Rebekka Kesberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 4207331 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rebekka Kesberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rebekka |
| FAMILY NAME | Kesberg |
| SIGNATURE | KESBERG R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sussex |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2240-2401 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Power of Narrative: Semiotic Violence in Anti‐Gender Messages Online
Anti‐gender campaigns frequently use the term ‘gender ideology’ to mobilize against progressive gender ideas. What are the dominant narratives about gender displayed by anti‐gender campaigns and to what extent are these messages characterized by semiotic violence? To answer these questions we study social media as a key arena for anti‐gender campaigns, and Twitter/X specifically. Our sample consists of 9284 tweets collected from 16 actors includi…
Affective Polarization and Political Belief Systems: The Role of Political Identity and the Content and Structure of Political Beliefs
We investigate the extent that political identity, political belief content (i.e., attitude stances), and political belief system structure (i.e., relations among attitudes) differences are associated with affective polarization (i.e., viewing ingroup partisans positively and outgroup partisans negatively) in two multinational, cross-sectional studies (Study 1 N = 4,152, Study 2 N = 29,994). First, we found a large, positive association between p…
Associations Between Perceived Societal Polarisation and (Extreme) Non‐Normative Attitudes and Behaviour
Perceptions of societal polarisation in a country may influence individuals’ willingness to engage in non(normative) collective action. In the present research, we test the hypothesis that perceived societal polarisation reduces trust in the government, particularly when the government is perceived as posing a threat to the own social group. In turn, we expect increased willingness to engage in collective action on behalf of the ingroup. To test …
Backlash among the dominant: Assessing support for elitism in four European countries
In recent decades, populism has gained momentum in many Western countries and has increased the salience of the category “the people” in contemporary politics. This success of populist politics may evoke a backlash effect among more dominant groups in general, and the higher educated in particular, potentially triggering support for elitism. Based on preregistered analyses of survey data from four countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, D…
The nature and structure of European belief systems: Exploring the varieties of belief systems across 23 European countries
We investigate the structure of political belief systems across Europe to investigate what belief systems in European societies, and those who hold them, have in common. In doing so, we answer three questions: First, are political belief system structures similar across Europe? Second, which demographic groups are likely to have similar belief systems within countries? Third, how are belief systems related to voting behaviour? Results from Correl…
Finding (dis‐)advantaged system justifiers: A bottom‐up approach to explore system justification theory
System Justification Theory (SJT) postulates that individuals are motivated to justify the status quo, including the paradoxical prediction that those who are disadvantaged (e.g., lower social status) by the prevailing system will justify the system more than those who are advantaged by the prevailing system. We test if this assumption holds in an entire sample, or only among subsets of a sample using a bottom‐up approach, Correlational Class Ana…
Deliberation and polarization: A multi-disciplinary review
In recent years, deliberative democracy has drawn attention as a potential way of fighting polarization. Allowing citizens to exchange arguments and viewpoints on political issues in group, can have strong conflict-mitigating effects: it can foster opinion changes (thereby overcoming idea-based polarization), and improve relations between diametrically opposed groups (thereby tackling affective forms of polarization, such as affective polarizatio…
I like it because it hurts you: On the association of everyday sadism, sadistic pleasure, and victim blaming
Past research on determinants of victim blaming mainly concentrated on individuals' just-world beliefs as motivational process underlying this harsh reaction to others' suffering. The present work provides novel insights regarding underlying affective processes by showing how individuals prone to derive pleasure from others' suffering-individuals high in everyday sadism-engage in victim blaming due to increased sadistic pleasure and reduced empat…
Kiwi Diwali: A longitudinal investigation of perceived social connection following a civic religious ritual
Religious rituals are ubiquitous. Recent research indicates they can powerfully affect social connection, increasing collective sentiments and behaviors. However, the extent to which these effects depend on religious commitment remains unclear. Here, we use longitudinal data to investigate this question in a natural ritual setting by comparing the responses of religiously committed Hindus and non-Hindus immediately after a public Diwali celebrati…
The Advantage of Democratic Peer Punishment in Sustaining Cooperation within Groups
In social dilemma situations, individuals benefit from uncooperative behavior while exploiting resources of the collective. One prominent solution to prevent uncooperative behavior and to increase cooperation is to establish a system of costly peer punishment, that is, the possibility for every individual involved in the dilemma to impose costly punishment on interaction partners. However, recent research revealed that, in contrast to a situation…
The nature and structure of European belief systems: Exploring the varieties of belief systems across 23 European countries
We investigate the structure of political belief systems across Europe to investigate what belief systems in European societies, and those who hold them, have in common. In doing so, we answer three questions: First, are political belief system structures similar across Europe? Second, which demographic groups are likely to have similar belief systems within countries? Third, how are belief systems related to voting behaviour? Results from Correl…
Finding (dis‐)advantaged system justifiers: A bottom‐up approach to explore system justification theory
System Justification Theory (SJT) postulates that individuals are motivated to justify the status quo, including the paradoxical prediction that those who are disadvantaged (e.g., lower social status) by the prevailing system will justify the system more than those who are advantaged by the prevailing system. We test if this assumption holds in an entire sample, or only among subsets of a sample using a bottom‐up approach, Correlational Class Ana…
Backlash among the dominant: Assessing support for elitism in four European countries
In recent decades, populism has gained momentum in many Western countries and has increased the salience of the category “the people” in contemporary politics. This success of populist politics may evoke a backlash effect among more dominant groups in general, and the higher educated in particular, potentially triggering support for elitism. Based on preregistered analyses of survey data from four countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, D…
The Advantage of Democratic Peer Punishment in Sustaining Cooperation within Groups
In social dilemma situations, individuals benefit from uncooperative behavior while exploiting resources of the collective. One prominent solution to prevent uncooperative behavior and to increase cooperation is to establish a system of costly peer punishment, that is, the possibility for every individual involved in the dilemma to impose costly punishment on interaction partners. However, recent research revealed that, in contrast to a situation…
Associations Between Perceived Societal Polarisation and (Extreme) Non‐Normative Attitudes and Behaviour
Perceptions of societal polarisation in a country may influence individuals’ willingness to engage in non(normative) collective action. In the present research, we test the hypothesis that perceived societal polarisation reduces trust in the government, particularly when the government is perceived as posing a threat to the own social group. In turn, we expect increased willingness to engage in collective action on behalf of the ingroup. To test …
I like it because it hurts you: On the association of everyday sadism, sadistic pleasure, and victim blaming
Past research on determinants of victim blaming mainly concentrated on individuals' just-world beliefs as motivational process underlying this harsh reaction to others' suffering. The present work provides novel insights regarding underlying affective processes by showing how individuals prone to derive pleasure from others' suffering-individuals high in everyday sadism-engage in victim blaming due to increased sadistic pleasure and reduced empat…
The Advantage of Democratic Peer Punishment in Sustaining Cooperation within Groups
In social dilemma situations, individuals benefit from uncooperative behavior while exploiting resources of the collective. One prominent solution to prevent uncooperative behavior and to increase cooperation is to establish a system of costly peer punishment, that is, the possibility for every individual involved in the dilemma to impose costly punishment on interaction partners. However, recent research revealed that, in contrast to a situation…
Kiwi Diwali: A longitudinal investigation of perceived social connection following a civic religious ritual
Religious rituals are ubiquitous. Recent research indicates they can powerfully affect social connection, increasing collective sentiments and behaviors. However, the extent to which these effects depend on religious commitment remains unclear. Here, we use longitudinal data to investigate this question in a natural ritual setting by comparing the responses of religiously committed Hindus and non-Hindus immediately after a public Diwali celebrati…
Deliberation and polarization: A multi-disciplinary review
In recent years, deliberative democracy has drawn attention as a potential way of fighting polarization. Allowing citizens to exchange arguments and viewpoints on political issues in group, can have strong conflict-mitigating effects: it can foster opinion changes (thereby overcoming idea-based polarization), and improve relations between diametrically opposed groups (thereby tackling affective forms of polarization, such as affective polarizatio…
I like it because it hurts you: On the association of everyday sadism, sadistic pleasure, and victim blaming
Past research on determinants of victim blaming mainly concentrated on individuals' just-world beliefs as motivational process underlying this harsh reaction to others' suffering. The present work provides novel insights regarding underlying affective processes by showing how individuals prone to derive pleasure from others' suffering-individuals high in everyday sadism-engage in victim blaming due to increased sadistic pleasure and reduced empat…
Finding (dis‐)advantaged system justifiers: A bottom‐up approach to explore system justification theory
System Justification Theory (SJT) postulates that individuals are motivated to justify the status quo, including the paradoxical prediction that those who are disadvantaged (e.g., lower social status) by the prevailing system will justify the system more than those who are advantaged by the prevailing system. We test if this assumption holds in an entire sample, or only among subsets of a sample using a bottom‐up approach, Correlational Class Ana…
Affective Polarization and Political Belief Systems: The Role of Political Identity and the Content and Structure of Political Beliefs
We investigate the extent that political identity, political belief content (i.e., attitude stances), and political belief system structure (i.e., relations among attitudes) differences are associated with affective polarization (i.e., viewing ingroup partisans positively and outgroup partisans negatively) in two multinational, cross-sectional studies (Study 1 N = 4,152, Study 2 N = 29,994). First, we found a large, positive association between p…
Associations Between Perceived Societal Polarisation and (Extreme) Non‐Normative Attitudes and Behaviour
Perceptions of societal polarisation in a country may influence individuals’ willingness to engage in non(normative) collective action. In the present research, we test the hypothesis that perceived societal polarisation reduces trust in the government, particularly when the government is perceived as posing a threat to the own social group. In turn, we expect increased willingness to engage in collective action on behalf of the ingroup. To test …
Backlash among the dominant: Assessing support for elitism in four European countries
In recent decades, populism has gained momentum in many Western countries and has increased the salience of the category “the people” in contemporary politics. This success of populist politics may evoke a backlash effect among more dominant groups in general, and the higher educated in particular, potentially triggering support for elitism. Based on preregistered analyses of survey data from four countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, D…
The nature and structure of European belief systems: Exploring the varieties of belief systems across 23 European countries
We investigate the structure of political belief systems across Europe to investigate what belief systems in European societies, and those who hold them, have in common. In doing so, we answer three questions: First, are political belief system structures similar across Europe? Second, which demographic groups are likely to have similar belief systems within countries? Third, how are belief systems related to voting behaviour? Results from Correl…
The Power of Narrative: Semiotic Violence in Anti‐Gender Messages Online
Anti‐gender campaigns frequently use the term ‘gender ideology’ to mobilize against progressive gender ideas. What are the dominant narratives about gender displayed by anti‐gender campaigns and to what extent are these messages characterized by semiotic violence? To answer these questions we study social media as a key arena for anti‐gender campaigns, and Twitter/X specifically. Our sample consists of 9284 tweets collected from 16 actors includi…
Psychology (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Political science (7 works) · Politics (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (3 works) · Democracy (3 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (3 works)