Browsing by Author "Becker, Maja"

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Citation - WoS: 6
Citation - Scopus: 6
A 32-Society Investigation of the Influence of Perceived Economic Inequality on Social Class Stereotyping
(Wiley, 2022) Ashokkumar, Ashwini; Billet, Matthew; Becker, Maja; Peters, Kim; Jetten, Joland; Barry, Oumar; Tanjitpiyanond, Porntida; Peker, Müjde
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 higher economic inequality were indeed more likely to consider wealth as a meaningful basis for categorization. Unexpectedly, however, higher levels of perceived inequality were associated with perceiving the wealthy as less competent and assertive and the poor as more competent and assertive. Unpacking this further, exploratory analyses showed that the observed tendency to stereotype the wealthy negatively only emerged in societies with lower social mobility and democracy and higher corruption. This points to the importance of understanding how socio-structural features that co-occur with economic inequality may shape perceptions of the wealthy and the poor. © 2022 The Authors. European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Citation - WoS: 11
Citation - Scopus: 18
Explaining Illness With Evil: Pathogen Prevalence Fosters Moral Vitalism
(Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2019) Sachkova, Marianna; Kuppens, Peter; Crespo, Carla; Bain, Paul; Leknes, Siri; Tong, Jennifer; Fischer, Ronald; Eastwick, Paul W; Pelay, Cesar; M. Guerra, Valeschka; Guevara, José Luis Castellanos; Pina, Afroditi; Swann, William B; Yeung, Victoria Wai-lan; Hooper, Nic; Karasawa, Minoru; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Ashokkumar, Ashwini; Friese, Malte; Huang, Li-Li; Saguy, Tamar; Silfver-Kuhalampi, Mia; Loughnan, Steve; Bastian, Brock; Becker, Maja; Duffy, Jacob; Bilewicz, Michał; Sortheix, Florencia; Collier-Baker, Emma; Hanke, Katja; Peker, Müjde; Gómez, Ángel; Junqi, Shi
Pathogens represent a significant threat to human health leading to the emergence of strategies designed to help manage their negative impact. We examined how spiritual beliefs developed to explain and predict the devastating effects of pathogens and spread of infectious disease. Analysis of existing data in studies 1 and 2 suggests that moral vitalism (beliefs about spiritual forces of evil) is higher in geographical regions characterized by historical higher levels of pathogens. Furthermore, drawing on a sample of 3140 participants from 28 countries in study 3, we found that historical higher levels of pathogens were associated with stronger endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs. Furthermore, endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs statistically mediated the previously reported relationship between pathogen prevalence and conservative ideologies, suggesting these beliefs reinforce behavioural strategies which function to prevent infection. We conclude that moral vitalism may be adaptive: by emphasizing concerns over contagion, it provided an explanatory model that enabled human groups to reduce rates of contagious disease.
Citation - WoS: 4
Citation - Scopus: 6
Measurement Invariance of the Moral Vitalism Scale Across 28 Cultural Groups
(Public Library of Science, 2020) Bilewicz, Michal; Kuppens, Peter; Crespo, Carla; Collier-Baker, Emma; Fischer, Ronald; Pelay, Cesar; Peker, Müjde; Pina, Afroditi; Karasawa, Minoru; Hooper, Nic; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Friese, Malte; AminihajibashiI, Samira; Wailan Yeung, Victoria; Rudnev, Maksim; Eastwic, Paul; Luis Castellanos Guevara, Jose; Saguy, Tamar; Silfver-Kuhalampi, Mia; Gomez, Angel; Becker, Maja; Loughnan, Steve; Bastian, Brock; Swann, William; Tong, Jennifer (Yuk-Yue); Sortheix, Florencia; Guerra, Valeschka; Huang, Li-li; Shi, Junqi; Hanke, Katja; Sachkova, Marianna
Moral vitalism refers to a tendency to view good and evil as actual forces that can influence people and events. The Moral Vitalism Scale had been designed to assess moral vitalism in a brief survey form. Previous studies established the reliability and validity of the scale in US-American and Australian samples. In this study, the cross-cultural comparability of the scale was tested across 28 different cultural groups worldwide through measurement invariance tests. A series of exact invariance tests marginally supported partial metric invariance, however, an approximate invariance approach provided evidence of partial scalar invariance for a 5-item measure. The established level of measurement invariance allows for comparisons of latent means across cultures. We conclude that the brief measure of moral vitalism is invariant across 28 cultures and can be used to estimate levels of moral vitalism with the same precision across very different cultural settings.
Citation - WoS: 14
Citation - Scopus: 18
Perceiving Societal Pressure To Be Happy Is Linked To Poor Well-Being, Especially in Happy Nations
(Nature Research, 2022) Rhee, J Joshua; Peker, Müjde; Becker, Maja; Bilewicz, Michal; Bastian, Brock; Baguma, K Peter; Barry, Oumar; Dejonckheere, Egon
Happiness is a valuable experience, and societies want their citizens to be happy. Although this societal commitment seems laudable, overly emphasizing positivity (versus negativity) may create an unattainable emotion norm that ironically compromises individual well-being. In this multi-national study (40 countries; 7443 participants), we investigate how societal pressure to be happy and not sad predicts emotional, cognitive and clinical indicators of well-being around the world, and examine how these relations differ as a function of countries' national happiness levels (collected from the World Happiness Report). Although detrimental well-being associations manifest for an average country, the strength of these relations varies across countries. People's felt societal pressure to be happy and not sad is particularly linked to poor well-being in countries with a higher World Happiness Index. Although the cross-sectional nature of our work prohibits causal conclusions, our findings highlight the correlational link between social emotion valuation and individual well-being, and suggest that high national happiness levels may have downsides for some.