Antonio Gomez
Biographic Data
| ID | 73255 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Antonio Gomez |
| GIVEN NAMES | Antonio |
| FAMILY NAME | Gomez |
| SIGNATURE | GOMEZ A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4287-4916 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 80 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 702 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 80 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Assessing the Risk of Violent Extremism in Prisons: A Comparison between Vera-2R and DRAVY-3
Developing tools to assess the risk of violent extremism in prison is a common concern for penitentiary institutions. In order for first-line practitioners in the penitentiary context to become familiar with and better understand these tools, improve their evaluations, and even adapt or develop new instruments, the aim of this manuscript is to compare the tools and to delve into the strengths and weaknesses of two instruments with different chara…
The potential role of psychological time in the study of violent radicalisation, deradicalisation, and disengagement
Knowing the pathways that lead individuals to become terrorists and to leave terrorism behind is fundamental to combat violent extremism. However, although the processes related to psychological time are likely critical to understand violent extremism, they have mostly been neglected within the field. This narrative review proposes a conceptual framework of the potential role of psychological time in the study of violent radicalisation, deradical…
When the target matters: A cross-cultural comparison of the generalizability and specificity of identity fusion effects
Identity fusion, a synergistic union of the personal self and an additional entity, motivates people to fight and self-sacrifice to defend the fusion target. Yet, it is unclear whether the mechanisms underlying fusion effects are general or target-specific. Therefore, this research investigated fusion effects with three distinct targets: groups, leaders, and values, while introducing violence support as a potential mediator. First, three cross-se…
The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism
Psychology, with its dedication to understanding human behavior and its complexities, is a key part in comprehending the underpinnings of violent extremism. This comprehensive resource encompasses all major psychological frameworks related to violent extremism, making it essential reading for scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students determined to enact positive change in this critical area. This handbook provides a state-of-the-art ove…
Gender inequality and cultural values in explaining gender differences in positive and negative emotions: A comparison of 24 countries during the Covid-19 pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic posed a major challenge to mental health. Existing evidence shows that COVID-19 is related to poor emotional well-being, particularly among women. However, most work on the subject uses single-country samples, limiting the ability to generalize the disparity or explain it as a function of societal variables. The present study investigates the expression of positive and negative emotions during the pandemic as a function o…
Spiritual Formidability Predicts the Will to Self-Sacrifice Through Collective Narcissism
Perceiving the ingroup as spiritually formidable—with inner strength and conviction—is strongly associated with the will to self-sacrifice. Yet, its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Across five studies, we test a mechanism through which spiritual formidability operates: collective narcissism—the belief that the ingroup is exceptional but not sufficiently recognized by others. A preliminary study showed that collective narcissism, but not ing…
Religious discrimination leads to loss of personal significance through social exclusion. The case of Syrian and Afghan refugees
Feeling understood fosters identity fusion
If the consequences of identity fusion are well established, its psychological antecedents are not. To address this shortcoming, eight studies tested the hypothesis that self-verification (receiving evaluations that confirm one's self-views) increases fusion (a synergistic union with a group, individual, or cause), which, in turn, increases behavioral support for the target of fusion. Correlational studies showed that perceived self-verification …
How identity fusion predicts extreme pro-group orientations: A meta-analysis
The Precarity of Progress: Implications of a Shifting Gendered Division of Labor for Relationships and Well-Being as a Function of Country-Level Gender Equality
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a shift toward a more traditional division of labor–one where women took greater responsibility for household tasks and childcare than men. We tested whether this regressive shift was more acutely perceived and experienced by women in countries with greater gender equality. Cross-cultural longitudinal survey data for women and men ( N = 10,238) was collected weekly during the first few months of the pandemic…
What Made Me Change: Transformative Experiences in the Jihadist Radicalization Process
Disentangling the roots of radicalization leading to violence is a worldwide challenge. Unfortunately, empirical data are scarce. Through fieldwork conducting interviews with Muslim persons deprived of liberty (PDL) in Spanish prisons, this research examines transformative experiences that may have influenced radicalization leading to violence from the 3N model and the life-course perspective lenses. PDL because of jihadist terrorism (n = 30), co…
A Theoretical, Empirical, and Methodologically Based Instrument to Assess the Risk of Violent Jihadist Radicalization in Prisons: The DRAVY-3
A main goal of the Spanish National Counter-Terrorism Strategy is to improve the detection and control of inmates who may participate or collaborate with terrorist groups after release convicted and detained inmates linked to terrorist acts, as well as of those individuals involved, during their stay in prison, in violent extremist recruitment or indoctrination. This manuscript introduces an instrument for assessing the risk of violent jihadist r…
Worldviews about change: Their structure and their implications for understanding responses to sustainability, technology, and political change
People hold different perspectives about how they think the world is changing or should change. We examined five of these “worldviews” about change: Progress, Golden Age, Endless Cycle, Maintenance, and Balance. In Studies 1–4 (total N = 2733) we established reliable measures of each change worldview, and showed how these help explain when people will support or oppose social change in contexts spanning sustainability, technological innovations, …
Intentions to be Vaccinated Against Covid-19: The Role of Prosociality and Conspiracy Beliefs across 20 Countries
Understanding the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake is important to inform policy decisions and plan vaccination campaigns. The aims of this research were to: (1) explore the individual- and country-level determinants of intentions to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and (2) examine worldwide variation in vaccination intentions. This cross-sectional online survey was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, involving 6697 responden…
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 …
Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models
Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countrie…
Pandemic boredom: Little evidence that lockdown-related boredom affects risky public health behaviors across 116 countries
Some public officials have expressed concern that policies mandating collective public health behaviors (e.g., national/regional "lockdown") may result in behavioral fatigue that ultimately renders such policies ineffective. Boredom, specifically, has been singled out as one potential risk factor for noncompliance. We examined whether there was empirical evidence to support this concern during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large cross-national sampl…
Religious costly signal induces more trustworthiness than secular costly signal: A study of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
Research suggests that costly displays of commitment increase trust and cooperation. In five studies (total n > 1,700), we investigated whether costly behaviours are more effective in promoting trust when integrated within a religious rather than secular context using the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela as a costly display of commitment. First, we show that pilgrims base their pilgrim identity on physical effort (Studies 1A and 1B). Next, 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 …
Identifying important individual‐ and country‐level predictors of conspiracy theorizing: A machine learning analysis
Psychological research on the predictors of conspiracy theorizing—explaining important social and political events or circumstances as secret plots by malevolent groups—has flourished in recent years. However, research has typically examined only a small number of predictors in one, or a small number of, national contexts. Such approaches make it difficult to examine the relative importance of predictors, and risk overlooking some potentially rel…
A 32‐society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping
There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth‐based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived highe…
Can identity fusion foster social harmony? Strongly fused individuals embrace familiar outgroup members unless threatened
Past research has established that people whose identities are deeply aligned (“fused’) with a group endorse hostility toward distant outgroups (e.g., foreigners). We propose that identity fusion can have the opposite effect under certain conditions. Specifically, when the outgroup is familiar and non-threatening, strongly fused persons may be positively disposed toward its members. Four studies tested this hypothesis. In the baseline control con…
The mirage of the jihad. Disenchantment as the pathway to disengagement of female jihadists. A case study about radicalization in Spanish prisons ( El espejismo de la yihad. El desencanto como camino …
The interest for disentangling the pathways to violent radicalization is one of the main areas of attention nowadays. However, investigations including data from terrorists is marginal, particularly in the case of women. Here we offer an empirical contribution to this shortage. Twenty-five Muslims females incarcerated in Spanish prisons because of jihadist terrorism, or for crimes unrelated to terrorism, participated in a series of face-to-face i…
Lockdown Lives: A Longitudinal Study of Inter-Relationships Among Feelings of Loneliness, Social Contacts, and Solidarity During the Covid-19 Lockdown in Early 2020
We examine how social contacts and feelings of solidarity shape experiences of loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020. From the PsyCorona database, we obtained longitudinal data from 23 countries, collected between March and May 2020. The results demonstrated that although online contacts help to reduce feelings of loneliness, people who feel more lonely are less likely to use that strategy. Solidarity played only a small role in s…
Awareness of the Psychological Bias of Naïve Realism Can Increase Acceptance of Cultural Differences
Acceptance of cultural differences can contribute to diversity. However, naïve realism—the conviction that one’s views are objective whereas others’ are biased—might hinder intercultural coexistence. We tested, in three experimental studies, whether a cognitive strategy based on raising awareness of the naïve realism, without any reference to culture and free of emotional involvement, can have a beneficial effect on cultural acceptance. Results r…
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…
On the nature of identity fusion: Insights into the construct and a new measure
Previous research has documented the consequences of feeling fused with a group; here we examine the nature of identity fusion. Specifically, we sought to determine what fusion is and the mediating mechanisms that lead fused individuals to make extraordinary sacrifices for their group. Guided by the assumption that fusion emphasizes the extent to which people develop relational ties to the group, we developed a measure designed to capture feeling…
Many Labs 2: Investigating Variation in Replicability Across Samples and Settings
We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings, with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance, to examine variation in effect magnitudes across samples and settings. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples that comprised 15,305 participants from 36 countries and territories. Using the conventional criterion of statistical significance ( p < .05), we found that 15 (54%) of …
Identity fusion: The interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior
The authors propose that when people become fused with a group, their personal and social identities become functionally equivalent. Two hypotheses follow from this proposition. First, activating either personal or social identities of fused persons should increase their willingness to endorse extreme behaviors on behalf of the group. Second, because personal as well as social identities support group-related behaviors of fused persons, the 2 for…
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 …
When extended contact opens the door to future contact: Testing the effects of extended contact on attitudes and intergroup expectancies in majority and minority groups
The present research tests whether extended contact can predict positive intergroup expectancies, as well as positive intergroup attitudes, among majority and minority group members. Our results replicate and extend prior work by showing that extended contact predicts both positive intergroup attitudes and intergroup expectancies among both majority (Spanish) and minority (immigrant) participants, even when controlling for direct friendship and t…
Regaining In-Group Continuity in Times of Anxiety About the Group's Future: A Study on the Role of Collective Nostalgia Across 27 Countries
Collective nostalgia for the good old days of the country thrives across the world. However, little is known about the social psychological dynamics of this collective emotion across cultures. We predicted that collective nostalgia is triggered by collective angst as it helps people to restore a sense of in-group continuity via stronger in-group belonging and out-group rejection (in the form of opposition to immigrants). Based on a sample (N = 5,…
Intergroup contact research in the 21st century: Lessons learned and forward progress if we remain open
This article presents the 2021 JSI special issue on intergroup contact, which we designed to offer a fresh outlook on a rapidly expanding literature on the antecedents, dynamics, and consequences of interactions between members of opposing groups in society—or intergroup contact. We start by discussing the results of a bibliographic search of intergroup contact research between 1937 and 2021 and organizing our analysis around two distinct phases …
Identity fusion and self-sacrifice: Arousal as a catalyst of pro-group fighting, dying, and helping behavior
Identity fusion is a feeling of oneness with the group that induces people to tether their feelings of personal agency to the group. We accordingly proposed that increasing the agency of fused persons by elevating autonomic arousal would amplify their tendency to endorse and actually enact pro-ingroup behavior. In 4 experiments, increasing autonomic arousal through physical exercise elevated heart rates and fusion-unrelated activity among all par…
Contemplating the ultimate sacrifice: Identity fusion channels pro-group affect, cognition, and moral decision making
Although most people acknowledge the moral virtue in sacrificing oneself to save others, few actually endorse self-sacrifice. Seven experiments explored the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that underlie such endorsements. Participants responded to 1 of 2 moral dilemmas in which they could save 5 members of their country only by sacrificing themselves. Over 90% of participants acknowledged that the moral course of action was to sacrifice onesel…
Depersonalized extended contact and injunctive norms about cross-group friendship impact intergroup orientations
Empirical Evidence for the Devoted Actor Model
This report presents two studies in very different contexts that provide convergent empirical evidence for the "devoted actor" hypothesis: people will become willing to protect nonnegotiable sacred values through costly sacrifice and extreme actions when such values are associated with groups whose individual members fuse into a unique collective identity. We interviewed and tested (on sacred values, identity fusion, and costly sacrifice) 260 Mor…
Country‐level and individual‐level predictors of men's support for gender equality in 42 countries
Men sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross‐culturally, to test if both individual‐ and country‐level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zero‐sum beliefs about gender predict reduced collective action intentions via an increase in hostile s…
The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict
When the direct route is blocked: The extended contact pathway to improving intergroup relations
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 …
Why people abandon groups: Degrading relational vs collective ties uniquely impacts identity fusion and identification
The Dynamic Identity Fusion Index: A New Continuous Measure of Identity Fusion for Web-Based Questionnaires
We introduce a computer-based measure of “identity fusion,” a form of group alignment characterized by a visceral feeling of oneness with a group. Past measures of identity fusion (a single pictorial item and a 7-item verbal scale) have demonstrated a unique capacity to predict willingness to engage in extreme pro-group behaviors (e.g., fighting and dying for one’s group). The Dynamic Identity Fusion Index (DIFI) combines the simplicity of the si…
Cultural Practices of Hispanics: Implications for the Prevention of Aids
Specific cultural practices of Hispanics were assessed with regard to condom use as an AIDS prevention measure. The sample of 190 Hispanics, including 117 males and 73 females, were mostly young adults who had recently immigrated to the western part of the United States. Condom use was associated with the "one who buys the condoms, " who were mostly men, and machismo practices, such as protecting the woman by using condoms. Suggestions include di…
Religious costly signal induces more trustworthiness than secular costly signal: A study of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
Research suggests that costly displays of commitment increase trust and cooperation. In five studies (total n > 1,700), we investigated whether costly behaviours are more effective in promoting trust when integrated within a religious rather than secular context using the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela as a costly display of commitment. First, we show that pilgrims base their pilgrim identity on physical effort (Studies 1A and 1B). Next, in…
Cultural Values Moderate the Impact of Relative Deprivation
Relative deprivation (RD) is the judgment that one or one's ingroup is worse off compared with some relevant standard coupled with feelings of dissatisfaction, anger, and resentment. RD predicts a wide range of outcomes, but it is unclear whether this relationship is moderated by national cultural differences. Therefore, in the first study, we used national assessments of individual-collectivism and power distance to code 303 effect sizes from 31…
Collateral damage for ingroup members having outgroup friends: Effects of normative versus counternormative interactions with an outgroup
When people are aware that an ingroup member has an outgroup friend, they tend to improve their intergroup attitudes, which is known as the extended contact hypothesis. Thus far, no research has tested how the perceived degree of normativity of the intergroup interaction affects the evaluation of the ingroup member through which extended contact is experienced. Results of three studies showed that when contact was normative (i.e., positive contac…
The more prototypical the better? The allure of being seen as one sees oneself
Whereas past research has emphasized people’s desire to be a prototypical group member within valued groups, this research explores people’s competing desire to be seen as prototypical as they see themselves. Results of three studies show that evaluations that verified participants’ self-perceived prototypicality were seen as especially credible and were accepted without evoking compensatory activity. We found evidence for compensatory activity w…
Outgroup threat and the emergence of cohesive groups: A cross-cultural examination
Evolutionary models and empirical evidence suggest that outgroup threat is one of the strongest factors inducing group cohesion; however, little is known about the process of forming such cohesive groups. We investigated how outgroup threat galvanizes individuals to affiliate with others to form engaged units that are willing to act on behalf of their in-group. A total of 864 participants from six countries were randomly assigned to an outgroup t…
Censoring political opposition online: Who does it and why
Cultural Practices of Hispanics: Implications for the Prevention of Aids
Specific cultural practices of Hispanics were assessed with regard to condom use as an AIDS prevention measure. The sample of 190 Hispanics, including 117 males and 73 females, were mostly young adults who had recently immigrated to the western part of the United States. Condom use was associated with the "one who buys the condoms, " who were mostly men, and machismo practices, such as protecting the woman by using condoms. Suggestions include di…
La ciudad en el siglo XXI: Experiencias exitosas en gestión del desarrollo urbano en América Latina
El Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo organizó en marzo de 1997 un "Simposio de ciudades y Foro de buenas prácticas en gestión urbana" . En él se debatieron las nuevas ideas sobre el papel de los centros urbanos en el futuro de la región, los problemas que enfrentarán al asumir este papel y las soluciones que se vislumbran al final del siglo. Este evento se realizó conjuntamente con la Asamblea Anual de Gobernadores del Banco en Barcelona. La vis…
Can self-verification strivings fully transcend the self–other barrier? Seeking verification of ingroup identities
Recent research has demonstrated self-verification strivings in groups, such that people strive to verify collective identities, which are personal self-views (e.g., "sensitive") associated with group membership (e.g., "women"). Such demonstrations stop short of showing that the desire for self-verification can fully transcend the self-other barrier, as in people working to verify ingroup identities (e.g., "Americans are loud") even when such ide…
Identity fusion: The interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior
The authors propose that when people become fused with a group, their personal and social identities become functionally equivalent. Two hypotheses follow from this proposition. First, activating either personal or social identities of fused persons should increase their willingness to endorse extreme behaviors on behalf of the group. Second, because personal as well as social identities support group-related behaviors of fused persons, the 2 for…
Dying and Killing for One’s Group: Identity Fusion Moderates Responses to Intergroup Versions of the Trolley Problem
Using an intergroup version of the trolley problem, we explored participants’ willingness to sacrifice their lives for their group. In Study 1, Spaniards whose personal identities were fused with their group identity endorsed saving fellow Spaniards by jumping to their deaths in front of a runaway trolley. Studies 2 and 3 showed that the self-sacrificial behaviors of fused Spaniards generalized to saving members of an extended in-group (Europeans…
Identity fusion and self-sacrifice: Arousal as a catalyst of pro-group fighting, dying, and helping behavior
Identity fusion is a feeling of oneness with the group that induces people to tether their feelings of personal agency to the group. We accordingly proposed that increasing the agency of fused persons by elevating autonomic arousal would amplify their tendency to endorse and actually enact pro-ingroup behavior. In 4 experiments, increasing autonomic arousal through physical exercise elevated heart rates and fusion-unrelated activity among all par…
When extended contact opens the door to future contact: Testing the effects of extended contact on attitudes and intergroup expectancies in majority and minority groups
The present research tests whether extended contact can predict positive intergroup expectancies, as well as positive intergroup attitudes, among majority and minority group members. Our results replicate and extend prior work by showing that extended contact predicts both positive intergroup attitudes and intergroup expectancies among both majority (Spanish) and minority (immigrant) participants, even when controlling for direct friendship and t…
On the nature of identity fusion: Insights into the construct and a new measure
Previous research has documented the consequences of feeling fused with a group; here we examine the nature of identity fusion. Specifically, we sought to determine what fusion is and the mediating mechanisms that lead fused individuals to make extraordinary sacrifices for their group. Guided by the assumption that fusion emphasizes the extent to which people develop relational ties to the group, we developed a measure designed to capture feeling…
An evaluation of the impact of the European Association of Social Psychology: A response to Schruijer (2012)
Sandra Schruijer’s wrote a commendable and fascinating attempt to evaluate the impact of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology: ‘Whatever happened to the ‘‘European’’ in European social psychology? A study of the ambitions in founding the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology’. We submit that, notwithstanding the merits of her article, she has of necessity used a limited research design, but has aggravated th…
When the direct route is blocked: The extended contact pathway to improving intergroup relations
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…
The more prototypical the better? The allure of being seen as one sees oneself
Whereas past research has emphasized people’s desire to be a prototypical group member within valued groups, this research explores people’s competing desire to be seen as prototypical as they see themselves. Results of three studies show that evaluations that verified participants’ self-perceived prototypicality were seen as especially credible and were accepted without evoking compensatory activity. We found evidence for compensatory activity w…
Argentine multiculturalism and the ethnographic shift in documentary cinema: Martín Rejtman'sCopacabana
The paper examines Martín Rejtman's critical documentary work in the context of broader representations of Argentina, especially Buenos Aires, as a multicultural society. It contends that the notion of multiculturalism, as a description of postcolonial social formations, does not properly apply to the Argentine case, and that the construction of an image of Buenos Aires in terms of a harmonious, multiracial coexistence is an injurious misrepresen…
For Cause and Comrade: Devoted Actors and Willingness to Fight
This report provides initial evidence that “devoted actors” who are unconditionally committed to a sacred cause, as well as to their comrades, willingly make costly sacrifices, including fighting and dying. Although American military analysts since WWII tend to attribute fighting spirit to leadership and the bond of comradeship in combat as a manifestation of rational self-interest, evidence also suggests that sacrifice for a cause in ways indepe…
Contemplating the ultimate sacrifice: Identity fusion channels pro-group affect, cognition, and moral decision making
Although most people acknowledge the moral virtue in sacrificing oneself to save others, few actually endorse self-sacrifice. Seven experiments explored the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that underlie such endorsements. Participants responded to 1 of 2 moral dilemmas in which they could save 5 members of their country only by sacrificing themselves. Over 90% of participants acknowledged that the moral course of action was to sacrifice onesel…
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 …
Collateral damage for ingroup members having outgroup friends: Effects of normative versus counternormative interactions with an outgroup
When people are aware that an ingroup member has an outgroup friend, they tend to improve their intergroup attitudes, which is known as the extended contact hypothesis. Thus far, no research has tested how the perceived degree of normativity of the intergroup interaction affects the evaluation of the ingroup member through which extended contact is experienced. Results of three studies showed that when contact was normative (i.e., positive contac…
The Dynamic Identity Fusion Index: A New Continuous Measure of Identity Fusion for Web-Based Questionnaires
We introduce a computer-based measure of “identity fusion,” a form of group alignment characterized by a visceral feeling of oneness with a group. Past measures of identity fusion (a single pictorial item and a 7-item verbal scale) have demonstrated a unique capacity to predict willingness to engage in extreme pro-group behaviors (e.g., fighting and dying for one’s group). The Dynamic Identity Fusion Index (DIFI) combines the simplicity of the si…
Fusion with the Cross-Gender Group Predicts Genital Sex Reassignment Surgery
Empirical Evidence for the Devoted Actor Model
This report presents two studies in very different contexts that provide convergent empirical evidence for the "devoted actor" hypothesis: people will become willing to protect nonnegotiable sacred values through costly sacrifice and extreme actions when such values are associated with groups whose individual members fuse into a unique collective identity. We interviewed and tested (on sacred values, identity fusion, and costly sacrifice) 260 Mor…
The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences
Willingness to lay down one’s life for a group of non-kin, well documented historically and ethnographically, represents an evolutionary puzzle. Building on research in social psychology, we develop a mathematical model showing how conditioning cooperation on previous shared experience can allow individually costly pro-group behavior to evolve. The model generates a series of predictions that we then test empirically in a range of special sample …
Conservatives Are More Reluctant to Give and Receive Apologies Than Liberals
This article examines the proposition that conservatives will be less willing than liberals to apologize and less likely to forgive after receiving an apology. In Study 1, we found evidence for both relationships in a nine-nation survey. In Study 2, participants wrote an open-ended response to a victim of a hypothetical transgression they had committed. More conservative participants were less likely to include apologetic elements in their respon…
Gulliver’s Politics: Conservatives Envision Potential Enemies as Readily Vanquished and Physically Small
Political conservatives have been widely documented to regard out-group members as hostile, perceive individuals of ambiguous intent as malevolent, and favor aggressive solutions to intergroup conflict. A growing literature indicates that potential violent adversaries are represented using the dimensions of envisioned physical size/strength to summarize opponents’ fighting capacities relative to the self or in-group. Integrating these programs, w…
Do historic threats to the group diminish identity fusion and its correlates
We examined the reactions of Spanish participants to three negative historic events: a corruption scandal involving the Royal Family and two separatist efforts by a prosperous region of Spain. Although average fusion scores declined following these events, these declines were limited to sentiments toward the group category – collective ties-; they did not tarnish sentiments toward individual group members – relational ties. Moreover, strongly fus…
Sharing genes fosters identity fusion and altruism
Researchers have shown that the more genes twins share, the more they care about one another. Here, we examine a psychological mediator of such genetic influences, “identity fusion” (a visceral sense of oneness with them). Results supported this hypothesis. Relative to dizygotic twins, monozygotic twins reported stronger fusion and elevated desire to have contact and share experiences with their twin (Study 1), to forgive and grant favors to thei…
Psychology (66 works) · Social Psychology (60 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (44 works) · Political science (36 works) · Social Psychology (30 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (25 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (23 works) · Law (20 works) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion (16 works)