Dora Capozza
Biographic Data
| ID | 373663 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dora Capozza |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dora |
| FAMILY NAME | Capozza |
| SIGNATURE | CAPOZZA D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Padua |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9322-8287 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 213 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Improving inclusive peer relations through imagined contact
This study examined the efficacy of an intervention that combines an imagined contact task with positive information about hypothetical peers with vulnerabilities. The goal was to promote children's attitudes, stereotypes, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward target outgroups. These outgroups included a peer with visual disability, a peer with Autism Spectrum Disorder, a Moroccan peer, and a Roma peer. Moreover, it verified the efficacy of …
Explaining the Secondary Transfer Effect: The Role of Personality Factors
The secondary transfer effect (STE) is based on the idea that contact with a primary outgroup may shape attitudes towards secondary outgroups uninvolved in the contact setting. Most research has investigated attitudes towards the primary outgroup as a mediator of the STE. We conducted one correlational and one three‐wave longitudinal study with Italian participants (Total N = 912), to test whether the secondary transfer effect can be explained at…
Think‐Leader—Think‐Who?’ The Role of Motivated Closed‐Mindedness and Positive Intergroup Contact on Secondary Transfer Effect
Prejudicial access to leadership positions for members of groups that are perceived as counterstereotypical or unfit (i.e., women, Black people, homosexuals) for leadership positions in organisations is still a matter of concern. This cross‐sectional study was conducted in Italy (a context wherein these three groups are underrepresented in leadership roles) on a sample of workers and addressed whether the outcomes of positive contact with women a…
Burnout following moral injury and dehumanization: A study of distress among Italian medical staff during the first Covid-19 pandemic period
This research confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic stressed Italian medical staff in a way not documented in the prepandemic literature. There is a need to support staff in their complex relationships and communication with patients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Direct and imagined contact moderates the effect of need for cognitive closure on attitudes towards women managers
This research investigated the relationship between individual preference for the need for cognitive closure (NCC) and attitudes towards women as managers and the moderating role of direct or imagined contact with women leaders. In two studies (total N = 369) collected in different countries and with different methods (Study 1: Italy, correlational; Study 2: U.S., experimental), it was found that the positive relationship between NCC and negative…
Strategies for the promotion of humanity attribution to outgroups
Outgroup dehumanisation, the denial of full humanity to outgroups relative to ingroups, is pervasive in many contemporary societies. The aim of the present work is to review effective strategies aimed at fostering outgroup humanity attribution. After presenting the main models of humanity attribution, we differentiate two types of strategies. Outgroup-specific strategies are focused on a target outgroup, therefore their effectiveness is more depe…
Promoting positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities: The role of information and imagined contact
This prepost test experimental study examined the effectiveness of an intervention providing information about peers with sensory disability, intellectual disability, and behavioral difficulties (cognitive intervention), an intervention using imagined contact with peers with these disabilities (behavioral intervention), and an intervention combining information with imagined contact, against a no-intervention control condition. One hundred and fo…
Does intergroup contact affect personality? A longitudinal study on the bidirectional relationship between intergroup contact and personality traits
We conducted a longitudinal study to test whether, in addition to being predicted by personality, intergroup contact is longitudinally associated with personality traits. Participants were 388 majority (Italian) and 109 minority (immigrant) first‐year high school students. Results revealed a bidirectional relationship between contact and personality: Quality of contact was longitudinally associated with greater agreeableness and openness to exper…
Discussing differences between groups: The content of intergroup encounters and motivation for social change among members of advantaged groups
Recent research highlighted that intergroup contact can inadvertently undermine social change. However, relatively little work had linked experiences of contact to motivation for social change among advantaged groups. We develop the hypothesis that the association between amount of intergroup contact and motivation for social change depends on the content of the encounter. Specifically, intergroup contact that prioritizes differences between grou…
Improving Intergroup Relations with Extended Contact among Young Children: Mediation by Intergroup Empathy and Moderation by Direct Intergroup Contact
A correlational study investigated extended contact as a strategy to improve outgroup attitudes and stereotyping and to prepare children for future contact. Additional aims were to investigate when and why the effects of extended contact occur. In particular, intergroup empathy was tested as a mediator and direct contact (i.e. cross‐group friendship) as a moderator of extended contact. Participants were Italian and immigrant elementary school chi…
The Implicit Image of God: God as Reality and Psychological Well-Being
Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well-being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using an implicit technique (the Single Category Implicit Association Test). The study was carried out in Italy, where a large majority of the population i…
The greatest magic of H arry P otter: Reducing prejudice
Recent research shows that extended contact via story reading is a powerful strategy to improve out‐group attitudes. We conducted three studies to test whether extended contact through reading the popular best‐selling books of H arry P otter improves attitudes toward stigmatized groups (immigrants, homosexuals, refugees). Results from one experimental intervention with elementary school children and from two cross‐sectional studies with high scho…
Comparing direct and imagined intergroup contact among children: Effects on outgroup stereotypes and helping intentions
Imagined Intergroup Contact and Common Ingroup Identity: An Integrative Approach
We conducted two studies involving two different age groups (elementary school children and adults) aimed at integrating imagined contact and common ingroup identity models. In the first study, Italian elementary school children were asked to imagine interacting with an unknown immigrant peer as members of a common group. Results revealed that common ingroup imagined contact, relative to a control condition, improved outgroup helping intentions a…
Improving intergroup relations with extended and vicarious forms of indirect contact
Research in social psychology has provided impressive evidence that intergroup contact reduces prejudice. However, to the extent that strategies based on direct contact are sometimes difficult to implement, scholars have more recently focused on indirect contact. An effective form of indirect contact is extended contact. According to the extended contact hypothesis, simply knowing that ingroup members have outgroup friends (extended contact), or …
Nations' income inequality predicts ambivalence in stereotype content: How societies mind the gap
Income inequality undermines societies: The more inequality, the more health problems, social tensions, and the lower social mobility, trust, life expectancy. Given people's tendency to legitimate existing social arrangements, the stereotype content model ( SCM ) argues that ambivalence―perceiving many groups as either warm or competent, but not both―may help maintain socio‐economic disparities. The association between stereotype ambivalence and …
The Relationships Among Workaholism, Proactivity, and Locomotion in a Work Setting
We evaluated the relationship between workaholism and 2 individual difference variables relevant to an organizational context, namely: proactive personality and locomotion orientation. Specifically, we examined working excessively (WE), working compulsively (WC), and perceived self-efficacy, proactivity, and locomotion in a sample of nurses working in an Italian public hospital. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural…
Political orientation and images of the United States in Italy
Image theory was used in this study to assess the images that Italian adults with different political ideologies have of the United States. In addition to the ally, barbarian, enemy, and imperialist images, a new image, that of the father, was introduced. It was found that right-wing respondents endorsed the father and ally images of Americans, while left-wing respondents perceived Americans as barbarians. The theoretical and practical implicatio…
Examining Group-Based Trust with the Investment Game
Group-based trust was investigated by considering the relationship between 2 groups with differing socioeconomic status. High-status (Northern Italians) and low-status (Southern Italians) group members played a modified version of the investment game (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995), paired with an ingroup or an outgroup member. Results showed that for low-status group members, trust was higher in the outgroup than ingroup condition, while high-s…
Improving implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes using imagined contact: An experimental intervention with elementary school children
The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of imagined intergroup contact ( Crisp & Turner, 2009 ) on elementary school children’s explicit and implicit intergroup attitudes. Italian 5th-graders participated in a 3-week intervention involving imagining meeting an unknown immigrant peer in various situations. Approximately 1 week after the last session, they completed measures of self-disclosure and behavioral intentions toward immigrants…
Does status affect intergroup perceptions of humanity
Across three studies, we examined whether ingroup status may affect intergroup perceptions of humanity. In Studies 1 and 2, we considered real groups: Northern versus Southern Italians; in Study 3, we manipulated the socioeconomic status of two minimal groups. In all studies, members of higher status groups perceived the ingroup as more human than the outgroup, while members of lower status groups did not assign a privileged human status to the i…
Increasing outgroup trust, reducing infrahumanization, and enhancing future contact intentions via imagined intergroup contact
Longitudinal effects of contact on intergroup relations: The role of majority and minority group membership and intergroup emotions
A field study was conducted in the Italian context to examine the longitudinal effects of contact on improved intergroup relations, and to test whether the effects were different for majority and minority group members. Furthermore, we examined the processes underlying contact effects. Participants were 68 Italian (majority) and 31 immigrant (minority) secondary school students, who completed a questionnaire at two time points. The results of reg…
Categorization of Ambiguous Human/Ape Faces: Protection of Ingroup but Not Outgroup Humanity
In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that categorization of ambiguous human/ape faces depends on group membership: people are inclined to protect ingroup humanity, but not that of the outgroup. We used as stimuli: human, ape, ambiguous human/ape faces. Ambiguous human/ape faces were generated using a computerized morphing procedure. Participants categorized stimuli as human or ape. Two conditions were introduced: in the ingroup condition, par…
Individualism, Collectivism and Social Identity Theory
The studies presented in this chapter concern social identity theory and the model proposed by Hinkle and Brown (1990). To test the model, the hypothesis that the relation between identification and ingroup bias is valid only for allocentrics with relational orientation was translated into the hypothesis of an interaction, namely a multiplicative relationship, between the three determinants of favouritism: collectivism, identification, relational…
Increasing outgroup trust, reducing infrahumanization, and enhancing future contact intentions via imagined intergroup contact
Longitudinal effects of contact on intergroup relations: The role of majority and minority group membership and intergroup emotions
A field study was conducted in the Italian context to examine the longitudinal effects of contact on improved intergroup relations, and to test whether the effects were different for majority and minority group members. Furthermore, we examined the processes underlying contact effects. Participants were 68 Italian (majority) and 31 immigrant (minority) secondary school students, who completed a questionnaire at two time points. The results of reg…
Improving implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes using imagined contact: An experimental intervention with elementary school children
The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of imagined intergroup contact ( Crisp & Turner, 2009 ) on elementary school children’s explicit and implicit intergroup attitudes. Italian 5th-graders participated in a 3-week intervention involving imagining meeting an unknown immigrant peer in various situations. Approximately 1 week after the last session, they completed measures of self-disclosure and behavioral intentions toward immigrants…
Imagined Intergroup Contact and Common Ingroup Identity: An Integrative Approach
We conducted two studies involving two different age groups (elementary school children and adults) aimed at integrating imagined contact and common ingroup identity models. In the first study, Italian elementary school children were asked to imagine interacting with an unknown immigrant peer as members of a common group. Results revealed that common ingroup imagined contact, relative to a control condition, improved outgroup helping intentions a…
Improving Intergroup Relations with Extended Contact among Young Children: Mediation by Intergroup Empathy and Moderation by Direct Intergroup Contact
A correlational study investigated extended contact as a strategy to improve outgroup attitudes and stereotyping and to prepare children for future contact. Additional aims were to investigate when and why the effects of extended contact occur. In particular, intergroup empathy was tested as a mediator and direct contact (i.e. cross‐group friendship) as a moderator of extended contact. Participants were Italian and immigrant elementary school chi…
Does status affect intergroup perceptions of humanity
Across three studies, we examined whether ingroup status may affect intergroup perceptions of humanity. In Studies 1 and 2, we considered real groups: Northern versus Southern Italians; in Study 3, we manipulated the socioeconomic status of two minimal groups. In all studies, members of higher status groups perceived the ingroup as more human than the outgroup, while members of lower status groups did not assign a privileged human status to the i…
Does intergroup contact affect personality? A longitudinal study on the bidirectional relationship between intergroup contact and personality traits
We conducted a longitudinal study to test whether, in addition to being predicted by personality, intergroup contact is longitudinally associated with personality traits. Participants were 388 majority (Italian) and 109 minority (immigrant) first‐year high school students. Results revealed a bidirectional relationship between contact and personality: Quality of contact was longitudinally associated with greater agreeableness and openness to exper…
Categorization of Ambiguous Human/Ape Faces: Protection of Ingroup but Not Outgroup Humanity
In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that categorization of ambiguous human/ape faces depends on group membership: people are inclined to protect ingroup humanity, but not that of the outgroup. We used as stimuli: human, ape, ambiguous human/ape faces. Ambiguous human/ape faces were generated using a computerized morphing procedure. Participants categorized stimuli as human or ape. Two conditions were introduced: in the ingroup condition, par…
Comparing direct and imagined intergroup contact among children: Effects on outgroup stereotypes and helping intentions
The Implicit Image of God: God as Reality and Psychological Well-Being
Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well-being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using an implicit technique (the Single Category Implicit Association Test). The study was carried out in Italy, where a large majority of the population i…
Direct and imagined contact moderates the effect of need for cognitive closure on attitudes towards women managers
This research investigated the relationship between individual preference for the need for cognitive closure (NCC) and attitudes towards women as managers and the moderating role of direct or imagined contact with women leaders. In two studies (total N = 369) collected in different countries and with different methods (Study 1: Italy, correlational; Study 2: U.S., experimental), it was found that the positive relationship between NCC and negative…
Differentiation Processes for Social Stimuli with Different Degrees of Category Representativeness
The influence of the categorization process is investigated in the context of conceptions of categories as fuzzy sets, represented by prototypes. The experiment specifically considers two social categories corresponding to Italian regional groups: for each of these, stimuli were constructed which represented the respective categories in different degrees. We hypothesized that the accentuation of the degree in which individual exemplars represent …
Semantic components in the literal and metaphorical use of movement verbs
Differentiation Processes for Social Stimuli with Different Degrees of Category Representativeness
The influence of the categorization process is investigated in the context of conceptions of categories as fuzzy sets, represented by prototypes. The experiment specifically considers two social categories corresponding to Italian regional groups: for each of these, stimuli were constructed which represented the respective categories in different degrees. We hypothesized that the accentuation of the degree in which individual exemplars represent …
The Influence of the Family on Status Expectations of Italian Adolescents
The aims of this study were: 1) to establish whether the educational and occupational expectations of male and female adolescents, in Italian society, are different, 2) to test the hypothesis that these expectations are strongly determined by socialization within the family. This hypothesis was formulated according to Rosen and Aneshensel's (1978) causal model. The study was performed in 1990; 855 subjects were examined, males and females aged 16…
Stereotypes and attribution processes in a multi-ethnic Italian province
In South Tyrol, a multi-ethnic Italian province (Italians, Germans, Ladins) with an autonomous statute, the intergroup attributions expressed by members of the Italian group were examined (relationship: Italians vs. Germans). It was found that, while the stereotypes are more favourable to the ingroup, the attributions are more favourable to the outgroup. The implications of these results for South Tyrol and community relations are discussed. Copy…
Stereotypes and attribution processes in a multi‐ethnic Italian province
Individualism, Collectivism and Social Identity Theory
The studies presented in this chapter concern social identity theory and the model proposed by Hinkle and Brown (1990). To test the model, the hypothesis that the relation between identification and ingroup bias is valid only for allocentrics with relational orientation was translated into the hypothesis of an interaction, namely a multiplicative relationship, between the three determinants of favouritism: collectivism, identification, relational…
Social Identity Processes: Trends in Theory and Research
INTRODUCTION Social Identity Theory in Retrospect and Prospect - Rupert Brown and Dora Capozza PART ONE: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Models, Meanings and Motivations - Kay Deaux A Multidimensional Model of Identity - Stephen Worchel, Jonathan Iuzzini, Dawna Coutant, and Manuela Ivaldi Relating Individual and Group Identities to Intergroup Behaviour PART TWO: INGROUP BIAS: MEASURES AND CONDITIONS Valence-Dependent Probability of Ingroup Favouritism b…
Categorization of Ambiguous Human/Ape Faces: Protection of Ingroup but Not Outgroup Humanity
In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that categorization of ambiguous human/ape faces depends on group membership: people are inclined to protect ingroup humanity, but not that of the outgroup. We used as stimuli: human, ape, ambiguous human/ape faces. Ambiguous human/ape faces were generated using a computerized morphing procedure. Participants categorized stimuli as human or ape. Two conditions were introduced: in the ingroup condition, par…
Longitudinal effects of contact on intergroup relations: The role of majority and minority group membership and intergroup emotions
A field study was conducted in the Italian context to examine the longitudinal effects of contact on improved intergroup relations, and to test whether the effects were different for majority and minority group members. Furthermore, we examined the processes underlying contact effects. Participants were 68 Italian (majority) and 31 immigrant (minority) secondary school students, who completed a questionnaire at two time points. The results of reg…
Examining Group-Based Trust with the Investment Game
Group-based trust was investigated by considering the relationship between 2 groups with differing socioeconomic status. High-status (Northern Italians) and low-status (Southern Italians) group members played a modified version of the investment game (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995), paired with an ingroup or an outgroup member. Results showed that for low-status group members, trust was higher in the outgroup than ingroup condition, while high-s…
Improving implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes using imagined contact: An experimental intervention with elementary school children
The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of imagined intergroup contact ( Crisp & Turner, 2009 ) on elementary school children’s explicit and implicit intergroup attitudes. Italian 5th-graders participated in a 3-week intervention involving imagining meeting an unknown immigrant peer in various situations. Approximately 1 week after the last session, they completed measures of self-disclosure and behavioral intentions toward immigrants…
Does status affect intergroup perceptions of humanity
Across three studies, we examined whether ingroup status may affect intergroup perceptions of humanity. In Studies 1 and 2, we considered real groups: Northern versus Southern Italians; in Study 3, we manipulated the socioeconomic status of two minimal groups. In all studies, members of higher status groups perceived the ingroup as more human than the outgroup, while members of lower status groups did not assign a privileged human status to the i…
Increasing outgroup trust, reducing infrahumanization, and enhancing future contact intentions via imagined intergroup contact
Political orientation and images of the United States in Italy
Image theory was used in this study to assess the images that Italian adults with different political ideologies have of the United States. In addition to the ally, barbarian, enemy, and imperialist images, a new image, that of the father, was introduced. It was found that right-wing respondents endorsed the father and ally images of Americans, while left-wing respondents perceived Americans as barbarians. The theoretical and practical implicatio…
Nations' income inequality predicts ambivalence in stereotype content: How societies mind the gap
Income inequality undermines societies: The more inequality, the more health problems, social tensions, and the lower social mobility, trust, life expectancy. Given people's tendency to legitimate existing social arrangements, the stereotype content model ( SCM ) argues that ambivalence―perceiving many groups as either warm or competent, but not both―may help maintain socio‐economic disparities. The association between stereotype ambivalence and …
The Relationships Among Workaholism, Proactivity, and Locomotion in a Work Setting
We evaluated the relationship between workaholism and 2 individual difference variables relevant to an organizational context, namely: proactive personality and locomotion orientation. Specifically, we examined working excessively (WE), working compulsively (WC), and perceived self-efficacy, proactivity, and locomotion in a sample of nurses working in an Italian public hospital. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural…
Improving intergroup relations with extended and vicarious forms of indirect contact
Research in social psychology has provided impressive evidence that intergroup contact reduces prejudice. However, to the extent that strategies based on direct contact are sometimes difficult to implement, scholars have more recently focused on indirect contact. An effective form of indirect contact is extended contact. According to the extended contact hypothesis, simply knowing that ingroup members have outgroup friends (extended contact), or …
The greatest magic of H arry P otter: Reducing prejudice
Recent research shows that extended contact via story reading is a powerful strategy to improve out‐group attitudes. We conducted three studies to test whether extended contact through reading the popular best‐selling books of H arry P otter improves attitudes toward stigmatized groups (immigrants, homosexuals, refugees). Results from one experimental intervention with elementary school children and from two cross‐sectional studies with high scho…
Comparing direct and imagined intergroup contact among children: Effects on outgroup stereotypes and helping intentions
Imagined Intergroup Contact and Common Ingroup Identity: An Integrative Approach
We conducted two studies involving two different age groups (elementary school children and adults) aimed at integrating imagined contact and common ingroup identity models. In the first study, Italian elementary school children were asked to imagine interacting with an unknown immigrant peer as members of a common group. Results revealed that common ingroup imagined contact, relative to a control condition, improved outgroup helping intentions a…
Improving Intergroup Relations with Extended Contact among Young Children: Mediation by Intergroup Empathy and Moderation by Direct Intergroup Contact
A correlational study investigated extended contact as a strategy to improve outgroup attitudes and stereotyping and to prepare children for future contact. Additional aims were to investigate when and why the effects of extended contact occur. In particular, intergroup empathy was tested as a mediator and direct contact (i.e. cross‐group friendship) as a moderator of extended contact. Participants were Italian and immigrant elementary school chi…
The Implicit Image of God: God as Reality and Psychological Well-Being
Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well-being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using an implicit technique (the Single Category Implicit Association Test). The study was carried out in Italy, where a large majority of the population i…
Discussing differences between groups: The content of intergroup encounters and motivation for social change among members of advantaged groups
Recent research highlighted that intergroup contact can inadvertently undermine social change. However, relatively little work had linked experiences of contact to motivation for social change among advantaged groups. We develop the hypothesis that the association between amount of intergroup contact and motivation for social change depends on the content of the encounter. Specifically, intergroup contact that prioritizes differences between grou…
Does intergroup contact affect personality? A longitudinal study on the bidirectional relationship between intergroup contact and personality traits
We conducted a longitudinal study to test whether, in addition to being predicted by personality, intergroup contact is longitudinally associated with personality traits. Participants were 388 majority (Italian) and 109 minority (immigrant) first‐year high school students. Results revealed a bidirectional relationship between contact and personality: Quality of contact was longitudinally associated with greater agreeableness and openness to exper…
Promoting positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities: The role of information and imagined contact
This prepost test experimental study examined the effectiveness of an intervention providing information about peers with sensory disability, intellectual disability, and behavioral difficulties (cognitive intervention), an intervention using imagined contact with peers with these disabilities (behavioral intervention), and an intervention combining information with imagined contact, against a no-intervention control condition. One hundred and fo…
Psychology (30 works) · Social Psychology (24 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (19 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Developmental psychology (15 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (13 works) · Outgroup (12 works) · Ingroups and outgroups (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Political science (9 works)