Psychology Research Digest
British Journal of Social Psychology
The British Journal of Social Psychology is an international journal that publishes impactful basic and applied social psychological research from all parts of the world. Our aim is to showcase research at the forefront of theoretical and methodological innovation that contributes to informing psychological perspectives of social-contextual challenges and audiences beyond academia. We value diverse perspectives and are committed to robust and transparent research practices.
The effect of social identity on objective and perceived social support in groups
The social identity approach posits that social identity fosters mutual social support within groups. However, prior research has relied almost exclusively on individual-level self-report measures, neglecting the mutuality of support and the group as a unit of analysis. This pre-registered one-factorial online experiment with three-person groups (N = 306 group members; N = 102 groups) examined how social identity shapes objective mutual support, perceived provided and received support and the perceived benevolence of received support. Following a pre-tested identity manipulation (N = 120), groups completed a video-recorded workplace simulation. Transcripts were blind-coded. Groups in the social identity condition engaged in significantly more objective mutual social support than participants in the personal identity condition. Social identity (vs. personal identity) did not affect perceived support but increased perceived benevolence, in terms of assuming underlying motives. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing among objective mutual social support at the group-level, perceived social support and the interpretation of social support to understand how shared social identity shapes the social support process.
Publication date: Tue, 08 Sep 2026 23:07:16 -0700 Access the article >>The longitudinal interplay between acculturation and intergroup contact in adolescence
In current multicultural societies, mutual adjustment of majority and ethnic minority groups is a crucial issue shaped by groups' acculturation preferences and their encounters. These aspects are particularly relevant in adolescence when young people extend their social relationships and develop attitudes towards others. However, the association between acculturation preferences across domains and the quantity and quality of intergroup contact in adolescence remains underexplored. Thus, we conducted a three-wave longitudinal study with majority (N = 740; 64.73% female; M age = 14.58) and ethnic minority (N = 244; 56.56% female; M age = 14.91) adolescents to examine these links. Results of random-intercept cross-lagged models showed that among majority adolescents, at the between-person level, their preferences for minority acculturation were mainly associated with contact quality in and out-of-school, with preference for heritage culture maintenance linked to more positive contact and preference for adoption linked to more negative contact. Within-person increases in positive contact in school were followed by decreases in adoption preference. Among ethnic minority adolescents, at the between-person level, their adoption preference was related to more frequent and positive contact across contexts, with additional within-person associations. Overall, the findings emphasize the context-specific and asymmetrical interplay between acculturation and intergroup contact in adolescence.
Publication date: Wed, 02 Sep 2026 04:04:28 -0700 Access the article >>Heterogeneity in stereotypes of depression and schizophrenia: A meta‐analysis of warmth and competence evaluations
Stereotypes about mental illness (MI) are not necessarily context-free or stably localized within the stereotype content model (SCM). Studies using different comparison sets are expected to produce different relationships between the two SCM dimensions, meaning that placements derived from visual maps, cluster solutions or quadrant descriptions should not be interpreted as fixed properties of social categories. Drawing on a PRISMA-guided meta-analysis, we synthesize SCM ratings of depression and schizophrenia and demonstrate substantial heterogeneity across studies, both in pooled mean estimates for each diagnosis-by-dimension combination and in contrasts between diagnostic categories. Analyses used random-intercept and random-slope meta-analytic models, with heterogeneity assessed through I2, τ and Cochran's Q. Across 17 studies, results showed considerable heterogeneity in evaluations of both diagnoses on both SCM dimensions. Although comparative analyses also showed high heterogeneity, findings consistently indicated that schizophrenia is rated as less warm than depression, whereas both diagnoses receive similar competence evaluations. These findings support the theoretical and methodological claim that SCM research should avoid treating depression and schizophrenia stereotypes as stable diagnosis-specific placements. We discuss how a diagnostic approach can be developed within a contextual framework using standardized procedures for data collection and analysis.
Publication date: Mon, 31 Aug 2026 04:45:56 -0700 Access the article >>Severity over source: Understanding transgressors' motive attributions of punishment
Punishment conveys social information to transgressors, who attribute motives to punishers. Drawing on the motive-attribution framework, we examined whether transgressors' attributions to competitive (i.e. harming transgressors), individualistic (i.e. managing one's own interests) and prosocial (i.e. healing relationships) motives differ depending on whether punishment is administered by victims (second-party punishment) or uninvolved observers (third-party punishment), and how these attributions relate to downstream affective, relational and behavioural outcomes. In an incentivized Stealing Game, participants could steal valuable points and were punished either by the victim or an observer. Subsequently, transgressors reported their motive attributions, affect and willingness to reconcile and completed a measure of prosocial behaviour towards an unrelated other. Contrary to predictions, motive attributions did not systematically differ between second- and third-party punishment, except that third-party punishment was more strongly attributed to reputational concerns (i.e. a subdimension of individualistic motive attribution). Punishment severity emerged as an important predictor, with harsher sanctions linked to stronger competitive and individualistic attributions. Competitive motive attribution, in turn, was associated with higher negative affect and lower positive affect, willingness to reconcile and prosocial behaviour. Overall, transgressors' responses to punishment were less clearly shaped by who punished and more closely linked to punishment severity and motive attribution.
Publication date: Fri, 28 Aug 2026 22:39:01 -0700 Access the article >>How does collective punishment work? The role of anticipated negative intragroup reactions
Intragroup collective punishment has been a common sanctioning practice throughout history and remains prevalent in modern societies. Yet, we know little about its effectiveness and even less about the psychological processes that might explain it. Theoretical approaches that deem collective punishment effective assume that the threat of a group-level sanction promotes an internal control system. We argue that even without internal control systems, people's anticipation of negative intragroup reactions for activating collective punishment can render it effective. We present four experiments, three with vignettes and one with behavioural measures (N = 722), manipulating whether cheating results in individual or group-level punishment and measuring cheating as well as concern about negative intragroup reactions. The findings show that collective punishment effectively deters wrongdoing and that this is consistent with mediation by anticipated negative intragroup reactions. The findings contribute to our understanding of collective punishment, collective responsibility, and deterrence.
Publication date: Mon, 24 Aug 2026 23:47:06 -0700 Access the article >>Rejecting conspiracies doesn't necessarily mean that you're smart: The relationship between conspiracy discrimination and reasoning ability
Research examining the psychological predictors of conspiracy belief has overwhelmingly examined conspiracies that are unverified and/or implausible. Doing so potentially conflates ‘rational’ thinking with the tendency to heuristically reject conspiracist explanations. In three studies, we take a different approach, examining the predictors of the accuracy with which people can discriminate between unverified conspiracy theories and verified conspiracies (i.e. conspiracies that form part of the official record). The ability to discriminate between unverified and verified conspiracies was consistently higher among those with greater cognitive sophistication, as well as among political liberals, those lower in conspiracy mentality, and those with higher trust in experts, whereas associations with demographic variables were mixed. Conspiracy discrimination was also a much stronger predictor of cognitive sophistication than heuristic acceptance of conspiracy claims (response bias). In fact, good discriminators outperformed those who heuristically reject conspiracies (‘Indiscriminate Sceptics’) and those who heuristically endorse conspiracies (‘Indiscriminate Believers’) on each measure of cognitive sophistication. These findings challenge the idea that rejecting conspiracies is necessarily a sign of superior reasoning.
Publication date: Sun, 23 Aug 2026 17:01:01 -0700 Access the article >>Predictors of affect across social contexts: An integration of existing diary datasets
Daily life is characterized by periods of complete and public solitude, face-to-face interactions and digitally mediated interactions when alone or with others, all of which elicit varying degrees and different types of affect. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of affect during these distinct everyday contexts. By combining data from 11 distinct datasets, we examined how time spent in complete solitude (not interacting and with no-one around), digitally mediated interactions when alone, public solitude (not interacting but with others present), interacting face-to-face and digitally mediated interactions when with others, as well as individual differences in age and extraversion, were associated with four types of affect distinguished on two dimensions (arousal and valence) and loneliness. Results showed that prior face-to-face interactions were associated with increased high-arousal positive affect and decreased low-arousal positive affect. This research offers nuanced insights into how social and solitary contexts, personality and age contribute to everyday affective experiences.
Publication date: Fri, 14 Aug 2026 05:09:24 -0700 Access the article >>Escaping Russia, trapped by identity: National identity negotiation in light of ingroup wrongdoing
The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a wave of emigration, with vast numbers of people fleeing Russia due to political persecution or safety concerns. The study explored how anti-war Russian emigrants negotiate their national identity and moral responsibility amid ingroup wrongdoing. Previous research has shown that having a stigmatized identity can lead to self-group distancing. Yet those studies concerned groups that can be characterized as victims of violence or discrimination, and there is a lack of research on identity performance and negotiation of people who represent perpetrator groups. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with Russian emigrants (N = 12) in two rounds between March 2023 and early 2024. We analysed data using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Participants described feelings of collective guilt and fear from identity disclosure, accompanied by a sense of vigilance in how they perform their identity in interactions. To avoid any implication that they supported the State's actions, participants tended to mitigate potential moral judgement by positioning themselves as morally aware yet lacking agency. Although participants actively disidentified from Russian identity, they still emphasized struggling with navigating collective responsibility and guilt. We discuss the implications of our findings for the potential resistance and future post-conflict reconciliation.
Publication date: Tue, 11 Aug 2026 22:56:09 -0700 Access the article >>Entity morality beliefs increase prosocial behaviours: A self‐attribution perspective
Incremental/entity beliefs refer to individuals' views on whether traits are malleable/static. Previous research, mostly from a target attribution perspective, identified a positive relationship between entity beliefs and harsh moral judgements towards moral transgressors. Little research has examined the relationships between entity beliefs and positive moral behaviours (e.g., prosocial behaviours) from a self-attribution perspective. The current study filled this gap. Two correlational studies, Studies 1a (N = 1229) and 1b (N = 328), revealed positive correlations between entity beliefs, prosocial behaviours and the tendency to attribute behaviours to one's own traits. In Study 2 (N = 167), beliefs were manipulated. Entity theorists exhibited higher levels of helping intentions and self-trait attribution than incremental theorists. Studies 3a (N = 1737) and 3b (N = 183) further explored the moderating effects of prosocial cost and helping efficacy and found that by holding a strong connection between one's own traits and behaviour, entity theorists were less influenced by increased prosocial costs and reduced helping efficacy compared to incremental theorists. These findings establish a more grounded and dialectical understanding of entity and incremental beliefs.
Publication date: Tue, 11 Aug 2026 22:37:51 -0700 Access the article >>Whether we win or with whom we watch: How international sporting events link to life satisfaction and work motivation
International sporting events like the UEFA EURO 2024 provide a powerful natural context to study how social identity dynamics and social processes link to well-being and motivation beyond the sporting domain. In this pre-registered longitudinal experience-sampling study (N = 842; k = 2,414 post-game responses) across five European countries, we examined how social context (watching alone vs. with others) and game result (win vs. loss) link to spectators' life satisfaction and work motivation. Drawing on social identity and self-categorisation theory, we explored mediating processes including team, football, and national identity, as well as social processes—social connectedness and game-related socialising. Multilevel analyses revealed that watching games with others was unexpectedly associated with lower work motivation, an effect explained by alcohol consumption. The social context was unrelated to life satisfaction. Game result (i.e., a win) was positively related to life satisfaction and work motivation, mediated by social identities and social processes. These findings demonstrate that collective success—rather than shared spectating—coincides with positive psychological spill-overs from leisure to work. By situating these effects within a social identity framework, the study highlights how collective experiences relate to both evaluative well-being (i.e., life satisfaction) and motivational outcomes (i.e., work motivation) in everyday and organisational life.
Publication date: Fri, 07 Aug 2026 23:44:49 -0700 Access the article >>Contrast bias, not confirmation bias, shapes daily impression updating across social and non‐social targets
Previous literature on impression updating has paid extensive attention to confirmation bias - the tendency to seek out, favour, interpret or remember information in a way that reinforces existing beliefs. Fewer studies examined the contrast effect/bias in the sequential updating of impressions. Contrast bias occurs when the difference between current beliefs and new information is exaggerated, leading to a stronger shift in evaluation than the new information alone would justify. In this work, we conducted two Ecological Momentary Experiments to capture real-world impression formation and updating on both social (e.g. an employee) and non-social (e.g. a vacation house) targets. We also developed novel computational models of biased impression updating based on parametric distortions of Bayesian ideal observers. Across the two studies, we found that daily impression updating exhibited significant contrast bias, with negative contrast bias exerting a stronger influence than positive ones. Additionally, we found no evidence for differences in impression updating between social and non-social targets. By focusing on within-person impression updating over time, these findings reveal contrast bias as a core dynamic of impression updating, systematically shaping how impressions change in response to inconsistent information.
Publication date: Fri, 07 Aug 2026 21:44:45 -0700 Access the article >>Beyond proximity: The social and spatial dynamics of collaboration in community energy initiatives
This research examines how actual and perceived spatial distance from group members shape collaboration intentions in the context of community energy initiatives. While previous studies highlight in-group identification and interpersonal contact for community engagement, the role distance plays in this has received less attention. Across two studies (N total = 195, N total = 287), we tested across spatially different groups (neighbourhood, city, nation, family, workplace) whether indicators of greater (perceived) spatial distance were indicative of less interpersonal contact, lower identification with the group and weaker collaboration intentions. Our results indicate that perceived spatial distance did not correspond to actual spatial differences across groups, suggesting that perceived distance does not always reflect actual distance. However, members who perceive other members as less distant report stronger interpersonal contact, identification (Studies 1 and 2) and collaboration intentions (Study 2). Associations between interpersonal contact, identification and collaboration intentions were consistent across groups, suggesting that these processes are rather universal, while the role and interpretation of distance fluctuate between the groups tested. These results contribute to t/0258heory by clarifying the interplay between spatial and social dimensions of groups, and by showing how perceptions of space shape identification and intentions to engage in community-based energy.
Publication date: Fri, 07 Aug 2026 02:42:16 -0700 Access the article >>National identity as both cure and curse: The effects of three facets of national identification on post‐traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in wartime Ukraine
The social cure hypothesis proposes that national identification can be beneficial to the well-being and mental health of ingroup members. However, research has also identified a social curse phenomenon in which identification can exacerbate distress and undermine recovery after trauma. We propose that these seemingly paradoxical phenomena arise from the effects of different dimensions of identification. To test this approach, we examined the context of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, as the actions of Russian troops, bombings, and the loss of homes and relatives are all sources of trauma for Ukrainians. Our research hypothesised that ingroup ties and ingroup affect would serve as protective factors, while identity centrality would serve as a risk factor for post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. Using two studies conducted among Ukrainians living in Ukraine (N 1 = 1012) and Ukrainian refugees in Poland (N 2 = 381), we consistently found that identity centrality was positively associated with PTS symptoms. In addition, Study 2 provided evidence for the protective role of ingroup ties and affect. These findings clarify how specific dimensions of national identification may function as either a ‘social cure’ or a ‘social curse’ during ongoing conflict, with important implications for mental health interventions for war-affected populations.
Publication date: Wed, 05 Aug 2026 23:17:23 -0700 Access the article >>Beyond mere novelty: Categorization drives differentiation
Stereotype formation is shaped by differentiation, that is, the tendency to prioritize attributes that render a novel group distinct from comparison groups. While differentiation is well documented, it remains unclear whether it is intrinsic to categorization or whether it is a byproduct of a general processing advantage of novel stimuli. We conducted three preregistered experiments to disentangle these accounts. In all experiments, participants learned a set of social traits that were either assigned to a single group or distributed across two groups. Crucially, novel traits presented in the second half of the stimulus set marked intergroup distinctiveness only in the two-groups condition while being equally novel in the single-group condition. In line with a category-based account of differentiation, recall for novel traits was enhanced in the two-groups condition compared to the single-group condition (Exp. 1 & 3) and an additional control condition without groups (Exp. 3). Moreover, novel traits were judged as more typical for their group than initially learned traits, but only in the two-groups condition (Exp. 2). These findings suggest differentiation is not a fixed response to novelty but a genuine categorization effect, serving a functional role in distinguishing groups. We discuss implications for category learning and stereotype formation.
Publication date: Mon, 03 Aug 2026 21:56:51 -0700 Access the article >>Polarizing trajectories of colonial ideologies: A latent class growth analysis of historical negation and symbolic exclusion
The impassioned advocacy both for and against Indigenous rights in recent years suggests a polarization of public opinion. Accordingly, we theorize increasingly divided endorsement of two ideologies that challenge Indigenous rights to material and symbolic equality—historical negation and symbolic exclusion, respectively (the ‘Dark Duo’). Using latent class growth analysis, we test for distinct classes of change in the Dark Duo over 16 years (2009–2025) among a national probability sample of New Zealand adults (N = 43,020). As expected, results reveal a subgroup of Progressives (76.84%) with lower levels of historical negation and symbolic exclusion that decreased over time and a smaller subgroup of Reactionaries (23.16%) with higher levels of these ideologies that increased over the same period. Demographic and socio-political variables predicted class membership, and support for political parties varied across classes. Thus, the current study illustrates the presence and implications of ideological polarization towards Indigenous rights.
Publication date: Sun, 02 Aug 2026 23:01:23 -0700 Access the article >>Beyond procedural justice: Power, identity and the asymmetric architecture of public trust in security services
Public trust in security services is a critical social-psychological phenomenon, yet existing theoretical accounts remain fragmented and insufficiently attentive to the structural power asymmetries characterising security–public relations. This article argues that the dominant paradigm, procedural justice theory, requires fundamental revision within intergroup and institutional power dynamics. Drawing upon procedural justice theory (Why people obey the law, 1990, Yale University Press; Why people obey the law, 2nd ed., 2006, Princeton University Press), social identity and self-categorisation theory (The social psychology of intergroup relations, 1979, 33, Brooks/Cole; Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory, 1987, Blackwell), the integrative model of organisational trust (Academy of Management Review, 1995, 20, 709), intergroup contact theory (The nature of prejudice, 1954, Addison-Wesley), system justification theory (British Journal of Social Psychology, 1994, 33, 1), institutional betrayal theory (American Psychologist, 2014, 69, 575) and the political trust tradition (A systems analysis of political life, 1965, Wiley; Trust and trustworthiness, 2002, Russell Sage Foundation; Annual Review of Political Science, 2000, 3, 475), the article advances three propositions. First, trust formation is asymmetric: trust erodes faster than it accrues, with the asymmetry amplified for subordinate-status groups. Second, procedural justice effects are identity-contingent: perceived fairness operates differently depending on whether the authority is categorised as in-group protector or out-group enforcer. Third, trustworthiness appraisal under institutional betrayal requires reconceptualising Mayer et al.'s integrity dimension as epistemic credibility. A four-pathway model is proposed, with power asymmetry as a structural moderator and recursive feedback producing virtuous or vicious trust spirals.
Publication date: Wed, 29 Jul 2026 02:16:38 -0700 Access the article >>Issue Information
British Journal of Social Psychology, Volume 65, Issue 4, October 2026.
Publication date: Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0700 Access the article >>