Endorsement Of Policies Research Articles

Hierarchy as a signal of culture and belonging: Exploring why egalitarian ideology predicts aversion to hierarchical organizations

Variation in people's ideological preference for the maintenance of inequality between social groups (i.e., social dominance orientation; SDO) predicts important sociopolitical outcomes, such as endorsement of different social policies, institutions, and belief systems. We argue that SDO may also inform people's engagement with work organizations. Specifically, we propose that SDO may impact attraction to different organizational structures. Across 6 experiments (N = 3034), we find that people with relatively egalitarian values are less attracted to organizations with much (vs. little) managerial hierarchy; this gap in attraction is attenuated for relative anti-egalitarians (Studies 1a-b). These effects are not moderated by whether dominant vs. subordinate group members occupy positions of power in hierarchical arrangements (Study 2a-b) and are driven by signals concerning likelihood of organizational belonging that egalitarians (vs. anti-egalitarians) derive from managerial hierarchy (Studies 3a-b). We discuss implications for social dominance theory and research connecting ideology to organizational attraction.

Stakeholder Collaboration in Sustainable Tourism Development in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia: Efforts to Improve Tourist Visits

The primary objective of this study is to assess the impact of stakeholder collaboration, implementation of sustainable tourism principles, supportive policies, and regulations on the enhancement of tourist visitation. Tana Toraja. Data was collected from 290 respondents from government institutions, local community groups, the private sector, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and mass media. Respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique. Structural equation modeling the data was subjected to analysis. The findings of this investigation demonstrate the following: 1) Enhanced collaboration among stakeholders yields a favorable and noteworthy impact on the rise in tourist arrivals, 2) The execution of sustainable tourism principles leads to a beneficial and notable rise in tourist visits, 3) The endorsement of policies and regulations exerts a favorable and notable sway on the increase in tourist visits. This research recommends 1) Collaboration and coordination between governmental authorities and key players in the tourism sector are crucial in enhancing the overall tourism experience for visitors. 2) Enhancements in the implementation of sustainable tourism practices, including environmental conservation, community engagement, and preservation of local traditions, are essential for sustaining the appeal of tourist destinations and elevating visitor satisfaction levels. 3) The formulation of policies and regulatory frameworks by the government is imperative to bolster tourism growth, encompassing strategies such as promotional activities, infrastructure enhancements, adherence to quality benchmarks, and financial incentives to allure a larger influx of tourists.

Economic Frustration and Resistance to Gender Equality among Young Korean Men

Prejudice and negative attitudes toward stronger gender-equality policies are often associated with personal traits such as sexism. An alternate perspective focuses on intergroup threats in resource-scarce situations, highlighting economic frustration. Centered on South Korea, this study examines the connection between deepening pessimistic economic perceptions among young men and their opposition to gender equality, based on intergroup threat theory. Analyzing data from the 2019 Unification Survey, we find that young Korean men expressed less support for gender-equality policies than other segments of the population. And among Korean men in their twenties, a pessimistic view of their economic status correlated with weaker endorsement of gender-equality policies. In contrast, we saw no significant link in this group between sexist attitudes and resistance to gender-equality policies.

Anti-Muslim policy preferences and boundaries of American identity across partisanship

AbstractDoes American identity predict preferences for anti-democratic policies that aim to marginalize Muslim Americans? Absent significant priming of inclusive elements of American identity, we argue that individuals with stronger attachments to American identity will be less likely than their counterparts to reject a range of anti-Muslim policies that are antithetical to principles of religious liberty and equality. Across three surveys and multiple measures, American identity powerfully predicts preferences for curbing the civil liberties of Muslim citizens. Particularly striking is the finding that the effect of American identity spans the partisan divide; it consistently explains the endorsement of exclusionary policies among self-identified Democrats, who typically hold more progressive policy positions toward minority groups than Republicans. Overall, our study highlights the contradictory and exclusionary nature of American identity, which has important implications for minority groups constructed as outside the boundaries of Americanness.

Evaluating dynamics in human‐bear interactions within social‐ecological system

Abstract Over the past few decades, social‐ecological transformations have contributed to the restoration of numerous carnivores, presenting new challenges for human‐wildlife coexistence. Evaluating and understanding human‐wildlife interaction dynamics, particularly for conflict‐prone species, is crucial for conservation and management strategies. Our study focuses on Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) in Western Yunnan, China, a region with favourable bear conditions and significant environmental changes due to conservation policies. This study employed a multifaceted approach to gather data on bear occurrences and human‐bear conflicts. Utilising species distribution models, we predicted the potential bear habitat in 2000 and 2020. We proposed a methodology integrating bear habitat with human footprint to delineate the human‐bear interface. Additionally, we evaluated the spatial–temporal variations in bear habitat and human‐bear interface between 2000 and 2020. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted to capture the perceptions of local communities regarding the bear population, human‐bear interactions and conservation policies. Our findings indicated that the potential habitats of bears were strongly influenced by forest cover. We noticed improvements in bear habitat from 2000 to 2020, notwithstanding localised losses in specific areas. Most respondents attributed the increasing bear population to forest restoration and reduced human impact during this period. Notably, a significant proportion of respondents supported the conservation policies, previously participating in their formulation and implementation. Our analysis further revealed increases in the human‐bear interface and human‐bear interactions from 2000 to 2020. Remarkably, these changes did not significantly diminish local communities' endorsement of conservation policies. This resilience can be attributed to the net positive impacts of conservation policies on the livelihoods of these communities. Our study highlights the complexity and dynamic nature of human‐wildlife interactions within the social‐ecological system and provides new insights to facilitate sustainable conservation and management measures. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Empathy and attitudes toward protecting migrants from criminal violence

AbstractMigrants in Latin America are increasingly vulnerable to organized crime violence while en route to their destination. Public opinion regarding how to address this problem varies. While many residents of countries along migration routes support policies protecting migrants from organized crime, others oppose them. What explains this variation? To investigate this situation, we draw on nationally representative survey data from one of Latin America's most important migrant corridors, Mexico, where sustained criminal violence makes migrants vulnerable to criminal predation en route. We integrate insight from theories about helping refugees amid political violence with studies about aiding migrants amid peace to develop and test hypotheses about an understudied research phenomenon, protecting migrants amid large‐scale criminal violence. We argue that attitudes toward protecting migrants are influenced by feelings of empathy. We test hypotheses related to two conduits of empathic perspective taking—crime victimization and imagining one could become a victim in the future. We find these channels of perspective taking are positively associated with support for migrant protective policies among crime victims and nonvictims alike. Our research reveals new information about attitudes toward immigration policy in criminally violent contexts and advances knowledge about the public endorsement of policies to preserve migrant rights and dignity.

Who believes the country belongs to their ethnic ingroup? The background characteristics of ‘owners’ and their support for stricter immigration policies across three Western societies

We examined if ethnic majority members with different background characteristics (national identification, political orientation, gender, education, and age) differ in the perception that their ethnic group owns the country they live in, and whether this can explain their opinions about stricter immigration policies. Using nationally diverse samples of Anglo-Australian (N = 475), Dutch (N = 599), and British participants (N = 1005), we found that ownership beliefs were consistently positively associated with support for stricter immigration policies. Further, we showed that ownership beliefs were stronger among higher national identifiers, men, right-wing, lower educated (United Kingdom only), and older people (Australia only), and ownership partially accounted for these groups’ stronger endorsement of stricter immigration policies. Our study underscores the relevance of ownership beliefs as a novel construct that can explain the relation between personal background characteristics and anti-immigration stance among ethnic majority populations in Western countries.

Implications of Sleep Health Policy: Daylight Saving and School Start Times.

Two proposed public policies, ending seasonal clock change with a transition to permanent Standard Time and moving middle school and high school start times later, are population-based initiatives to improve sleep health. Daylight Saving Time and early school start times are associated with reduced sleep duration and increased circadian misalignment, the effects of which impact not only long-term health outcomes including obesity, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease, and cancer, but also mental health, academics, workforce productivity, and safety outcomes. This article highlights studies that led to the endorsement of these public policies by multiple scientific and medical organizations. Neurologists should advocate at the state and federal levels and educate the population about the importance of sleep health.

Worry About Guest Mistreatment and Endorsement of COVID-19 Safety Policies

Worry About Guest Mistreatment and Endorsement of COVID-19 Safety Policies

How essentialist reasoning about language acquisition relates to educational myths and policy endorsements

How people conceptualize learning is related to real-world educational consequences across many domains of education. Despite its centrality to the educational system, we know little about how the public reasons about language acquisition, and the potential consequences for their thinking about real-world issues (e.g., policy endorsements). The current studies examined people’s essentialist beliefs about language acquisition (e.g., that language is innate and biologically based), then investigated how individual differences in these beliefs related to the endorsement of educational myths and policies. We probed several dimensions of essentialist beliefs, including that language acquisition is innate, genetically based, and wired in the brain. In two studies, we tested specific hypotheses regarding the extent to which people use essentialist thinking when reasoning about: learning a specific language (e.g., Korean), learning a first language more generally, and learning two or more languages. Across studies, participants were more likely to essentialize the ability to learn multiple languages than one’s first language, and more likely to essentialize the learning of multiple languages and one’s first language than the learning of a particular language. We also found substantial individual differences in the degree to which participants essentialized language acquisition. In both studies, these individual differences correlated with an endorsement of language-related educational neuromyths (Study 1 and pre-registered Study 2), and rejection of educational policies that promote multilingual education (Study 2). Together, these studies reveal the complexity of how people reason about language acquisition and its corresponding educational consequences.

Preparing educators who save lives: what can US schools of education do?

PurposeAided with critical-race theory (Ladson-Billings, 1998), culturally responsive pedagogy tenets (Gay, 2002), and culturally sustaining pedagogy philosophy (Paris, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to make a two-pronged argument that: the killing of blacks has taken many forms, physical, moral, intellectual, cultural, and financial; and through its endorsement of racist policies, the education domain is a covert partaker in the killing of black lives. The author proceeds to tell her story of how lived experience, i.e., related to racism and inequities, inspired her to implement a curriculum that saves lives. She then proposes actionable measures that leaders of schools of education can take to show that they are allies of anti-black-racism and racial equity voices in education.Design/methodology/approachMethodologically, this paper is situated in the intersection of three methodological models, which share the use of narrative as a source of evidence: critical participatory action research, critical autoethnography and narrative inquiry.FindingsThe author’s narrative of lived experience, demonstrates the difficulty of black faculty of education to prepare nonblack educators who save black children’s lives and the author’s determination to tailor her syllabus to that urgent goal.Originality/valueThis study is one of its kind in claiming that ill-prepared teachers can “kill lives” and advocating that “saving lives” should be the mission of teacher preparation programs, especially those in high-diversity urban schools.

Channeling Good Images but Not Substantive Blessings? Education and Social Contact on Pro-Migrant Sentiments in an Internal Migration Setting

Abstract Education and intergroup contact are two of the most influential channels for reducing host society members’ hostility toward immigrants, but recent studies suggest that these two channels are only able to shift their impressions. Yet, a shift in impression does not necessarily translate into endorsement of integration policies, resulting in a “principle-policy paradox” in multiracial societies. Little is known about whether this paradox holds in circumstances where racial boundaries are less salient and rigid. In this study, we examine whether such a paradox exists in urban China, where racial/ethnic hostility is negligible but the Hukou system has created institutional segregation between local residents and migrants. Using data collected from twelve middle-size cities and one metropolis, we examine urban residents’ attitudes toward rural migrants from multiple domains. We find that education is positively associated with locals’ positive judgments about rural migrants, with concern about social justice playing a mediating role. However, there is a lack of association between education and the endorsement of integration policy or social distance. Compared with education, social contact, in particular kinship contact, is associated with support in more substantive domains, ranging from integration policies to a closer social distance. Nevertheless, social contact does not lead to the support for the most pivotal policy change of granting Hukou. The findings indicate that both education and social contact are limited in engendering the extension of benefits to migrants across contexts, but intergroup contact is more capable of doing so in a society with a more fluid group boundary.

Obstacles to Birth Surname Retention Upon Marriage: How Do Hostile Sexism and System Justification Predict Support for Marital Surname Change Among Women?

Despite the ongoing shift in societal norms and gender-discriminatory practices toward more equality, many heterosexual women worldwide, including in many Western societies, choose to replace their birth surname with the family name of their spouse upon marriage. Previous research has demonstrated that the adherence to sexist ideologies (i.e., a system of discriminatory gender-based beliefs) among women is associated with their greater endorsement of practices and policies that maintain gender inequality. By integrating the ideas from the system justification theory and the ambivalent sexism theory, we proposed that the more women adhere to hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs, the more likely they would be to justify existing gender relations in society, which in turn, would positively predict their support for traditional, husband-centered marital surname change. We further argued that hostile (as compared to benevolent) sexism could act as a particularly strong direct predictor of the support for marital surname change among women. We tested these possibilities across three cross-sectional studies conducted among women in Turkey (Study 1, N=118, self-identified feminist women; Study 2, N=131, female students) and the United States (Study 3, N=140, female students). Results of Studies 1 and 3 revealed that higher adherence to hostile (but not benevolent) sexism was associated with higher support for marital surname change indirectly through higher gender-based system justification. In Study 2, the hypothesized full mediation was not observed. Consistent with our predictions, in all three studies, hostile (but not benevolent) sexism was found to be a direct positive predictor of the support for marital surname change among women. We discuss the role of dominant ideologies surrounding marriage and inegalitarian naming conventions in different cultures as obstacles to women’s birth surname retention upon marriage.

The elephant (and donkey) in the room: Parents’ approaches to political socialization surrounding the 2020 US election

AbstractThe current study examined parents’ attitudes toward political socialization and political socialization messages related to the 2020 United States presidential election, using a sample of 185 parents of 6‐ to 12‐year‐old children from across the United States. Overall, parents viewed political socialization as somewhat important. However, a meaningful number of parents indicated beliefs that political socialization was not important, that their children were too young to learn about politics, or a desire to shield their children from knowledge of politics. Parents reported engaging in a variety of socialization practices, but reported higher levels of indirect approaches to socialization (e.g., watching political news while the child was present) compared to more direct approaches (e.g., reading books about politics with the child). As with frequency, the content of parents’ socialization messages varied widely, including explicit endorsement of candidates and policies, messages about the importance of respecting all opinions, and messages related to negative partisanship. Parents’ political interest, engagement with politics, and extremity of political ideology predicted their approaches to socialization. Community‐level factors (e.g., heterogeneity of voting patterns) were largely unrelated to parents’ attitudes and practices.

Globalization and Austerity: Flipping Partisan Effects on Fiscal Policy During (Recent) International Crises

This article investigates the effect of government partisanship on fiscal policy outputs during the three international economic crises of 1981–1984, 1990–1994 and 2008–2013. Encompassing 19–23 advanced democracies, the statistical analysis suggests that partisan effects have increased over time and are characterized, in the two last crises, by a “new asymmetry” whereby left governments pursued more contractionary fiscal policies than non-left governments over the course of the business cycle. Furthermore, it attributes left governments’ endorsement of austere fiscal policies to the constraining effects of financial markets in the context of high/surging debt. This is supported by qualitative analysis of select government responses to the Global Financial Crisis, shedding new light on the new austerity that started in the early 2010s. The ideological mix with political partisanship during hard times surely is confusing to ordinary citizens. The article cautiously points to a neglected yet important international economic origin of our political discontents.

National identity and beliefs about historical linguicide are associated with support for exclusive language policies among the Ukrainian linguistic majority

We examined the idea that endorsement of state-level restrictive language policies can be understood as an ingroup-preserving behaviour driven by majority group members’ experiences of linguistic-based collective angst (i.e., concern about the future vitality of the ingroup’s language). We did so in the context of legislative reform aimed to enforce monolinguistic public education in Ukraine – a linguistically heterogeneous nation-state with a history of a foreign ethno-political domination. Specifically, we hypothesized that collective angst is most likely to be experienced when majority group members feel higher attachment to Ukraine (vs. glorification) and shared beliefs about historical linguicide of the Ukrainian language. Using data from a public opinion survey ( N = 774), we found support for the mediation model – higher attachment and beliefs about historical linguicide predicted increased support for restrictive policies directly and through collective angst, whereas glorification was found to be a non-significant predictor in this relation. Our results highlight the role of the specific content of protagonists’ social identities in predicting their support for cultural assimilation of ethnic minority groups within heterogeneous societies.

Fellow travelers or Trojan horses? Similarities across pro-Russian parties’ electorates in Europe

Scholarship analyzing Russia’s influence in Europe has focused primarily on the supply-side of this relationship, especially on the links between the Kremlin and specific parties. Surprisingly few studies have focused on the demand-side. My paper fills in this gap. First, I compile a dataset of pro-Russian parties in the European Union and show that Russia-sympathizers are found across different (left and right) party families. Second, I demonstrate that supporters of these parties across different party families show stronger Eurosceptic attitudes than the electorates of mainstream parties. This finding explains the endorsement of narratives and policies indirectly favorable to the Kremlin by political actors whose electorates harbor Eurosceptic sympathies. It also sheds some light on the opportunistic rather than ideological nature of Russia’s influence operations in the European Union, which exploit opportunities presented in respective regions. In other words, these parties are the Kremlin’s fellow travelers.

Conditional Love: Threat and Attitudinal Perceptions of Immigrants Depend on Their Instrumentality to Locals' Basic Psychological Needs.

Although threat perceptions are commonly used to explain attitudes toward immigrants, the psychological factors underlying threat are surprisingly understudied. Drawing from goal pursuit and self-determination theory, we examined the perceived instrumentality of immigrants as an antecedent of locals' threat and attitudinal perceptions. Through four studies (N = 1,372) with different configurations of local population segments and target immigrant groups, we investigated the impact of immigrants' instrumentality in terms of hindrances to locals' autonomy, belonging, and competence needs. Including hindrances to our proposed model of threats and attitudes led to an improvement in the overall fit with the data, allowed for a better specification of the threats-to-attitudes pathways, and elucidated the complexity and downstream consequences (endorsement of pro-immigration policies) of attitudes. The present findings underscore the utility of goal-driven approaches to studying intergroup conflicts, and implications for understanding and improving locals' attitudes toward immigrants are discussed.

Reinhold Niebuhr and the Christian realist pendulum

Reinhold Niebuhr is widely acknowledged as the father of Christian realism and a staunch critic of pacifism. In a famous exchange with his brother H. Richard in The Christian Century, Niebuhr defended the necessity of entering the fray of battle to combat evil as opposed to opting for non-violent detachment that ultimately usurps God’s authority to decide on final matters. Niebuhr, however, never endorsed an aggressive Just War doctrine. Striving to reconcile the Christian command of love with the harsh realities of power resulting from universal sinfulness, Niebuhr emphasised the necessity of negotiating the distance between the two extremes of a pendulum swinging from Christian pacifism to the endorsement of interventionist policies. Rather than this being an expression of the ambiguity of his moral convictions, this paper argues that it is a product of his sensitivity to applying contextual moral and political judgement as an exercise of theological responsibility.

Exploring the organisational context of research misconduct in higher learning institutions in Malaysia.

Due to the financial pressure caused by cutbacks in funding and the race to achieve higher university rankings, researchers are competing for limited funds. These funds enable researchers to contribute to the scientific enterprise and to secure better positions. Given this pressure, there is a need to understand how academic organisations can influence academic integrity. This study uses a qualitative methodology and incudes in-depth interviews with 22 voluntary participants from various Malaysian public and private universities and with different research backgrounds and experience. The findings suggest that mentorship, the pressure to perform, the research environment and research policies related to misconduct can contribute to research misconduct. According to the participants, reward systems that are heavily dependent on publication records can result in a research environment that is not conducive to research ethics, and which creates self-centred individualistic researchers rather than team players. This can lead to bad mentorship where researchers are more concerned with their own performance and do not prioritise their teaching and supervising of junior researchers. The endorsement of well-written research policies may have little significant value for research misconduct without enforcement and awareness of the importance of research integrity. This paper is an attempt to encourage university management to promote research integrity among individuals who are directly or indirectly involved in the research process by taking action against those involved in misconduct. It also suggests rewarding researchers based on their overall performance rather than solely on their publication record.