Simona Sacchi
Biographic Data
| ID | 3596573 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simona Sacchi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simona |
| FAMILY NAME | Sacchi |
| SIGNATURE | SACCHI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Milano-Bicocca |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0028-7462 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 233 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Behave well in someone else's place! Genderization of urban spaces influences environmental behavior in public settings
Gender differences in environmental behavior are well-documented, yet research has largely overlooked how behaviors can be influenced by social meanings attributed to physical space. Urban spaces are inherently imbued with gendered traits, a concept grounded in feminist geography theory and supported by recent findings on space-focused stereotyping processes. Building on this evidence, Study 1 (N = 130) revealed the influence of gendered urban sp…
“Unequal cities”: Class-based spatial stereotyping in urban contexts
Socioeconomic segregation increasingly structures contemporary cities, yet little is known about how social class stereotypes shape the perception of the neighborhoods where different groups live. Building on the Stereotype Content Model, the present research examines whether class-based stereotypes extend from social groups to urban space. Across four studies ( N = 717) using complementary methods, including correlational survey measures, experi…
When Future Leads to a Moral Present: Future Self-Relatedness Predicts Moral Judgments and Behavior in Everyday Life
Future self-perceptions seem to promote far-sighted decisions in intertemporal choices. Previous work suggested that future self-relatedness, the extent to which we feel similar and connected to our future self, is associated with moral concerns. We aimed to extend these findings to everyday moral judgments and behavior using experience sampling methods. In addition, we assessed how moral foundation concerns mediate the relationship between futur…
Gendered space: Associations between urban environments and gender social categories
A substantial body of literature across various disciplines-such as feminist studies, humanistic geography, sociology, history, political philosophy, and urban design-has long illuminated the intricate relationship between urban spaces and masculinity. Despite the richness of this research, there is a notable scarcity of psychological studies that empirically examine the cognitive associations between urban settings and masculinity. To fill this …
The near-miss effect in flood risk estimation: A survey-based approach to model private mitigation intentions into agent-based models
Behavioral reactions to natural hazards, including floods, and mitigation intentions are strongly predicted by risk perception. Among the different psychological processes forging individuals’ risk-estimation, the present work focuses on the near-miss effect, the human tendency to underestimate the risks when a previous negative outcome is avoided by chance. Study 1 (N = 241) investigates the near-miss effect among residents of both flood-prone a…
From past to present (for a better future): The moderating role of cognitive mindset on spillover effects in environmental behaviors
Research literature about the environmental spillover effect produced mixed results, revealing that an initial pro-environmental behavior (PEB) is likely to promote either other PEBs (i.e., positive spillover) or pro-environmental inactions and harming behaviors (i.e., negative spillover). Such inconsistency suggests a possible crucial role of moderating variables. In two experimental studies (N Study 1 = 141, N Study 2 = 124), we investigated wh…
New dyads? The effect of social robots’ anthropomorphization on empathy towards human beings
Research on Human-Technology Interactions revealed that, under certain conditions, people instinctively interact with social robots in ways comparable to Human–Human Interactions. Indeed, people apply social perception schemas and attribute a mind to social robots, especially when they present anthropomorphic characteristics. Furthermore, under certain conditions, anthropomorphic social robots are awarded with moral consideration and participate …
Trust in science and solution aversion: Attitudes toward adaptation measures predict flood risk perception
The influence of classroom seating arrangement on children’s cognitive processes in primary school: The role of individual variables
“Be careful what you do”: How social threat influences social attention driven by reach-to-grasp movements
Social attention is the ability to share with social partners the attentional focus on an object and to orient attentional resources after observing others' behaviors. In the present work, we analyzed whether social threat may influence social attention during the observation of social agents' reach-to-grasp movements. In two experimental studies, we adopted a Posner-like paradigm: participants were required to classify neutral stimuli appearing …
Heroes or traitors? Perception of whistleblowers depends on the self-relevance of the group being reported
Whistleblowing is the action by which members of an organization report misconduct that occurs within their group to other persons inside or outside the organization. In the present research, we examined perception of whistleblowers in terms of global impressions, emotions, and behavioural intentions. Study 1 reveals negative reactions to whistleblowers, while Study 2 shows positive reactions to whistleblowers. To reconcile these findings, Study …
Trust predicts Covid-19 prescribed and discretionary behavioral intentions in 23 countries
The worldwide spread of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) since December 2019 has posed a severe threat to individuals’ well-being. While the world at large is waiting that the released vaccines immunize most citizens, public health experts suggest that, in the meantime, it is only through behavior change that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled. Importantly, the required behaviors are aimed not only at safeguarding one’s own health. Instead, i…
Changing impressions in competence-oriented domains: The primacy of morality endures
Basking in detected vice: Outgroup immorality enhances self-view
In the last decade, a growing body of research has revealed that morality is the most important driver of impression formation. As such, social targets lacking morality are disliked and kept at distance, while moral targets are liked and respected. Here, we investigated whether social targets lacking morality elicit positive reactions in the observer. Study 1 revealed that participants reported an enhanced self-view when confronted with an immora…
Giving the right direction: Predictive action cues during an attentional task reduce prejudice
The current work aims to investigate if social cueing during an attentional task is likely to influence prejudice. In three studies we adopted a Posner-like task whereby participants observed an outgroup (vs ingroup) member performing a reach-to-grasp movement. The individual’s action, oriented rightward or leftward toward an object, preceded a peripheral target stimulus requiring a simple categorization response. The action direction could be co…
The honest mirror: Morality as a moderator of spontaneous behavioral mimicry
Two studies examined whether morality‐related information has a greater impact than sociability‐ or competence‐related information upon the spontaneous mimicry of an interaction partner. Participants were video recorded during an interaction with a confederate previously presented as moral versus lacking morality, or sociable versus lacking sociability (Study 1), or competent versus lacking competence (Study 2). Two coders rated the extent to whi…
If I Am Straight You Are Askew”: Labelling Heterosexuals as Straight Worsen Gay Men’s Perception
A robust stream of research has shown the detrimental influence of slurs and derogatory epithets on attitudes toward minority groups. Extending prior work, we explored the influence of positive labels ascribed to the majority group on the evaluation of the minority group. Specifically, three studies tested the possibility that the label "straight," generally linked with the concept of morality, would promote a negative evaluation of gay men. Stud…
Facing Transgender and Cisgender Patients: The Influence of the Client’s Experienced Gender and Gender Identity on Clinical Evaluation
Changing impressions: Moral character dominates impression updating
Not fair but acceptable… for us! Group membership influences the tradeoff between equality and utility in a Third Party Ultimatum Game
Maladaptive personality traits, defense mechanisms, and trans-negative attitudes
Purpose: Although there is growing interest in trans-negative attitudes and behaviors, few studies have investigated the psychological variables associated with them. The present study aims to assess the relationship between psychopathological symptoms, defensive style, personality traits and negative attitudes toward transgender people.Methods: Participants (N = 165) were asked to complete several questionnaires assessing their psychopathologica…
Straight to heaven: Rectitude as spatial representation of morality
Abundant literature in cognitive sciences has shown that morality is grounded in bodily experience. Four studies tested the perceptual association between the spatial dimension of straightness and the abstract concept of morality. Study 1 ( n = 61) employed an IAT and revealed an association between straight figures and moral related words. Study 2 ( n = 83) employed a similar paradigm and further revealed that the effect we found in Study 1 cann…
The Insidious Effects of Sexual Stereotypes in Clinical Practice
The present study investigated the influence of sexual stereotyping on the diagnostic impressions and treatment expectations of gay and straight male patients. Italian male, straight, licensed psychotherapists (N = 152) were presented with clinical vignettes that described a gay (versus straight) male patient reporting either a straight-stereotypical disorder (i.e., rage dyscontrol) or a gay-stereotypical disorder (i.e., sexual compulsivity). Res…
Myopic about climate change: Cognitive style, psychological distance, and environmentalism
Effects of Asymmetric Questions on Impression Formation: A Trade-off Between Evidence Diagnosticity and Frequency
When examining social targets, people may ask asymmetric questions, that is, questions for which “yes” and “no” answers are neither equally diagnostic nor equally frequent. The consequences of this information-gathering strategy on impression formation deserve empirical investigation. The present work explored the role played by the trade-off between the diagnosticity and frequency of answers that follow asymmetric questions. In Study 1, particip…
Looking for honesty: The primary role of morality (vs. sociability and competence) in information gathering
Research on the two fundamental dimensions of social judgment, namely warmth and competence, has shown that warmth has a primary and a dominant role in information gathering about others. In two studies we examined whether the sociability and morality components of warmth play distinct roles in such a process. Study 1 ( N = 60) investigated which traits were mostly selected when forming impressions about others. The results showed that, regardles…
Morality and intergroup relations: Threats to safety and group image predict the desire to interact with outgroup and ingroup members
The Perception of the Other in International Relations: Evidence for the Polarizing Effect of Entitativity
In an international relations context, the mutual images held by actors affect their mutual expectations about the Other's behavior and guide the interpretation of the Other's actions. Here it is argued that the effect of these images is moderated by the degree of entitativity of the Other—that is, the extent to which it is perceived as a real entity. Two studies tested this hypothesis by manipulating the entitativity of the European Union (EU) a…
Changing impressions: Moral character dominates impression updating
The Effects of Status on Perceived Warmth and Competence: Malleability of the Relationship Between Status and Stereotype Content
Research has shown that perceived group status positively predicts competence stereotypes but does not positively predict warmth stereotypes. The present study identified circumstances in which group status positively predicts both warmth and competence judgments. Students (N = 86) rated one of two groups (psychologists vs. engineers) presented as either being low or high in social status on warmth and competence. Results showed that status posit…
Myopic about climate change: Cognitive style, psychological distance, and environmentalism
If I Am Straight You Are Askew”: Labelling Heterosexuals as Straight Worsen Gay Men’s Perception
A robust stream of research has shown the detrimental influence of slurs and derogatory epithets on attitudes toward minority groups. Extending prior work, we explored the influence of positive labels ascribed to the majority group on the evaluation of the minority group. Specifically, three studies tested the possibility that the label "straight," generally linked with the concept of morality, would promote a negative evaluation of gay men. Stud…
Group Merger Between Political Parties: The Role of the Ingroup Projection Process
In 2007, the two most important Italian left‐wing parties merged into a single political entity. This study intends to analyze the merging process. Specifically, and in line with the ingroup projection hypothesis of Mummendey & Wenzel, we have explored whether the identification and the favoritism toward the upcoming common group was affected by the perceivers' projection of specific and common stereotypical traits from the subordinate groups to …
The honest mirror: Morality as a moderator of spontaneous behavioral mimicry
Two studies examined whether morality‐related information has a greater impact than sociability‐ or competence‐related information upon the spontaneous mimicry of an interaction partner. Participants were video recorded during an interaction with a confederate previously presented as moral versus lacking morality, or sociable versus lacking sociability (Study 1), or competent versus lacking competence (Study 2). Two coders rated the extent to whi…
Heroes or traitors? Perception of whistleblowers depends on the self-relevance of the group being reported
Whistleblowing is the action by which members of an organization report misconduct that occurs within their group to other persons inside or outside the organization. In the present research, we examined perception of whistleblowers in terms of global impressions, emotions, and behavioural intentions. Study 1 reveals negative reactions to whistleblowers, while Study 2 shows positive reactions to whistleblowers. To reconcile these findings, Study …
Changing impressions in competence-oriented domains: The primacy of morality endures
Facing Transgender and Cisgender Patients: The Influence of the Client’s Experienced Gender and Gender Identity on Clinical Evaluation
The Insidious Effects of Sexual Stereotypes in Clinical Practice
The present study investigated the influence of sexual stereotyping on the diagnostic impressions and treatment expectations of gay and straight male patients. Italian male, straight, licensed psychotherapists (N = 152) were presented with clinical vignettes that described a gay (versus straight) male patient reporting either a straight-stereotypical disorder (i.e., rage dyscontrol) or a gay-stereotypical disorder (i.e., sexual compulsivity). Res…
Basking in detected vice: Outgroup immorality enhances self-view
In the last decade, a growing body of research has revealed that morality is the most important driver of impression formation. As such, social targets lacking morality are disliked and kept at distance, while moral targets are liked and respected. Here, we investigated whether social targets lacking morality elicit positive reactions in the observer. Study 1 revealed that participants reported an enhanced self-view when confronted with an immora…
Straight to heaven: Rectitude as spatial representation of morality
Abundant literature in cognitive sciences has shown that morality is grounded in bodily experience. Four studies tested the perceptual association between the spatial dimension of straightness and the abstract concept of morality. Study 1 ( n = 61) employed an IAT and revealed an association between straight figures and moral related words. Study 2 ( n = 83) employed a similar paradigm and further revealed that the effect we found in Study 1 cann…
Asymmetric Perception of Gains versus Non‐losses and Losses versus Non‐gains: The Causal Role of Regulatory Focus
Recent studies show that, while losses loom larger than equivalent non‐gains, gains loom larger than equivalent non‐losses. This finding has been interpreted within the framework of regulatory focus theory. In this study, we highlight the importance of considering the motivational focus independently of the framing and the valence of outcome, thus exploring the causal effect of regulatory focus on the asymmetric perception of gains versus non‐los…
Strategies in the Information Search Process: Interaction Among Task Structure, Knowledge, and Source
The authors explored the information search strategies of 145 individuals in the predecisional stage. Decision-making participants selected pieces of information from a list including relevant and irrelevant data. The authors investigated the influence of the individual's knowledge and information source. In Experiment 1, the authors experimentally manipulated the information source reliability. The results revealed that participants tended to us…
I Belong, therefore, I Exist: Ingroup Identification, Ingroup Entitativity, and Ingroup Bias
Merging insights from the intergroup relations literature and terror management theory, the authors conducted an experiment in which they assessed the impact of death-related thoughts on a series of ingroup measures. Participants in the mortality-salience condition displayed stronger ingroup identification, perceived greater ingroup entitativity, and scored higher on ingroup bias measures. Also, perceived ingroup entitativity as well as ingroup i…
The Perception of the Other in International Relations: Evidence for the Polarizing Effect of Entitativity
In an international relations context, the mutual images held by actors affect their mutual expectations about the Other's behavior and guide the interpretation of the Other's actions. Here it is argued that the effect of these images is moderated by the degree of entitativity of the Other—that is, the extent to which it is perceived as a real entity. Two studies tested this hypothesis by manipulating the entitativity of the European Union (EU) a…
Strategies in the Information Search Process: Interaction Among Task Structure, Knowledge, and Source
The authors explored the information search strategies of 145 individuals in the predecisional stage. Decision-making participants selected pieces of information from a list including relevant and irrelevant data. The authors investigated the influence of the individual's knowledge and information source. In Experiment 1, the authors experimentally manipulated the information source reliability. The results revealed that participants tended to us…
The Effects of Status on Perceived Warmth and Competence: Malleability of the Relationship Between Status and Stereotype Content
Research has shown that perceived group status positively predicts competence stereotypes but does not positively predict warmth stereotypes. The present study identified circumstances in which group status positively predicts both warmth and competence judgments. Students (N = 86) rated one of two groups (psychologists vs. engineers) presented as either being low or high in social status on warmth and competence. Results showed that status posit…
Looking for honesty: The primary role of morality (vs. sociability and competence) in information gathering
Research on the two fundamental dimensions of social judgment, namely warmth and competence, has shown that warmth has a primary and a dominant role in information gathering about others. In two studies we examined whether the sociability and morality components of warmth play distinct roles in such a process. Study 1 ( N = 60) investigated which traits were mostly selected when forming impressions about others. The results showed that, regardles…
You want to give a good impression? Be honest! Moral traits dominate group impression formation
Research has shown that warmth and competence are core dimensions on which perceivers judge others and that warmth has a primary role at various phases of impression formation. Three studies explored whether the two components of warmth (i.e., sociability and morality) have distinct roles in predicting the global impression of social groups. In Study 1 ( N = 105) and Study 2 ( N = 112), participants read an immigration scenario depicting an unfam…
Effects of Asymmetric Questions on Impression Formation: A Trade-off Between Evidence Diagnosticity and Frequency
When examining social targets, people may ask asymmetric questions, that is, questions for which “yes” and “no” answers are neither equally diagnostic nor equally frequent. The consequences of this information-gathering strategy on impression formation deserve empirical investigation. The present work explored the role played by the trade-off between the diagnosticity and frequency of answers that follow asymmetric questions. In Study 1, particip…
Asymmetric Perception of Gains versus Non‐losses and Losses versus Non‐gains: The Causal Role of Regulatory Focus
Recent studies show that, while losses loom larger than equivalent non‐gains, gains loom larger than equivalent non‐losses. This finding has been interpreted within the framework of regulatory focus theory. In this study, we highlight the importance of considering the motivational focus independently of the framing and the valence of outcome, thus exploring the causal effect of regulatory focus on the asymmetric perception of gains versus non‐los…
Morality and intergroup relations: Threats to safety and group image predict the desire to interact with outgroup and ingroup members
Group Merger Between Political Parties: The Role of the Ingroup Projection Process
In 2007, the two most important Italian left‐wing parties merged into a single political entity. This study intends to analyze the merging process. Specifically, and in line with the ingroup projection hypothesis of Mummendey & Wenzel, we have explored whether the identification and the favoritism toward the upcoming common group was affected by the perceivers' projection of specific and common stereotypical traits from the subordinate groups to …
When Mother Earth Rises Up: Anthropomorphizing Nature Reduces Support for Natural Disaster Victims
Anthropomorphization is the tendency to ascribe humanlike features and mental states, such as free will and consciousness, to nonhuman beings or inanimate agents. Two studies investigated the consequences of the anthropomorphization of nature on people's willingness to help victims of natural disasters. Study 1 (N = 96) showed that the humanization of nature correlated negatively with willingness to help natural disaster victims. Study 2 (N = 52)…
Myopic about climate change: Cognitive style, psychological distance, and environmentalism
The Insidious Effects of Sexual Stereotypes in Clinical Practice
The present study investigated the influence of sexual stereotyping on the diagnostic impressions and treatment expectations of gay and straight male patients. Italian male, straight, licensed psychotherapists (N = 152) were presented with clinical vignettes that described a gay (versus straight) male patient reporting either a straight-stereotypical disorder (i.e., rage dyscontrol) or a gay-stereotypical disorder (i.e., sexual compulsivity). Res…
Not fair but acceptable… for us! Group membership influences the tradeoff between equality and utility in a Third Party Ultimatum Game
Maladaptive personality traits, defense mechanisms, and trans-negative attitudes
Purpose: Although there is growing interest in trans-negative attitudes and behaviors, few studies have investigated the psychological variables associated with them. The present study aims to assess the relationship between psychopathological symptoms, defensive style, personality traits and negative attitudes toward transgender people.Methods: Participants (N = 165) were asked to complete several questionnaires assessing their psychopathologica…
Straight to heaven: Rectitude as spatial representation of morality
Abundant literature in cognitive sciences has shown that morality is grounded in bodily experience. Four studies tested the perceptual association between the spatial dimension of straightness and the abstract concept of morality. Study 1 ( n = 61) employed an IAT and revealed an association between straight figures and moral related words. Study 2 ( n = 83) employed a similar paradigm and further revealed that the effect we found in Study 1 cann…
Facing Transgender and Cisgender Patients: The Influence of the Client’s Experienced Gender and Gender Identity on Clinical Evaluation
Changing impressions: Moral character dominates impression updating
Basking in detected vice: Outgroup immorality enhances self-view
In the last decade, a growing body of research has revealed that morality is the most important driver of impression formation. As such, social targets lacking morality are disliked and kept at distance, while moral targets are liked and respected. Here, we investigated whether social targets lacking morality elicit positive reactions in the observer. Study 1 revealed that participants reported an enhanced self-view when confronted with an immora…
Giving the right direction: Predictive action cues during an attentional task reduce prejudice
The current work aims to investigate if social cueing during an attentional task is likely to influence prejudice. In three studies we adopted a Posner-like task whereby participants observed an outgroup (vs ingroup) member performing a reach-to-grasp movement. The individual’s action, oriented rightward or leftward toward an object, preceded a peripheral target stimulus requiring a simple categorization response. The action direction could be co…
The honest mirror: Morality as a moderator of spontaneous behavioral mimicry
Two studies examined whether morality‐related information has a greater impact than sociability‐ or competence‐related information upon the spontaneous mimicry of an interaction partner. Participants were video recorded during an interaction with a confederate previously presented as moral versus lacking morality, or sociable versus lacking sociability (Study 1), or competent versus lacking competence (Study 2). Two coders rated the extent to whi…
If I Am Straight You Are Askew”: Labelling Heterosexuals as Straight Worsen Gay Men’s Perception
A robust stream of research has shown the detrimental influence of slurs and derogatory epithets on attitudes toward minority groups. Extending prior work, we explored the influence of positive labels ascribed to the majority group on the evaluation of the minority group. Specifically, three studies tested the possibility that the label "straight," generally linked with the concept of morality, would promote a negative evaluation of gay men. Stud…
Trust predicts Covid-19 prescribed and discretionary behavioral intentions in 23 countries
The worldwide spread of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) since December 2019 has posed a severe threat to individuals’ well-being. While the world at large is waiting that the released vaccines immunize most citizens, public health experts suggest that, in the meantime, it is only through behavior change that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled. Importantly, the required behaviors are aimed not only at safeguarding one’s own health. Instead, i…
Changing impressions in competence-oriented domains: The primacy of morality endures
Trust in science and solution aversion: Attitudes toward adaptation measures predict flood risk perception
Psychology (33 works) · Social Psychology (32 works) · Perception (19 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (17 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (14 works) · Developmental psychology (12 works) · Social perception (10 works) · Morality (9 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (8 works)