A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Motivated Social Cognition and Authoritarianism Is It All About Closed-Mindedness?

  2019. Mathias Berggren (et al.). Journal of Individual Differences 40 (4), 204-212

  Article

  The domain of motivated social cognition includes a variety of concepts dealing with a need to seek structure and avoid ambiguity, and several of these concepts are also powerful predictors of social attitudes, such as authoritarianism. It is possible though that these relations are due to certain facets reoccurring in the different scales. In this paper, we tested the notion that authoritarianism is predicted specifically by rigidity in beliefs (closed-mindedness), rather than broader cognitive styles. Thus, we initially identified items in the motivated social cognition scales that are specifically measuring closed-mindedness. These items included the closed-mindedness facet of the need for closure scale and items from intolerance of ambiguity and need for cognition. We used these items to predict right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and their common factor authoritarianism (generalized). In line with our prediction, two studies showed that the motivated social cognition scales did not provide a significant prediction of authoritarianism beyond the closed-mindedness items. We conclude that the relation between motivated social cognition and authoritarianism is captured entirely by the former's closed-mindedness component.

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• Overweight People Have Low Levels of Implicit Weight Bias, but Overweight Nations Have High Levels of Implicit Weight Bias

  2013. Maddalena Marini (et al.). PLoS ONE 8 (12)

  Article

  Although a greater degree of personal obesity is associated with weaker negativity toward overweight people on both explicit (i.e., self-report) and implicit (i.e., indirect behavioral) measures, overweight people still prefer thin people on average. We investigated whether the national and cultural context - particularly the national prevalence of obesity predicts attitudes toward overweight people independent of personal identity and weight status. Data were collected from a total sample of 338,121 citizens from 71 nations in 22 different languages on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/) between May 2006 and October 2010. We investigated the relationship of the explicit and implicit weight bias with the obesity both at the individual (i.e., across individuals) and national (i.e., across nations) level. Explicit weight bias was assessed with self-reported preference between overweight and thin people; implicit weight bias was measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The national estimates of explicit and implicit weight bias were obtained by averaging the individual scores for each nation. Obesity at the individual level was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) scores, whereas obesity at the national level was defined as three national weight indicators (national BMI, national percentage of overweight and underweight people) obtained from publicly available databases. Across individuals, greater degree of obesity was associated with weaker implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. Across nations, in contrast, a greater degree of national obesity was associated with stronger implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. This result indicates a different relationship between obesity and implicit weight bias at the individual and national levels.

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• Big-Five personality and prejudice

  2012. Bo Ekehammar, Nazar Akrami. Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, 452-454

  Chapter

  The article gives a brief presentation of the five-factor (Big-Five) personality theory and how the factors in this theory are related to prejudice.

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• Prejudice

  2012. Nazar Akrami, Bo Ekehammar. The psychology of prejudice, 39-50

  Chapter

  Book description: Is prejudice hard-wired or socially acquired? Is stigmatising the Other inevitable? Do we purposefully draw on stereotypes to provoke prejudice from others? Can we confront and correct our biases? From the judicial system to the marketplace, from women's intentional self-sexualisation to prison exonerees' stigma-by-association, this book offers a compelling and wide-ranging discussion and review of the latest scientific evidence of what prejudice is, how it emerges, what it does, and how the discrimination and stigma that ensue can be reduced.

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• Socialpsykologi

  2012. Bo Ekehammar. Grunderna i Vår tids psykologi, 273-325

  Chapter

  Bokinformation: Grunderna i vår tids psykologi ger en gedigen grund till den moderna psykologin. Några av Sveriges främsta forskare har här samlat den mest aktuella psykologiska vetenskapen utifrån ledande svensk och internationell forskning. Tack vare författarnas omfattande undervisningserfarenhet blir framställningen begriplig, levande och nyanserad. Resultatet är en heltäckande skildring av de byggstenar som behövs för att gå vidare inom psykologins olika tillämpningsfält.

  Grunderna i vår tids psykologi är:

  Människokunskap blir vetenskap

  Biologisk psykologi

  Motivation och emotion

  Kognitionspsykologi

  Utvecklingspsykologi

  Personlighetspsykologi

  Socialpsykologi

  Boken riktar sig främst till psykologistuderande, men kan läsas på alla utbildningar där grundkunskaper i ämnet ingår. Den ger också en utmärkt introduktion till den som är nyfiken på vår tids psykologi.

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• The Personality Underpinnings of Explicit and Implicit Generalized Prejudice

  2012. Robin Bergh, Nazar Akrami, Bo Ekehammar. Social Psychological and Personality Science 3 (5), 614-621

  Article

  The idea of prejudice as a tendency that can be generalized from one target to another and the personality–prejudice relationship have been widely examined using explicit measures. However, less is known about this tendency and its relation to personality for implicit prejudice measures, like the implicit association test (IAT). Three studies including explicit and corresponding implicit prejudice measures toward various target groups confirmed a generalized factor for both types of measures with a stronger common component for the explicit factor. Personality was significantly related to the explicit measures only. Also, the personality and prejudice measures were unrelated to explicit and implicit attitudes toward an irrelevant target which rules out potential method confound. These results indicate that explicit and implicit prejudice measures tap different psychological constructs relating differently to the individual’s self-reported personality. The findings have implications for the debate on whether IAT scores reflect personally endorsed attitudes.

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• The compatibility of personality and social identity processes

  2012. Robin Bergh, Nazar Akrami, Bo Ekehammar. European Journal of Personality 26 (3), 175-181

  Article

  In an experimental study (N?=?186), we examined the effect of identity (gender versus personal) on participants' self-rated neuroticism and estimates of mean neuroticism for men and women. Self-rated neuroticism was measured before and after the identity salience manipulation. Following self-categorization theory, we predicted that identity salience would affect levels of self-rated neuroticism and the estimates (perceptions) of mean neuroticism for each sex. From a personality perspective, we expected substantial correlations between pre-manipulation and post-manipulation neuroticism scores in both identity conditions. The relation between participants' self-rated neuroticism and their estimates of mean neuroticism for their own sex was also examined. The effect of identity salience was unclear with regard to self-rated neuroticism levels, whereas the manipulation had apparent effects on estimated mean neuroticism levels for men and women. Also, self-rated neuroticism was found to predict estimates of mean neuroticism for men and women in the gender, but not personal, identity condition. Finally, in line with a personality perspective, the relative positions in self-rated neuroticism were highly stable in both conditions. The findings indicate a compatibility of self-categorization theory and personality perspectives and suggest that both are valuable to understand the changeability and stability of the self.

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Show all publications by Bo Ekehammar at Stockholm University