Moving beyond social categories by incorporating context in social psychological theory

Cikara, Mina; Martínez, Joel E.; Lewis, Neil A.

doi:10.1038/s44159-022-00079-3

Cited by 53 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 184 publications

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“…R. Smith et al, 2007). Integrating literatures on emotion expression with theories on intergroup relations and hierarchies (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999;Tajfel & Turner, 2004), in this review I discuss the importance of hierarchical group structures and asymmetrical power differences as consequential contexts for intergroup emotions (Cikara et al, 2022). Such a focus is relevant because positionality within a hierarchy shapes not only which emotions are felt, but also how they get Running Head: EMPATHY AND COUNTER-EMPATHY RELATE TO HIERARCHY expressed as well as the consequences of that expression (Keltner et al, 2003;Van Kleef et al, 2008).…”

Section: Empathic and Counter-empathic Emotions Shape Social Hierarch...mentioning

confidence: 97%

Empathic and counter-empathic emotions shape social hierarchy based on group positionality

Hudson¹

2022

Preprint

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Hierarchical relations between social groups are influenced by structural and interpersonal forces that reify or dismantle inequality. Here, I review two categories of emotional antecedents to hierarchy maintenance – empathic and counter-empathic emotions – which directly impact the cooperative or competitive nature of intergroup relations. Empathy is the ability to understand and experience the assumed emotional states of other people while counter-empathy is the ability to understand but experience the opposite assumed emotional states of others. Feeling empathy is affiliative, facilitating group cooperation and social interconnectedness. In contrast, counter-empathy is disaffiliative, facilitating social domination and competition. Asymmetric power hierarchies between groups becomes perpetuated when people affiliate and thus experience empathy towards groups that are at the top of the hierarchy, as well as when people disaffiliate and experience counter-empathy towards groups at the bottom. In contrast, hierarchical relationships become attenuated when people affiliate with those at the bottom of the hierarchy or disaffiliate with those at the top. In this way, the hierarchy attenuating or maintaining consequences of empathy and counter-empathy depend on the target groups’ positionality within the hierarchy, suggesting the importance of contextual power dynamics in understanding the implications of social emotions.

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Section: Empathic and Counter-empathic Emotions Shape Social Hierarch...mentioning

confidence: 97%

Empathic and counter-empathic emotions shape social hierarchy based on group positionality

Hudson¹

2022

Preprint

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“…breakdowns of social categories that, due to historical and contemporary dynamics in society, might affect how those participants experience the survey and broader context (Cikara et al, 2022). These data can provide a first step toward understanding the perspectives represented in the group you choose to survey.…”

Section: Who Are Your Participants?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Before conducting the survey, administrators should consider who is in their potential participant pool and how their social context affects their experiences. When possible, survey makers can try to access administrative data – for example, census or program data – which might include breakdowns of social categories that, due to historical and contemporary dynamics in society, might affect how those participants experience the survey and broader context (Cikara et al., 2022). These data can provide a first step toward understanding the perspectives represented in the group you choose to survey.…”

Section: Identifying Your Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While demographic information can be informative, social categories do not always sufficiently explain potential differences in participants’ experiences that might emerge during the survey process. As in the financial coaching example above, contextual factors surrounding social categories influence people's actions and decisions (Cikara et al., 2022; Oyserman et al., 2017). Consider that certain racial or ethnic group members in a given region may have complex and painful histories or present relationships with different government bodies or organizations, which may result in a lack of trust (see Koch, 2019).…”

Section: Identifying Your Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Surveys as conversations between makers and takers: A conversational framework for assessing and responding to community needs

Tepper

Spruill

Premachandra

et al. 2022

Anal Soc Iss & Public Policy

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Surveys, commonly employed in the social and behavioral sciences, are practical tools that can be used to assess the needs and attitudes of a given population. If not implemented in thoughtful ways, however, surveys can be inefficient or even harmful. With surveys often informing critical policy decisions, survey administrators must make careful methodological choices in order to obtain meaningful results and make sound decisions. In this paper, we review the social scientific literature on survey administration to aid policymakers, practitioners, and other survey administrators in understanding their position, identifying their participants, and establishing a plan for their surveys. We provide an overarching framework for survey design, guided by the idea that surveys are conversations between administrators and participants, in order to help creators of surveys make better decisions and engage more effectively with the communities they serve.

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“…As noted in another contribution to this Special Issue, a processual approach to precarity fits well with assemblage theory, which contends that “the social world is [best] conceptualized as a contingent and emergent ecosystem that is comprised of a nexus of interacting assemblages that are reproduced through ongoing social relations, human and non‐humane interactions, and institutional practices” (Rua et al, 2022, p. 4). Assemblage theory perspectives are currently burgeoning in social psychology (Cikara et al, 2022; Hodgetts et al, 2022; Sullivan et al, 2022) which suggests the time is ripe for moving the field towards a more processual, material, and fluid comprehension of how factors like SES impact psychology. Precarity appears to be an important construct for facilitating such a transition in our theoretical approach to social class.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In a double‐bind: Time–space distanciation, socioeconomic status, and coping with financial stress in the United States

Schmitt

Black

Keefer

et al. 2022

British J Social Psychol

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Psychological research has shown that lower socioeconomic status (SES) individuals experience higher levels of stress and tend to cope in more present-oriented ways. While some research in the field has sought to, for instance, increase future-oriented ways of being among lower SES individuals, we argue that such approaches may come at significant cost. We consider the construct of time-space distanciation (TSD) -the normative way in which time and space are abstracted from one another at cultural and individual levels -as a way to complicate psychological research on social class, stress, and coping. Across four studies, we present research on US geographical regions (Studies 1-2) and US participants (Studies 3-4) suggesting that adopting normative high-TSD orientations represents a double-bind for lower SES individuals: it allows one to enact more proactive coping strategies in the face of financial stressors such as debt (Studies 1-3), but it is also a source of disproportionate stress itself (Study 4), given the burdens faced by lower SES individuals trying to navigate time and space in culturally hegemonic ways in spite of precarity and material insecurity. We discuss how TSD offers a means of situating psychological research into precarity within the broader structural context of flexible capitalism.

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Moving beyond social categories by incorporating context in social psychological theory

Cited by 53 publications

References 184 publications

Empathic and counter-empathic emotions shape social hierarchy based on group positionality

Empathic and counter-empathic emotions shape social hierarchy based on group positionality

Surveys as conversations between makers and takers: A conversational framework for assessing and responding to community needs

In a double‐bind: Time–space distanciation, socioeconomic status, and coping with financial stress in the United States

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