Brock Bastian
Biographic Data
| ID | 117710 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brock Bastian |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brock |
| FAMILY NAME | Bastian |
| SIGNATURE | BASTIAN B |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4619-3322 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 83 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 919 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 79 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Undermining Free Will Belief Increases Forgiveness of Self and Others
Previous research suggests undermining free will belief can have detrimental effects, but few studies have examined whether there may also be benefits to tempering a belief in free will. Two experiments examined whether exposure to arguments for determinism would increase forgiveness of self and others. In Study 1, 260 participants wrote about a time they hurt someone, then were exposed to either a free will or determinism condition, where they r…
Capturing the relational factors within human-companion animal relationships that predict human psychological well-being and caring for companion animals
The current study investigated the nature of the psychological connection that exists within the human-companion animal relationship and tested which specific relational factors predict both the guardians’ psychological well-being as well as their tendency to care and feel affection for their companion animal. The following relational factors were investigated: Positive contact with one’s companion animal, quality of the human-companion animal re…
Aversion to cultured foods reflects the perceived risk of replicating nature
Public acceptance of foods produced through cellular agriculture remains limited despite their potential to mitigate the environmental and ethical costs of conventional food production. Existing research has focused on cultured meat, where pathogen-based disgust has been proposed as a key source of aversion, yet this account does not fully explain resistance to cultured foods that are not animal-derived, such as plant-based products. The present …
The (Un)Happy Moralist? Different Methods of Moral Engagement have Opposing Implications for Wellbeing
For centuries, the relationship between morality and well-being has been a focal point of philosophical debate. Recent empirical research has produced mixed results, showing both positive and negative associations between moral engagement and well-being. Our exploratory research examines two forms of moral engagement—moral identity and moral attentiveness—and their potential implications for well-being. In Study 1 (N = 149), we found that a stron…
From vastness to unity: Awe strengthens identity fusion
Awe is theorized to serve a social function, enabling individuals to integrate into collaborative groups and engage in collective action. Across five studies ( N = 1,124), we examined awe's role in promoting identity fusion-an apex form of group connection. Two cross-sectional studies (1a and 1b) revealed that dispositional awe predicted stronger identity fusion. Three subsequent experiments (Studies 2-5) demonstrated that awe experiences strengt…
Age, Gender, Education, Political Orientation, and Animal Identification Predict Adoption of Meat Alternatives in a Representative Sample
Hormonal contraceptive use, not menstrual cycle phase, is associated with reduced interest in competition
Despite numerous studies attempting to understand the influence of fertility and hormonal contraceptives on competitive outcomes, the association between these variables remain a contentious issue. Using a longitudinal, online diary study with over 5600 daily observations ( N = 302 community and undergraduate student participants), we explored the effects of fertility probability and hormonal contraceptive use on a range of self-report competitiv…
Beauty Builds Cooperation by Increasing Moral Concern for the Environment
We aimed to investigate the role of moral value in influencing cooperative behavior in environmental conservation. Our research involved two studies examining whether attributing moral value to non-sentient resources (the environment) impacts participants’ resource preservation actions. Results revealed that associating an environmental consequence with resource consumption led to increased cooperative behavior, driven by a desire to protect tree…
Meating of the minds: Who denies animal mind in response to the meat paradox
Most people abhor animal cruelty but choose to eat meat. To resolve feelings of conflict associated with this so-called “meat paradox”, meat-eaters appear to downplay the capacity of animals to think and feel. However, the strength of animal mind denial seems likely to vary between individuals—according to one’s concern for animal welfare or enjoyment of meat, for instance. Across two pre-registered studies (S1: N = 355, S2: N = 251), we examined…
Differential responses to ethical vegetarian appeals: Exploring the role of traits, beliefs, and motives
OBJECTIVE: This research examines differential responses to ethical vegetarian appeals as a fuction of individuals' personalities. BACKGROUND: Ethical vegetarian appeals are persuasive messages promoting the adoption of a plant-based diet on moral grounds. Individuals may vary in their receptivity to such appeals, depending on their morally relevant traits (e.g., agreeableness), beliefs (e.g., speciesism), and motives (e.g., concerns about animal…
Mindless furry test-tubes: Categorizing animals as lab-subjects leads to their mind denial
Despite caring for animals, most people use products tested on lab-animals daily, and rarely consider the implications of their choices for animal testing. We experimentally examined across four preregistered and high-powered online studies (total N = 3405) whether categorizing animals as being lab-subjects, in a context where people are also reminded of the implications of their own consumer choices, could lead to their mind denial. Findings con…
Physical Attractiveness Biases Judgments Pertaining to the Moral Domain of Purity
Research on the Beauty-is-Good stereotype shows that unattractive people are perceived to have worse moral character than attractive individuals. Yet research has not explored what kinds of moral character judgments are particularly biased by attractiveness. In this work, we tested whether attractiveness particularly biases moral character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity, beyond a more general halo effect. Across four preregist…
Moral Expansiveness Around the World: The Role of Societal Factors Across 36 Countries
What are the things that we think matter morally, and how do societal factors influence this? To date, research has explored several individual-level and historical factors that influence the size of our ‘moral circles.' There has, however, been less attention focused on which societal factors play a role. We present the first multi-national exploration of moral expansiveness—that is, the size of people’s moral circles across countries. We found …
Sensory Processing Sensitivity and Reactivity to Daily Events
Sensory processing sensitivity is an individual difference that captures the extent to which people show heightened emotional reactivity to, and increased cognitive processing of, their environment. Although central to its definition, there has been no research examining whether highly sensitive individuals display stronger reactivity to naturally occurring negative and positive events in everyday life. We addressed this gap by carrying out a 21-…
Evaluating the effectiveness of vegetarian appeals in daily life: Comparing positive and negative imagery, and gauging differential responses
Multinational data show that conspiracy beliefs are associated with the perception (and reality) of poor national economic performance
While a great deal is known about the individual difference factors associated with conspiracy beliefs, much less is known about the country‐level factors that shape people's willingness to believe conspiracy theories. In the current article we discuss the possibility that willingness to believe conspiracy theories might be shaped by the perception (and reality) of poor economic performance at the national level. To test this notion, we surveyed …
Supernatural explanations across 114 societies are more common for natural than social phenomena
What is Beneficial in Our Relationships with Pets? Exploring the Psychological Factors Involved in Human-Pet Relations and Their Associations with Human Wellbeing
Whether pet owners experience higher psychological wellbeing compared with non-pet owners remains contested. Going beyond a comparison of pet vs. non-pet owners, the current study investigated the nature of the psychological link that operates between humans and pets and tested which specific psychological factors, experienced specifically in the human–pet relationship, predict pet owners' psychological wellbeing. The following factors were put t…
National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during …
Psychological Science in the Wake of Covid-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations
The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic’s wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon—an event that hinges on human-to-human contact—we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology…
The Relationship Between Prosociality, Meaning, and Happiness in Everyday Life
Prosocial behaviors benefit others, but what benefits do they hold for those who enact them? Prosociality can enhance the actor’s well-being, yet whether it is one’s sense of happiness or meaning that is impacted, and how this plays out in everyday life, has received limited attention. We address this gap in knowledge by examining how prosociality is related to daily meaning and happiness across two large daily diary studies in two countries. Stu…
Beauty Goes Down to the Core: Attractiveness Biases Moral Character Attributions
Beyond Aesthetic Judgment: Beauty Increases Moral Standing Through Perceptions of Purity
Researchers have tended to focus on mind perception as integral to judgments of moral standing, yet a smaller body of evidence suggests that beauty may also be an important factor (for some people and animals). Across six studies ( N = 1,662), we investigated whether beauty increases moral standing attributions to a wide range of targets, including non-sentient entities, and explored the psychological mechanism through which beauty assigns moral …
Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to Covid-19 pandemic using machine learning
At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social…
Perceiving Social Pressure not to Feel Negative is Linked to a More Negative Self-concept
When group membership gets personal: A theory of identity fusion
Identity fusion is a relatively unexplored form of alignment with groups that entails a visceral feeling of oneness with the group. This feeling is associated with unusually porous, highly permeable borders between the personal and social self. These porous borders encourage people to channel their personal agency into group behavior, raising the possibility that the personal and social self will combine synergistically to motivate pro-group beha…
Psychological essentialism and stereotype endorsement
The role of meat consumption in the denial of moral status and mind to meat animals
Resolving the Meat-Paradox: A Motivational Account of Morally Troublesome Behavior and Its Maintenance
A majority of people the world over eat meat, yet many of these same people experience discomfort when the meat on their plate is linked to the death of animals. We draw on this common form of moral conflict-the meat-paradox-to develop insights into the ways in which morally troublesome behaviors vanish into the commonplace and every day. Drawing on a motivational analysis, we show how societies may be shaped by attempts to resolve dissonance, in…
Excluded from humanity: The dehumanizing effects of social ostracism
What makes a group worth dying for? Identity fusion fosters perception of familial ties, promoting self-sacrifice
We sought to identify the mechanisms that cause strongly fused individuals (those who have a powerful, visceral feeling of oneness with the group) to make extreme sacrifices for their group. A large multinational study revealed a widespread tendency for fused individuals to endorse making extreme sacrifices for their country. Nevertheless, when asked which of several groups they were most inclined to die for, most participants favored relatively …
More human than you: Attributing humanness to self and others
People typically evaluate their in-groups more favorably than out-groups and themselves more favorably than others. Research on infrahumanization also suggests a preferential attribution of the "human essence" to in-groups, independent of in-group favoritism. The authors propose a corresponding phenomenon in interpersonal comparisons: People attribute greater humanness to themselves than to others, independent of self-enhancement. Study 1 and a p…
The effect of categorization as food on the perceived moral standing of animals
Toward a psychology of human-animal relations
Nonhuman animals are ubiquitous to human life, and permeate a diversity of social contexts by providing humans with food and clothing, serving as participants in research, improving healing, and offering entertainment, leisure, and companionship. Despite the impact that animals have on human lives and vice versa, the field of psychology has barely touched upon the topic of human-animal relations as an important domain of human activity. We review…
Psychological Essentialism, Implicit Theories, and Intergroup Relations
Research on implicit person theories shows that beliefs about the malleability of human attributes have important implications for social cognition, interpersonal behavior, and intergroup relations. We argue that these implications can be understood within the framework of psychological essentialism, which extends work on implicit theories in promising directions. We review evidence that immutability beliefs covary with a broader set of essential…
Towards a Psychological Analysis of Anomie
Anomie, as defined by sociologists, refers to a state of society characterized by deregulation and erosion of moral values. In the present conceptual analysis, we bring the concept of anomie under a social psychological spotlight. We explore the conditions under which anomie arises and develop a model outlining various responses to anomie. We define anomie as a shared perception of the state of society and propose that two conditions must be met …
Moral expansiveness: Examining variability in the extension of the moral world
The nature of our moral judgments-and the extent to which we treat others with care-depend in part on the distinctions we make between entities deemed worthy or unworthy of moral consideration-our moral boundaries. Philosophers, historians, and social scientists have noted that people's moral boundaries have expanded over the last few centuries, but the notion of moral expansiveness has received limited empirical attention in psychology. This res…
Cyber-dehumanization: Violent video game play diminishes our humanity
Not “just words”: Exposure to homophobic epithets leads to dehumanizing and physical distancing from gay men
We examined whether homophobic epithets (e.g., faggot ) function as labels of deviance for homosexuals that contribute to their dehumanization and physical distance. Across two studies, participants were supraliminally (Study 1) and subliminally (Study 2) exposed to a homophobic epithet, a category label, or a generic insult. Participants were then asked to associate human‐related and animal‐related words to homosexuals and heterosexuals. Results…
Intergroup contact in context: The mediating role of social norms and group-based perceptions on the contact–prejudice link
Social identification with animals: Unpacking our psychological connection with other animals
Our relations with other animals are ubiquitous in human life, yet the psychological structure of our connection with animals is just beginning to receive empirical attention. Drawing on theories of social identification and intergroup relations, we investigate the various ways that people identify with animals. Across 7 studies, we introduce the Identification with Animals Measure (IWAM) and uncover 3 dimensions by which humans identify with ani…
Changing Ethically Troublesome Behavior: The Causes, Consequences, and Solutions to Motivated Resistance
Ethical dilemmas are common. Just as commonly, however, these motivational conflicts are overlooked or actively avoided in behavioral decision making. Raising awareness of the ethical implications of action can be a powerful route to changing behavior, yet this approach also risks defensive responding and the potential for backfire effects. Current models of behavior change are not well equipped to predict how people respond to behavior change in…
Multinational data show that conspiracy beliefs are associated with the perception (and reality) of poor national economic performance
While a great deal is known about the individual difference factors associated with conspiracy beliefs, much less is known about the country‐level factors that shape people's willingness to believe conspiracy theories. In the current article we discuss the possibility that willingness to believe conspiracy theories might be shaped by the perception (and reality) of poor economic performance at the national level. To test this notion, we surveyed …
Does Human-Animal Similarity Lower the Need to Affirm Humans' Superiority Relative to Animals? A Social Psychological Viewpoint
This research integrates different social psychological theories to test whether human–animal similarity promotes affiliation with animals and lowers the need to affirm humans' superiority relative to animals. On the basis of theories of intergroup relations, terror management theory, and work conducted in the field of human–animal relations, we expected that higher human–animal similarity would decrease the need to affirm humans' superiority rel…
Prescribing vegetarian or flexitarian diets leads to sustained reduction in meat intake
Contact, evaluation and social distance: Differentiating majority and minority effects
Supernatural explanations across 114 societies are more common for natural than social phenomena
Perceptions of low agency and high sexual openness mediate the relationship between sexualization and sexual aggression
Researchers have become increasingly interested in the saturation of popular Western culture by female hypersexualization. We provide data showing that men have more sexually aggressive intentions toward women who self-sexualize, and that self-sexualized women are vulnerable to sexual aggression if two qualifying conditions are met. Specifically, if perceivers view self-sexualized women as sexually open and lacking agency (i.e., the ability to in…
Heightened male aggression toward sexualized women following romantic rejection: The mediating role of sex goal activation
Research from a variety of disciplines suggests a positive relationship between Western cultural sexualization and women's likelihood of suffering harm. In the current experiment, 157 young men were romantically rejected by a sexualized or non-sexualized woman then given the opportunity to blast the woman with loud bursts of white noise. We tested whether the activation of sexual goals in men would mediate the relationship between sexualization a…
Evaluating the effectiveness of vegetarian appeals in daily life: Comparing positive and negative imagery, and gauging differential responses
Essentialist Beliefs about Personality and Their Implications
Two studies examine implicit theories about the nature of personality characteristics, asking whether they are understood as underlying essences. Consistent with the hypothesis, essentialist beliefs about personality formed a coherent and replicable set. Personality characteristics differed systematically in the extent to which they were judged to be discrete, biologically based, immutable, informative, consistent across situations, and deeply in…
Psychological essentialism and stereotype endorsement
More human than you: Attributing humanness to self and others
People typically evaluate their in-groups more favorably than out-groups and themselves more favorably than others. Research on infrahumanization also suggests a preferential attribution of the "human essence" to in-groups, independent of in-group favoritism. The authors propose a corresponding phenomenon in interpersonal comparisons: People attribute greater humanness to themselves than to others, independent of self-enhancement. Study 1 and a p…
Psychological Essentialism, Implicit Theories, and Intergroup Relations
Research on implicit person theories shows that beliefs about the malleability of human attributes have important implications for social cognition, interpersonal behavior, and intergroup relations. We argue that these implications can be understood within the framework of psychological essentialism, which extends work on implicit theories in promising directions. We review evidence that immutability beliefs covary with a broader set of essential…
Intergroup contact in context: The mediating role of social norms and group-based perceptions on the contact–prejudice link
Excluded from humanity: The dehumanizing effects of social ostracism
The role of meat consumption in the denial of moral status and mind to meat animals
Blaming, praising, and protecting our humanity: The implications of everyday dehumanization for judgments of moral status
Being human implies a particular moral status: having moral value, agency, and responsibility. However, people are not seen as equally human. Across two studies, we examine the consequences that subtle variations in the perceived humanness of actors or groups have for their perceived moral status. Drawing on Haslam's two‐dimensional model of humanness and focusing on three ways people may be considered to have moral status – moral patiency (value…
Experiencing Dehumanization: Cognitive and Emotional Effects of Everyday Dehumanization
Research into dehumanization has focused on its perpetrators and neglected the experience of its targets. Across two studies we present evidence that people experience interactions as dehumanizing when other people's behavior undermines basic elements of personhood, such as identity and status. These experiences have cognitive and emotional consequences. Two forms of experienced dehumanization were apparent. In one, a failure to recognize the tar…
Feeling bad about being sad: The role of social expectancies in amplifying negative mood
Our perception of how others expect us to feel has significant implications for our emotional functioning. Across 4 studies the authors demonstrate that when people think others expect them not to feel negative emotions (i.e., sadness) they experience more negative emotion and reduced well-being. The authors show that perceived social expectancies predict these differences in emotion and well-being both more consistently than-and independently of…
Essentialist beliefs predict automatic motor-responses to social categories
Essentialist thinking has been implicated in producing segregation between social groups even in the absence of negative attitudes. This mode of category representation brings social group information to the fore in social information processing, suggesting that the social consequences of essentialism are associated with basic categorization processes. Drawing on recent work demonstrating that automatic approach and avoidance behaviors are direct…
The effect of categorization as food on the perceived moral standing of animals
Cyber-dehumanization: Violent video game play diminishes our humanity
Don’t Mind Meat? The Denial of Mind to Animals Used for Human Consumption
Many people like eating meat, but most are reluctant to harm things that have minds. The current three studies show that this dissonance motivates people to deny minds to animals. Study 1 demonstrates that animals considered appropriate for human consumption are ascribed diminished mental capacities. Study 2 shows that meat eaters are motivated to deny minds to food animals when they are reminded of the link between meat and animal suffering. Fin…
When Closing the Human–Animal Divide Expands Moral Concern: The Importance of Framing
Humans and animals share many similarities. Across three studies, the authors demonstrate that the framing of these similarities has significant consequences for people’s moral concern for others. Comparing animals to humans expands moral concern and reduces speciesism; however, comparing humans to animals does not appear to produce these same effects. The authors find these differences when focusing on natural tendencies to frame human–animal si…
Contact, evaluation and social distance: Differentiating majority and minority effects
When group membership gets personal: A theory of identity fusion
Identity fusion is a relatively unexplored form of alignment with groups that entails a visceral feeling of oneness with the group. This feeling is associated with unusually porous, highly permeable borders between the personal and social self. These porous borders encourage people to channel their personal agency into group behavior, raising the possibility that the personal and social self will combine synergistically to motivate pro-group beha…
Racism, Gun Ownership and Gun Control: Biased Attitudes in US Whites May Influence Policy Decisions
OBJECTIVE: Racism is related to policies preferences and behaviors that adversely affect blacks and appear related to a fear of blacks (e.g., increased policing, death penalty). This study examined whether racism is also related to gun ownership and opposition to gun controls in US whites. METHOD: The most recent data from the American National Election Study, a large representative US sample, was used to test relationships between racism, gun ow…
The Roles of Dehumanization and Moral Outrage in Retributive Justice
When innocents are intentionally harmed, people are motivated to see that offenders get their "just deserts". The severity of the punishment they seek is driven by the perceived magnitude of the harm and moral outrage. The present research extended this model of retributive justice by incorporating the role of offender dehumanization. In three experiments relying on survey methodology in Australia and the United States, participants read about di…
Physical Pain and Guilty Pleasures
Across two studies, the authors show that simply experiencing physical pain facilitates indulgence in guilty pleasures. This is because people feel justified in rewarding themselves when they are the victims of unfair treatment and concepts of punishment are embodied within the experience of physical pain. Study 1 demonstrates that pain leads to self-reward but only in contexts that frame the experience of pain as “unjust.” Study 2 shows that aft…
Normative Influences on Secondary Disturbance: The Role of Social Expectancies
A “new wave” within psychotherapy has introduced the concept of acceptance into people's emotional repertoires. Accepting unpleasant emotional states has been demonstrated as an important pathway towards reducing secondary disturbances and improving emotional and psychological functioning. What is often overlooked, however, is whether this move towards acceptance is reinforced within the social and cultural contexts in which people experience the…
The Psychology of Eating Animals
Most people both eat animals and care about animals. Research has begun to examine the psychological processes that allow people to negotiate this “meat paradox.” To understand the psychology of eating animals, we examine characteristics of the eaters (people), the eaten (animals), and the eating (the behavior). People who value masculinity, enjoy meat and do not see it as a moral issue, and find dominance and inequality acceptable are most likel…
Is valuing positive emotion associated with life satisfaction
The experience of positive emotion is closely linked to subjective well-being. For this reason, campaigns aimed at promoting the value of positive emotion have become widespread. What is rarely considered are the cultural implications of this focus on happiness. Promoting positive emotions as important for "the good life" not only has implications for how individuals value these emotional states, but for how they believe others around them value …
Gustatory pleasure and pain. The offset of acute physical pain enhances responsiveness to taste
What makes a group worth dying for? Identity fusion fosters perception of familial ties, promoting self-sacrifice
We sought to identify the mechanisms that cause strongly fused individuals (those who have a powerful, visceral feeling of oneness with the group) to make extreme sacrifices for their group. A large multinational study revealed a widespread tendency for fused individuals to endorse making extreme sacrifices for their country. Nevertheless, when asked which of several groups they were most inclined to die for, most participants favored relatively …
Psychology (74 works) · Social Psychology (64 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (32 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (25 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (23 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Developmental psychology (22 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Perception (20 works) · Political science (19 works)