, generating stressful social comparisons and anxiety that may intensify inter-group conflicts. Yet, as this dissertation shows on data from surveys from across the world, many of the worse off tend to believe that the social world in general is fair and that large differences in incomes are justified and even necessary. To understand why and how are the widespread and entrenched differences in incomes and wealth not being contested at a larger scale, this dissertations links perceptions and judgments of economic inequalities to their perceived, and often misjudged, normativity. It is argued that there is a need for a greater attention and understanding of people’s beliefs about what are the popular opinions and shared values regarding political issues. It is not only that people not know of inequalities, underestimate them, or attempt to rationalize their existence as fair and deserved. It is that people also need to know that their sentiments are shared by others. Based on results of multiple experimental studies, this thesis explored and supported a possibility that people who believe that the unequal status quo is unsatisfactory and that the standing system should be challenged and changed also tend to believe that their views are not shared by the general population. Even more, such thinking tends to get reinforced when someone else is critical of the system in place. Thus, instead of rising in spirit and assuming that others will finally see at least some of the negative outcomes of the way things are, those hoping for change may get demoralized, feel isolated in their views, and may feel drawn to compromises they shouldn't need to consider. In particular, the dissertation mainly utilizes the framework of conservatism being a motivated political cognition (Jost et al., 2003) which proposes that adoption of system-legitimizing attitudes may be motivated by psychological needs to see the social world as orderly, structured, and generally just and fair. In four chapters, the dissertations explores how the conditions theorized to motivate adoption of status-legitimizing attitudes affect not only these attitudes, but also the perceptions of their normativeness. Chapter 2 presents a comprehensive test of the original reading of status-legitimacy hypothesis (Jost, Pelham, Sheldon, & Ni Sullivan, 2003) which implied that those with lower objective status are the most motivated to system-justify, and of the re-specified version (van der Toorn et al., 2015) that posits subjective powerlessness to be the driver of undue system legitimization. Presented are results of a mixed-effects analysis of ISSP data on social inequality, covering almost 50,000 respondents from 28 countries. The results from analysis testing contextual moderation lend more support for the original, rather than the revised reading of status-legitimacy hypothesis - that it is the objectively disadvantaged who may experience greater motivation to defend the system. Chapter 3 adopts Lane's (1986) perspective explaining that political institutions create more dissonance than market institutions, and tests a proposition that while political institutions will be perceived as legitimate by the members of the lower classes, market institutions will be seen as less legitimate. Second, we hypothesize that those over and under-estimating their social class should report higher or lower perceived legitimacy of the system. Analysis of data from General Social Survey (2010-2016; total n = 4142) shows that those in lower classes report higher confidence in political, but not market institutions compared to those members of the upper classes. Similarly, relative to those under- or correctly estimating their class, those over-estimating their class positioning reported higher confidence in political compared to market institutions. Chapter 4 presents two experimental studies testing, on a sample of 201 students (in Tilburg, the Netherlands), how indirect threat to the country's culture and a direct criticism of the country's economic performance influence people's perceptions of attitudinal similarity with their society in general depending on their prior ideological views. The results suggest that those with views critical of the standing socio-political system imagine their co-nationals as more attitudinally different compared to those who consider the standing system to be fair and desirable. In particular, exposure to economic threat, but not cultural threat, increased the perceived ideological distance from the presumed attitudes of the rest of the society among those critical of the system, but not among those who considered the system to be fair and desirable as it is. Chapter 5 presents data from two studies conducted before and after the 2016 US Presidential election (mTurk, n = 478), and before and after the 2017 UK general election (Prolific Academic, n = 617). Data were gathered in two rounds, utilizing the same between-subjects experimental design to assess whether ideological differences moderate how threat (economic system threat) and uncertainty (outcome uncertainty about election) influence the perceived similarity between people's personal normative attitudes (how things should be) and their estimates of socially normative attitudes (what they believe others would say should be). Furthermore, the effect of the result of the election on beliefs about the legitimacy of the standing economic system among supporters of competing political parties was assessed in two studies using within-subjects design (US n = 80; UK n = 329). The findings support the hypothesis that ideology predicts differences in perception of the generalized other when faced with system threat and that people bolster their ideological commitments following threats to their worldview in form of electoral defeat. While liberals tend to overestimate the strength of conservative values within the society in general, conservatives view others as both more conservative and liberal compared to themselves.

This dissertation provides an explanation of how André Malraux, a man of great influence on twentieth century European culture, developed his political ideology, first as an anticolonial social reformer in the 1920s, then as an antifascist militant in the 1930s. Almost all of the previous studies of Malraux have focused on his literary life, and most of them are rife with errors. This dissertation focuses on the facts of his life, rather than on a fanciful recreation from his fiction. The major sources consulted are government documents, such as police reports and dispatches, the newspapers that Malraux founded with Paul Monin, other Indochinese and Parisian newspapers, and Malraux's speeches and interviews. Other sources include the memoirs of Clara Malraux, as well as other memoirs and reminiscences from people who knew Andre Malraux during the 1920s and the 1930s. The dissertation begins with a survey of Malraux's early years, followed by a detailed account of his experiences in Indochina. Then there is a survey of the period from 1926 to 1933, when Malraux won renown as a novelist and as a man with special insight into Asian affairs. The dissertation then focuses on Malraux's career as a militant antifascist during the 1930s, including an analysis of Malraux's organization of an air squadron for the Spanish Republic, and his trip to North America to raise funds. The dissertation concludes with an analysis of Malraux's evolution from an apolitical, virtually unknown writer into a committed anticolonial social reformer and an antifascist militant. The man and his political ideology were intricately interwoven. His brief career as a political journalist in Saigon was crucial in his transformation from an apolitical Parisian dandy into a political activist. Because he regarded fascism as a dire threat to European civilization, Malraux gave his full support to the Soviet Union and the Spanish Republic during the 1930s.

O presente trabalho inicia com a elaboração de uma ampla revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema economia e religião, inclusive analisando trabalhos empíricos recentes que pretendem testar as idéias de Weber, como a da secularização e a da relação entre o desenvolvimento capitalista e o Protestantismo. Essa revisão constatou que a tese de Weber tem se mostrado consistente, apesar de algumas falhas, ou seja, a religiosidade diminui à medida que a sociedade evolui e o protestantismo teve um papel importante, sim, no desenvolvimento do capitalismo moderno. Após essa ampla revisão bibliográfica, que serviu para amadurecer o conhecimento sobre o assunto em questão, este trabalho passa a enfocar seu objetivo principal, que é analisar o comportamento da Igreja católica brasileira, como instituição, frente a questões seculares, principalmente de cunho econômico, político e cultural. Para isso, são analisados o comportamento da Igreja católica frente ao processo de transição do Império para a República, o impacto do aumento da concorrência direta e indireta sobre a Igreja católica brasileira, ao longo do século XX, a situação do sacerdócio católico e seu impacto sobre a Igreja católica, assim como o impacto de questões financeiras sobre essa instituição. No geral, toda essa análise apresenta fortes indícios de que questões seculares de cunho econômico, político e cultural acabam influenciando amplamente essa instituição. Com isso, pode-se observar que não apenas questões doutrinárias influenciam essa instituição. Por último, analisa-se a situação atual da Igreja católica e apresentam-se possíveis motivos de a Igreja católica brasileira ter perdido expressiva quantidade de fiéis, ao longo dos últimos vinte anos. / The present work begins with a broad bibliography review about economy and religion, analyzing recent empirical works that intend to test Weber’s ideas, like the secularization and the relation between capitalistic development and the protestantism. This review evidenced that Weber’s thesis has been shown consistent, although it has some shortcomings. The consistency refers to the fact that religiosity diminishes as the society develop, and to the fact that the protestantism played an important role in the development of the modern capitalism. After this broad bibliography review, that served to mature the knowledge about the subject in discussion, this work starts to focus his main objective, that consists in analyzing the behavior of the brazilian catholic church, as an institution, vis a vis secular matters (economical, political and cultural mainly). To achieve this objective, it was analyzed the behavior of the catholic church in the process of transition from the Empire to the Republic. It was also analyzed the impact of the increase of the direct and indirect competition that the brazilian catholic church faced in the XX century, and it was analyzed the situation of the catholic priesthood and the impact of it in the catholic church, as well as the impact of financial matters in the same institution. Through the analysis of all these points, it could be observed that not only doctrine matters influences this institution. Lastly, it was analyzed the actual situation of the brazilian catholic church and exposed the likely reasons that may be driving this institution to lose an expressively sum of followers in the last twenty years.

This dissertation investigated online aggression in emerging adults to understand the contextual power of anonymity and social modeling. Emerging adults are characterized as undergoing a period of identity exploration, instability, self-focus, transition, and possibility (Arnett, 2004). Given the importance of identity development at this stage of the lifespan, this research explored religiosity/spirituality and political ideology; two pivotal belief systems that are introspectively evaluated and molded in emerging adults as they separate their identities from their world views (Barry & Nelson, 2004). Furthermore, this dissertation sought to apply religiosity/spirituality and political ideology to the previously established link of anonymity and social modeling and their joined impact on online aggression (Zimmerman & Ybarra, 2016). Behavioral temptation to aggress and participant responses following interaction on a mock blog was recorded and analyzed in situations of anonymity and positive or neutral social models. Aggressive social modeling influenced blog posts and behavioral temptation to aggress. Religiosity/spirituality and political attitudes moderated aggression in blog posts.

This thesis argues that prominent in the purposes of the dramaturgy of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey was the promotion of his political causes - most notably socialism. In his avidity for the cause of establishing a workers' paradise, following the Soviet model, in Ireland, his ire was drawn to the movements and institutions he perceived as distracting the masses from pursuit of this ideal: republicanism and the Church. These political ideals are prominent themes in his collected works - both fiction and non-fiction. The work is essentially divided into two sections. The first examines the development of O'Casey's ideologies - his socialism, anti-nationalism and anti-clericalism - and the backdrop against which they developed. The purpose is to establish just how passionately O'Casey felt about these ideals and how, in his letters, histories and autobiographies, he dedicated much of his effort to promoting them. Having dedicated so much time and energy to championing socialism and attacking the Church in these texts, it is little wonder they should appear so prominently in his plays. The thesis argues that O'Casey distorted the content of his Autobiographies to reinforce his role as self appointed champion of Dublin's "bottom fifth" and his beloved working class. It contends that O'Casey embellished the suffering of his childhood and the hardship endured by his family to fortify his credentials as a "socialist hero" - to be "for them" he sought to be "of them," and to provide a model for how learning and conversion to the socialist ideal would liberate them from the economic oppression that kept them low. A number of facts, even elementary ones like the number of children in the Casey brood and particular dates and addresses where he had lived, were changed to cultivate the working class hero image, the disadvantaged boy who rose up against all that an unjust and unsympathetic world could throw at him, that he so coveted. The more abject the origins, the greater the final triumph. The thesis then looks briefly at the origins and purposes of the Abbey Theatre, and its part in the Irish Renaissance that gave O'Casey his start. It focuses particularly on the role of Yeats, and his desire to build a dramatic movement which created work free from opinion. His famous determination to "reduce the world to wallpaper" brought him into conflict with O'Casey, who saw his plays as a legitimate vehicle for the expression of his own world view. It is important, in terms of the objective of this study, to establish that O'Casey's works were deliberately constructed pieces of didacticism, to demonstrate just how inimical to the original intent of the movement his purposes were. With this in mind, it is instructive to compare him with the other great Irish dramatist of the period, John Millington Synge, whose works, with their more rustic focus, promoted the kind of impressionistic 'slice of life' theatre the Abbey founders were championing. For O'Casey, the cause was paramount. He wrote morality plays. The study examines how O'Casey's dominant ideological position evolved by examining his own changing perspective about the world around him. It shows how O'Casey began to see all struggles in terms of the economic one between classes, and how he came to be converted to the tenets of socialism. His opposition to nationalism and his anti-clericalism essentially reflected his belief that they were hostile to the interests of the workers, and therefore must be engaged. The dominant sources in this section are O'Casey's letters, his Autobiographies, and his book, The Story of the Irish Citizen Army. The second section of the thesis focuses on the first seven extant plays: The Harvest Festival, The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars, The Silver Tassie, Within the Gates, and The Star Turns Red, and examines how each promotes O'Casey's causes. The purpose of the thesis is not to promote a reworking of the biographical detail of O'Casey's life, but to trace the shift in the playwright's ideology - from Protestant Orange to Republican Green and finally, and most steadfastly, Socialist Red - and examine how these beliefs found voice in the characters and construction of his earlier plays.

A large part of the work has been devoted to regulation fees as one of the health care systems regulating mechanisms. An essential place in the work is taken by elaboration of the topic of increase of costs for the health care systems functioning in the current world and the possibilities of their solution. The work also deals with an extensive and frequently discussed topic of justice in the physician-patient relationship. This topic has been processed in connection with historical circumstances and a philosophical dimension of perception of justice in health care. Further to this, ideas and ideological foundations of justice, which project into political ideologies, have been dealt with. Health care systems, the system of health insurance in the Czech Republic and its legal regulation have been briefly characterized. The aim of the work was to map an opinion of some ordinary citizens regarding perception of justice in the Czech health care and introduction of the regulation fees. Partial goals were to find out in what way political orientation reflects in the opinion on justice of the collected regulation fees and furthermore to map, in what way an amount of income of respondents influences an opinion that regulation fees represent an income for a health care facility. Two hypotheses were determined. Hypothesis no. 1: University graduates understand better the system of regulation fees. Hypothesis no. 2: More than 80% or respondents consider it unjust that regulation fees represent an income of a physician, health care facility, or pharmacy. A method of questioning was used for the processing, data collection was carried out by using a questionnaire technique. Statistical methods suitable for an analysis of categorical data were used for evaluation of information. 300 questionnaires were handed out, the return rate being 74%, the final research population consisted in 182 respondents from the city of Votice. Another employed processing method was the secondary data analysis. Results of the questionnaire research brought a number of intriguing facts relating to attitudes of the respondents as to the issue of justice and state of the Czech health care. Further to this, it has been confirmed that university educated respondents understand better the system of regulation fees. In more than 65%, respondents consider it unjust that the proceeds from the regulation fees collection represent income of a health care facility. One of the hypothesis was confirmed and the other was disproved. The acquired information can be used as a guideline for public discussion.