This article is concerned with the in uence of the group membership of an audience on the description of the in-group. Negative meta-sterotypes (stereotype of the in-group believed to be held by members of a relevant out-group) have aversive consequences on the self (Vorauer, Main, & O'Connell, 1998). Group members may therefore try to modify the meta-sterotype to their advantage by con rming positive traits and discon rming negative ones. Such a strategy is not relevant when one addresses in-group members because one does not expect them to adhere to the content of the meta-stereotype. The study varied the salience of the meta-stereotype orthogonally to the group membership of the audience (out-group vs. in-group). Participants (N = 75) were asked to pick traits that applied to their group. As predicted, participants selected more positive traits belonging to the meta-stereotype and fewer negative ones when addressing out-group members than in-group members, but this occurred only when the meta-stereotype was salient. Both low and high identi ers displayed this tendency. These results suggest that stereotypes can be used as political weapons.

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The issue of considerable dropout rate in doctoral programs is well documented across a large number of countries. However, few studies address the factors associated with doctoral completion among Non-U.S. countries, multiple universities and fields of research. Nor do they investigate the interactions between these factors. The present paper aimed to overcome these limitations and analyzed the population of doctoral students in all disciplines of the two largest universities of the French-speaking Community of Belgium (N = 1509). Specifically, we focused on several factors: gender, nationality, marital status, master grade, whether students continued at the same university when transitioning to the doctoral degree, whether they continued in the same field, age at registration, research field and funding (i.e., type of funding and associated job requirements). Findings indicate that four factors (marital status, master grade, research field and funding) are directly associated with dropout rate when all factors are considered jointly in the same model. Furthermore, results indicate that some of these factors, such as the marital status and gender, interact. In addition, we found that an accumulation of risk factors leads to a massive increase in dropout rates. Finally, a time course analysis revealed that the highest dropout rate occurs during the first two years and is related to the absence of funding or scholarship. The results, limits and futures perspectives are discussed.

This study explored preferences for the proportionality (PR) versus equality (EQ) principles in the allocation of political power and other resources between majorities and minorities. Preferences for PR were expected when individual-level justice was salient and for EQ when group-level justice was salient. Group-level concerns were expected to be more salient for minorities than majorities for procedural resources and for group-level than individual-level distributive resources. Consistent with expectations, subjects from the United States and South Africa were more likely to divide a procedural resource (political power) equally between two simulated ethnic groups differing in size when led to identify with a minority than a majority. Equality was also more salient to members of real ethnic minorities than members of ethnic majorities. With regard to distributive resources, PR was predominant in the distribution of individual-level material resources and EQ in the distribution of group-level symbolic resources.

Even though the guns cease firing after a civil war, it does not necessarily mean that intergroup conflict is over or that peace between the factions will be achieved. It may only represent the starting point of a long process that could lead to lasting peace, although the resurgence of the conflict and a return to violence remain a possibility. AbstractSuccessful reconciliation between groups following a violent conflict requires psychological change. We test a model predicting intergroup attitudes towards Muslims in Lebanon among Maronite (Christian) Lebanese youths. Identification with both their religious subgroup and with the superordinate national group predicted attitudes towards Muslims, in opposite directions. These effects of levels of identification on intergroup attitudes were mediated by attributions of responsibility for the war (Muslim responsibility) and perception that the current generation of out-group members is different from the war generation (perceived out-group discontinuity). Identification with Lebanon fosters positive attitudes towards Muslims by lowering Muslim responsibility for the war, and by increasing perceptions of foreign responsibility and perceived out-group discontinuity. In contrast, increased identification with their own religious subgroup undermines attitude change by increasing Muslim responsibility for the war and lessening perception of out-group discontinuity. Representations of the past have implications for attitudes towards former enemies and reconciliation in the present.