This study was a longitudinal investigation of the psychological and attitudinal consequences of perceived ethnic discrimination and ethnic and national identification among immigrants in an 8-year follow-up study with panel data. The participants were 293 immigrants in Finland coming from the former Soviet Union. The results supported the Rejection-Disidentification Model (RDIM) proposed in this study; perceived discrimination resulted in national disidentification, which, in turn, increased hostile attitudes towards the national out-group. Contrary to prevalent assumptions in the literature, long-term psychological well-being was not determined by the absolute level of discrimination experienced in the past. However, it was influenced by an increase in those experiences over time, and evidence was also obtained for the reciprocal relationship between perceived discrimination and well-being. The results of the study were discussed in terms of the further development of the theoretical models explaining the role of identification in relationships between perceived discrimination, attitudes towards the national out-group and well-being among multiple-identified minority members.Cette étude est une recherche longitudinale sur les conséquences psychologiques et attitudinales de la discrimination ethnique perçue et de l'identification ethnique et nationale d'immigrants. Ayant contribué sur un suivi de huit ans aux données du panel, 293 immigrés vers la Finlande en provenance de l'ex Union soviétique ont participé à cette étude. Les résultats confirment le modèle du rejet-désidentification proposé dans cette étude; la discrimination perçue résulte d'une désidentification nationale, qui, à son tour, accroît les attitudes hostiles envers l'exo groupe national. Contrairement aux hypothèses répandues dans la littérature, le bien-être psychologique à long terme n'est pas déterminé par un niveau absolu de discrimination vécue dans le passé.

The authors addressed the specific role of and contradictory results previously obtained regarding ethnic versus host support networks in influencing directly and/or buffering the impact of perceived discrimination on the well-being of immigrants. A nationwide adult probability sample ( N= 2,360) included Finnish repatriates and Russian and Estonian immigrants in Finland from Russia, Estonia, and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Perceived discrimination had a significant impact on psychological well-being. The results demonstrated the importance of distinguishing between available and activated social support. In the total sample, strong evidence was obtained for the direct and the buffering effect of host support networks on well-being. In addition, social support provided by ethnic networks abroad was generally beneficial for the psychological well-being of the immigrants. Under some conditions, ethnic support networks were also beneficial for psychological well-being.

The worldwide spread of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) since December 2019 has posed a severe threat to individuals’ well-being. While the world at large is waiting that the released vaccines immunize most citizens, public health experts suggest that, in the meantime, it is only through behavior change that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled. Importantly, the required behaviors are aimed not only at safeguarding one’s own health. Instead, individuals are asked to adapt their behaviors to protect the community at large. This raises the question of which social concerns and moral principles make people willing to do so. We considered in 23 countries (N = 6948) individuals’ willingness to engage in prescribed and discretionary behaviors, as well as country-level and individual-level factors that might drive such behavioral intentions. Results from multilevel multiple regressions, with country as the nesting variable, showed that publicized number of infections were not significantly related to individual intentions to comply with the prescribed measures and intentions to engage in discretionary prosocial behaviors. Instead, psychological differences in terms of trust in government, citizens, and in particular toward science predicted individuals’ behavioral intentions across countries. The more people endorsed moral principles of fairness and care (vs. loyalty and authority), the more they were inclined to report trust in science, which, in turn, statistically predicted prescribed and discretionary behavioral intentions. Results have implications for the type of intervention and public communication strategies that should be most effective to induce the behavioral changes that are needed to control the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Societal inequality has been found to harm the mental and physical health of its members and undermine overall social cohesion. Here, we tested the hypothesis that economic inequality is associated with a wish for a strong leader in a study involving 28 countries from five continents (Study 1, N = 6,112), a study involving an Australian community sample (Study 2, N = 515), and two experiments (Study 3a, N = 96; Study 3b, N = 296). We found correlational (Studies 1 and 2) and experimental (Studies 3a and 3b) evidence for our prediction that higher inequality enhances the wish for a strong leader. We also found that this relationship is mediated by perceptions of anomie, except in the case of objective inequality in Study 1. This suggests that societal inequality enhances the perception that society is breaking down (anomie) and that a strong leader is needed to restore order (even when that leader is willing to challenge democratic values).