Social Psychology Research Articles

The Integration of Augmented Reality: A New Paradigm Shift in Marketing Approach

Purpose: The emergence of Augmented Reality Marketing (ARM) has been fuelled by recent advancements in AR technology and its growing application in marketing strategies and practices. Despite an increasing body of literature on the subject, managers and researchers still struggle to clearly articulate how ARM creates valuable customer experiences that differentiate it from other marketing strategies. This paper defines ARM as a customer-facing interface integrating digital marketing technologies into real-world environments. Drawing on the "situated cognition" theories from social psychology, we identify a unique set of digital affordances offered by ARM that extend beyond traditional marketing channels. By applying key concepts from situated cognition theory, we develop a comprehensive framework for understanding and enhancing ARM experiences, providing a foundation for future research and practical applications.

Impact of Petty Tyranny on Employee Turnover Intentions: The Mediating Roles of Toxic Workplace Environment and Emotional Exhaustion in Academia

Based on social exchange theory, social psychology theories, and despotic leadership theory, this study explored the impact of petty tyranny on employee turnover intentions. Specifically, the authors examined the mediating effect of toxic workplace environments through emotional exhaustion on this relationship among academicians. The authors surveyed 421 employees using a five-point Likert scale across six universities in Lahore, Pakistan and employed a time-lag research design. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analyses, including performance comparisons of various algorithms, were used to test the relationships among the variables. The analysis results of the study suggested that petty tyranny does not significantly and directly contribute to employee turnover intentions; however, this relationship is positively and significantly mediated by toxic workplace environments and emotional exhaustion. The results indicated that toxic workplace environments and emotional exhaustion also have a direct effect on employee turnover intentions. A serial full mediation was found between petty tyranny and turnover intentions, mediated through a toxic workplace environment and emotional exhaustion. Similarly, results from the performance comparison of various algorithms reveal trade-offs between precision, recall, and processing time, with ZeroR and Stacking REP Tree emerging as the most effective in terms of overall model accuracy. This study contributes to the literature by examining petty tyranny, workplace environment, and emotional exhaustion, highlighting the need to address tyrannical behavior to improve employee retention in academic organizations. Our study offers valuable practical implications, emphasizing addressing these issues to reduce turnover in academic organizations. Our study also provides recommendations for future research directions.

The Impacts of Psychology and Neuroscience on Consumers’ Behaviour

The intersection of psychology and neuroscience has revolutionized our understanding of consumer behavior, offering profound insights into the cognitive and emotional processes that drive decision-making. This research explores the multifaceted impacts of psychological theories and neuroscientific advancements on consumer behavior, emphasizing how factors such as perception, memory, emotions, and neural mechanisms shape purchasing decisions. By integrating behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, and social psychology, the study highlights the role of implicit biases, heuristics, and neurochemical responses in influencing consumer preferences. Furthermore, the research examines the implications of neuromarketing techniques, such as brain imaging and biometric analysis, in predicting and shaping consumer behavior. Ethical considerations, including privacy concerns and the potential manipulation of consumer choices, are critically addressed to ensure responsible applications of these insights. By synthesizing theoretical models with empirical evidence, this study provides a comprehensive framework for leveraging psychology and neuroscience to enhance marketing strategies, improve consumer satisfaction, and foster ethical business practices.

Relational Resonance and Content Creation

This study investigates how tie formation shapes the production of user-generated content on social media, offering insights into enhancing user engagement and alleviating social media fatigue. We conceptualize tie formation as a relationship codevelopment process involving a tie initiator and a respondent. Drawing on social psychology literature, we propose a framework that traces how initiators’ social cognition evolves throughout this process—from proactively extending an inviting social tie to receiving a responsive one in return. Central to our framework is a perceptual mechanism we term relational resonance, which fosters intrinsic motivation and prompts initiators to adjust their content creation. Using data from YouTube, we develop a Bayesian hierarchical model to identify individual creators’ content adjustments, measured by changes in video volume and viewer engagement. Our results reveal that while initiators tend to reduce content production after receiving a responsive tie, the videos they create generate higher engagement, with “like” and “subscribe” rates increasing by 1.1 and 2.9 percentage points, respectively. Remarkably, the receipt of a responsive tie leads to average weekly increases of 66 likes and 183 subscriptions even after accounting for the decrease in video volume, reinforcing the “quality over quantity” principle in content creation strategies. An online experiment further elucidates the mechanism underlying the observed adjustment behavior, providing robust validation for our proposed framework. Implications for research and practice are discussed. This paper was accepted by D.J. Wu, information systems. Funding: T. Song was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71902114 and 72372101]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00830 .

Premedical Course Requirements in U.S. Medical Schools.

This study characterizes required or recommended premedical coursework, coursework fulfillment, and congruence among U.S. medical schools. This cross-sectional study examined course requirements and recommendations of U.S. allopathic medical schools, using data from the 2023 to 2024 Association of American Medical Colleges Medical School Admission Requirements database. Courses required and recommended, credit hours, medical schools accepting pass/fail credits, advanced placement credits, online courses, and community college credits were evaluated. Of 157 medical schools, 154 had at least 1 premedical course requirement or recommendation. No schools had the same requirements or recommendations; 113 (72.0%) required or recommended 10 or more courses. The most commonly required courses were biology (107 [68.2%]), physics (106 [67.5%]), organic chemistry (105 [66.9%]), and inorganic chemistry (90 [57.3%]). The most commonly recommended courses were social sciences (96 [61.1%]), genetics (96 [61.1%]), and psychology (86 [54.8%]). Humanities had the highest range of credit hours expected (median, 6; range, 3-24) and cell and molecular biology, computer science, physiology, microbiology, and ethics the smallest (median, 3; range, 3-3). College mathematics had the highest proportion of schools accepting pass/fail (n = 15/26 [57.7%]) and AP (n = 51/65 [78.5%]) credits and biochemistry the lowest (n = 18/54 [33.3%] and n = 57/116 [49.1%], respectively). Statistics had the highest proportion of schools accepting online courses (n = 41/54 [75.9%]) and inorganic chemistry the lowest (n = 60/127 [47.2%]). College English had the highest proportion of schools accepting community college credits (n = 102/109 [93.6%]) and cell and molecular biology the lowest (n = 11/15 [73.3%]). These results show substantial variability in premedical course requirements or recommendations among U.S. medical schools, which could be challenging for premedical students planning their undergraduate studies. Additional research is needed on the effect of this variability on students interested in attending medical school.

Teamwork among first year health sciences students in an interprofessional course: a contact theory perspective.

Background: Promoting teamwork outcomes remains an important mandate for interprofessional education (IPE). While IPE has grown exponentially in contemporary health sciences education, theoretical application within IPE has been identified as an enduring gap in the field over the past few decades. Purpose: This paper reports on the theoretical implications of a study which explored first year health sciences students’ perceptions and experiences of teamwork within an interprofessional course. Originating in the field of social psychology, contact theory has been cited as a useful framework for curriculum design for IPE. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical evidence base for IPE from the perspective of social psychology. Method: Framed in an exploratory qualitative design, focus group discussion was the primary method of data production. Data were analyzed deductively with reference to contact theory; and inductively using thematic analysis. Discussion: The study findings highlighted two of contact theory’s conditions for positive intergroup contact: ‘equal status’ in relation to professional hierarchies; and ‘institutional support’ in relation to academic politics were both meaningful in the context of this study. Conclusion: This study’s findings indicate potential for further research of contact theory’s optimal conditions in IPE contexts, with the proviso that students’ emerging professional identification must be made salient.

Радянська політика аграрного виснаження України: голод 1946–1947 рр.

In the conditions of war, the issue of food security of the population is urgent and important. Ukrainian historical experience contains dramatic pages of post-war famine. It is necessary to analyze the reasons and actions that caused it in order to avoid such a social catastrophe. The object of the study is the economy of Ukraine after the end of the Second World War. The subject of the study is the reasons, political and economic determinants and consequences of the famine of 1946–1947. The purpose of the article is to identify the economic reasons of the famine based on a comprehensive analysis of the events that took place on the eve of and during 1946–1947. Methodological approaches are determined by the content of the article and are based on interdisciplinary techniques. The research methods of economic history, demography, social psychology and the corresponding categorical apparatus are used. First, the prerequisites for the emergence of famine are considered, namely the consequences of the Second World War for the Ukrainian economy and the weather and climate conditions of that period. In the second part of the article, the main events and reasons that led to the emergence of famine after the Second World War are given directly. The third part is dedicated to revealing the short- and long-term consequences of the famine of 1946–1947. In the results, it is determined that economic policy measures caused the transformation of the food crisis into a humanitarian disaster. Objective prerequisites and political and economic causes of famine are distinguished.

Boris Parygin' Social Psychology: History and Perspectives.

International literature on the history of Russian psychology is largely limited to the development of Activity theory and cultural-historical theory. This paper aims to go beyond these limits by introducing a figure little known to an international audience, Boris Parygin, who emerged in the 1960s with his "grand" project for the development of Russian social psychology, significantly different from the Soviet psychology "mainstream," stemming from Vygotsky, Luria, and Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev. We demonstrate that Parygin's works belong to a theoretical and methodological tradition of social and humanitarian scholarship that had been developing in Russia since 1870s. This was a broad and inter-disciplinary stream of theoretical and methodological developments, including authors like Berdyaev, Mikhailovsky, and so on, that embraced various disciplines (primarily, psychology, sociology, and philosophy). Despite the fact that Parygin's project did not receive substantial support from the soviet academic community, his ideas concerning personality and emphasis on the importance of individual choice and self-determined activity mediating the impact of social surroundings, have become relevant in the context of current discussions in the international science about individual agency, including debates concerning the transformative potential of the individual upon the social structure under conditions of "morphogenetic society" (M. Archer) or "neo-structuration" (P. Sorokin).

A theory of the symbolic role of disarmament during peace processes: The laying down of FARC-EP’s weapons in Colombia

Disarmament of non-state groups during peace processes is rarely comprehensive and weapons usually continue to circulate. Nevertheless, disarmament is a normal component of final peace agreements and its modalities are often intensely negotiated by all parties. We unpack the puzzle of why disarmament is seemingly both crucial and not completed by building a novel theory of its role as a symbol of the transformation from war to peace. In doing so, we build upon findings from conflict studies, social psychology, anthropology, and feminist research in order to explore what weapons and disarmament mean for combatants, their armed group, and communities impacted by conflict. We posit that after joining an armed group combatants are socially fused through ritual behavior which often features weapons, and disarmament functions as a symbolic inversion process in which the weapon is transformed into a symbol of peace. This inversion process is observable through language and acts, such as public destruction of arms or turning weapons into works of art. We empirically illustrate our propositions by examining the case of FARC-EP’s 2016–2017 disarmament in Colombia. Our theoretical framework pushes existing academic boundaries of war-to-peace transitions in general, and research on disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration in particular.

Justice sensitivity of youth with different levels of income as an actual socio-psychological problem

The article substantiates the relevance of studying the socio-psychological determinants of sensitivity to justice in Russian youth with different levels of wealth. The sensitivity to justice concept itself has been revealed, its structure presented and its evolution shown; the wealth concept has been given. Four roles that a person can occupy in situations subjectively perceived as unfair (a ‘victim’ – the injustice is committed towards them; a ‘witness’ – they observe injustice towards another people; a ‘beneficiary’ – a person benefits from the situation of injustice towards another one; a ‘violator’ – they act unfairly) have been characterized. A review of domestic and foreign studies of the relationship among sensitivity to justice and other personality characteristics, carried out over the past five years on various samples, has been given. Prospects for research into various aspects of this scientific problem, including cross-cultural differences, have been shown. Sensitivity to justice in modern social psychology is characterized as a relatively independent personality trait, but its socio-psychological determination is poorly studied. The model of empirical research of socio-psychological determinants of sensitivity to justice in youth with different levels of wealth has been presented.

Psicologia institucional na assistência social

The field of social assistance is a promising area for psychologists to work in. The tools and theoretical foundations of this field are under constant self-assessment in order to improve ethical practice in the community. The aim of this study is to reflect on the experience of a one-year extracurricular internship in Basic Social Protection, assessing the practice of psychologists and the challenges of going beyond the role of social technician. The research uses José Bleger’s institutional psychology, normative documents from the Ministry of Social Development and CREPOP’s technical references to carry out a conceptual analysis. This analysis aims to introduce, reflect on and support the training of psychology students to work in the area of social assistance, explaining the possibility of including institutional psychology in this field. The study works with Bleger’s concept of “psycho-hygiene”, applied to the work of social workers and institutional psychologists. It concludes that the work of these professionals can contribute to preventing situations of illness within institutions. Bleger’s work remains relevant and coherent in the ethical training of psychology professionals.

Leadership as a competition to influence and change contemporary societies

In the context of European identity, leaders often become symbols of movements for social change, and the promise of change takes a central place in election campaigns and political rhetoric. Although the discussion of leadership is less present in social psychology in the context of social change, understanding the intersection between leadership and social change can bring new and useful perspectives. The processes of social influence and leadership are fundamental for understanding the transformation at both the individual and societal levels. Leaders not only represent our collective identity, but also help us define our shared future. Social change is, thus, a collective initiative that involves mobilizing around a shared identity and vision for the future. Identity change and societal change are interdependent processes, and a deeper understanding of these processes can provide new insights into how and to what extent we can influence the direction of our society. In this article we will explore several findings that show that shared social identity is a source influenced by both collective and individual factors. It is crucial to analyze from the perspective of tripolar relations of “influence and social change”, which involves a competition between sources of influence and a public mobilized for change. This approach opens up new lines of research in both fields and helps us understand why certain views of change are more appealing than others. Together, these ideas provide a new perspective for understanding the interplay between identity, social influence, and changing social relationships.

Relationship between Social Media Addiction and Psychological Resilience among University Nursing Students

Relationship between Social Media Addiction and Psychological Resilience among University Nursing Students

International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on School Violence and Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Cyber Deviance: An Introductory Essay

ABSTRACTSchool violence and bullying, cyberbullying, and cyber‐deviance have become subject matters of great concern for various disciplines, such as social work, criminology, psychology, education, medicine, public health, and nursing. In the past years, scholars in different countries have adopted the theoretical perspectives developed in their respective disciplines to separately examine issues of school violence and bullying, cyberbullying, and cyber deviance. For example, researchers in the field of social sciences tend to adopt psychosocial theories and perspectives, while public health scholars tend to adopt medical‐ or health‐related theories. There is a call for the international and interdisciplinary perspectives to examine these topics and their potential interconnectedness. There is also an urgent need to systematic strategies, policies, and intervention to tackle school violence and bullying, cyberbullying, and cyber deviance. The purpose of this special issue is to deepen our understanding of issues related to school violence and bullying, cyberbullying, and cyber‐deviance, to expand our cross‐disciplinary and integrated perspectives on these topics, and to provide potential legal strategies, policy, and intervention to tackle these social problems.

The ubiquity of the gender/sex binary: power and status in social psychology

The ubiquity of the gender/sex binary: power and status in social psychology

Self-esteem modulates the similarity of the representation of the self in the brains of others

Social neuroscientists have made marked progress in understanding the underlying neural mechanisms that contribute to self-esteem. However, these neural mechanisms have not been examined within the rich social contexts that theories in social psychology emphasize. Previous research has demonstrated that neural representations of the self are reflected in the brains of peers in a phenomenon called the ‘self-recapitulation effect’, but it remains unclear how these processes are influenced by self-esteem. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging in a round-robin design within 19 independent groups of participants (total N = 107) to test how self-esteem modulates the representation of self-other similarity in multivariate brain response patterns during interpersonal perception. Our results replicate the self-recapitulation effect in a sample almost ten times the size of the original study and show that these effects are found within distributed brain systems underlying self-representation and social cognition. Furthermore, we extend these findings to demonstrate that individual differences in self-esteem modulate these responses within the medial prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in evaluative self-referential processing. These findings inform theoretical models of self-esteem in social psychology and suggest that greater self-esteem is associated with psychologically distanced self-evaluations from peer-evaluations in interpersonal appraisals.

Съвременен атомистичен модел на изкуството. Част трета

The Contemporary Atomistic Model of Art sought represents an ontogenetic process of creation, communication and perception of the artwork in the environment that surrounds us and that is within us. Instead of immutable wholes (holism), we have infinite sets of processes of connection and disconnection, merging and splitting of “nuclei” (atomism) where interactions are clearly visible. Through art, thought of as the porous structure of society with permeable sites of relation, each image and each material form of an artwork is only a connective element with values and other forms that are transferable in society. This is a principle of dynamic connection in which form is a kind of representation and a potential condition of exchange. The in-between zone has been distinguished, bearing its own traditions and recognizing both the connectedness as well as the separate items that are connected. Fluid culture atomism (fluid atomism) is where we observe the dynamics in interactions in an ever-changing structure that is itself made up of separated atomic units briefly grouped into more complex molecular formations, with all the connections between them being impermanent and temporary. Both the internal structures and the state of the whole change. The interactions of individual units are a key factor in the analysis of processes in art. These processes are embedded in perishable, dynamically transforming networks of ‘private’ art worlds, the sum of which is not the Universal World but a momentary state in an ever-changing system. The relationship between the individual artist and the overall system of organized artistic life passes through interactions of a socialpsychological type in organized temporary groups of artists. This article discusses the possible relations between the field of social psychology and art. Emphasis is placed on the aspects of innovative artistic inquiry, discussed as the singular and the unique in art as opposed to the established order. Innovation in art is juxtaposed with innovation in social bonding as a social psychological problem of creativity. Individual creativity is compared to the creativity of groups and the particularities of the creative processes inherent to individual artists. Such an interpretation develops further the idea of an art world seen as impermanent and dynamically changing networks of ‘private’ art worlds. Among the autonomous zones defined by the individual and the group are found shared zones through which polar differences are harmonized. Individual artistic innovation is juxtaposed with innovative practices that are formed through the action of the groups.

The Egalitarian Conditions of Just Happiness: A Rawlsian Approach to Pluralistic Well-Being

What role can political institutions play in reconciling the demands of justice with the desire for happiness in diverse societies? The increased measurement and politicization of well-being in recent decades has left many multicultural democracies struggling to support their citizens’ happiness while respecting the value of pluralism. Drawing on John Rawls’s theories of social and developmental psychology, as well as empirical research on the social determinants of well-being, this paper develops a conceptual and normative framework for understanding and addressing this challenge. Conceptually, the paper describes how political institutions function as “infrastructures of feeling” that shape the psychological dispositions and moral sensibilities of those living under them. Normatively, the paper argues that institutions reflecting Rawls’s liberal egalitarian conception of justice are uniquely capable of supporting happiness while affirming pluralism. This “experience-oriented egalitarianism” offers an original account of the connections between institutional design, public policy, moral psychology, and social justice, with direct implications for policymaking in multicultural democracies. The paper therefore concludes by offering several prescriptive recommendations for addressing the infrastructural origins of the “happiness crises” emerging in many diverse societies.

Failing the state self: on the politics of state shame

Abstract Observers have noted that world politics is replete with shame. Whether they observe this concerning the apologies regarding past atrocities, the felt necessity for revenge after a humiliating defeat, the feelings that populist leaders find antithetical to the greatness of their nation, or the affective responses to the latter's election, shame seems to be ubiquitous. Vital to understanding the particular politics of this emotion is the concept of state shame. However, the origins, divergent effects, and social and moral roles of state shame are left obscure in International Relations (IR) scholarship, making the concept undertheorized and in need of further elaboration. The primary goal of this research is to (re)conceptualize state shame as a narrative on the social position of the state by building on insights developed by IR theory, sociology, and social psychology. Moreover, the article proposes four types of state shame narratives, namely situational shame, narcissistic shame, aggressive shame, and deferential shame, that can separately account for the divergent effects and social and moral roles that the emotion can be attributed with. These four types, and the politics that characterize them, aim to capture and explain lived practices and meanings that state shame can come to hold.

The Effect of Digital Social Influence on Attitudinal Change and Purchase Behavioral Intention of Consumers

Objective: The objective of our research is to study the phenomenon of digital social influence through a set of determinants linked on the one hand to the characteristics of the influencer, such as credibility, congruence and parasocial interaction, and on the other hand to the content disseminated, which must combine originality, uniqueness, reliability and argumentative force. Theorical framework : The article highlights the various theories used to study the crucial role of the social influencer in changing the attitudes and purchasing intentions of Moroccan consumers, such as the credibility model, the electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM) model, the SOR model and the theory of reasoned action. Method : The methodology adopted to explain this topical phenomenon is based on descriptive methods supported by documentary analysis techniques in order to draw out the various theoretical concepts to clarify and provide answers to the many questions raising the issue of the credibility, homophily and popularity of the source, as well as the nature of the arguments presented in its content and their role in the process of forming consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. Results and Discussion: The results obtained show that the para-social interaction that exists between the influencer and the members of his or her community, social and physical attractiveness, homophily and credibility are basic criteria that, each in their own way, influence the subscriber's attitude and intention to buy. This work also confirms the idea that the perceived uniqueness and quality of publications appear to be crucial in strengthening the perceived trust between influencers and subscribers. Research Implications: This research will be of unprecedented managerial use, firstly by encouraging the regulation of the legal status of the digital influencer in Morocco, secondly by setting up specialised and in-depth university training in content production and social media management, and lastly by encouraging investment in scientific research in this rapidly expanding field, the direction of which is still emerging. Originality/Value: The originality of this research lies in its interdisciplinary nature, combining, on the one hand, the theories of persuasion from social psychology and, on the other, the theories of attitude and purchase intention from management sciences. The added value is the proposal of an appropriate conceptual model to respond to our problem linked to the role of the social digital influencer in the attitudinal change of his subscribers.