Dominic Abrams | University of Kent (original) (raw)
Papers by Dominic Abrams
Ageing & Society, May 29, 2020
Negative images of old age can harm older individuals' cognitive and physical functioning and hea... more Negative images of old age can harm older individuals' cognitive and physical functioning and health. Yet, older people may be confronted with age stereotypes that are inconsistent with their own personal beliefs. We examine the implications for older people's well-being of three distinct elements of age stereotypes: their personal beliefs about their age group, their perception about how others generally perceive older people (i.e., their meta-stereotypes), and the societal age stereotypes that are empirically widely shared in society. Using measures from the Stereotype Content Model and survey data of older people from the UK (Study 1, N = 171), we found only partial overlap between older people´s personal beliefs and their metastereotypes. Personal beliefs were unrelated to well-being, but positive meta-stereotypes of older people's competence were linked to higher well-being. These findings were largely replicated with a sample of baby boomers from Switzerland (Study 2, N = 400) controlling for socio-demographics. Study 3 used representative survey data (N = 10,803) across 29 European countries, to test and confirm that the link between positive competence meta-stereotypes and well-being can be generalized to different cultures, and that positive warmth meta-stereotypes were an additional predictor. At the country level, societal age stereotypes about competence were positively related to well-being of older people, but only in countries that provide greater opportunities for competence attainment.
Social Indicators Research, Jan 4, 2024
Routledge eBooks, Jul 5, 2017
The first EB survey was conducted between April and May 1992 with a sample of 12,800 people. The ... more The first EB survey was conducted between April and May 1992 with a sample of 12,800 people. The second survey was a special follow up survey of 400 people aged 60 and over in each member state, with the exception of 200 people in Luxembourg and 800 people in Germany. A total of 5,000 respondents took part. Sample size and methodology used is that of Euro-Barometer surveys as carried out by the Directorate General for Communication, Research and Political Analysis Unit. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/index_en.htm A large sample of the English population aged 50 and over took part in the first wave which took place during 2002 and 2003. The second wave involved a total of 9,432 interviews. Of these, 8,780 (93 per cent) were respondents from the previous wave. At wave three a total of 9,771 interviews were completed, of which 7,535 (77.1 per cent) were from the original cohort. The 2002 report was based on the 57th EB survey conducted in spring 2002 in the 15 European member states.
Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent. His research focuses on the ps... more Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent. His research focuses on the psychological dynamics of social exclusion and inclusion within and between groups. He is codirector and founder of the European Research Group on Attitudes to Age, which designed the European Social Survey Round 4 module on experiences and expressions of ageism, (http://www.eurage.com). He is coeditor with Michael A. Hogg of the journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. He is a past president of SPSSI, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Vice President of the British Academy.
Wiley eBooks, Dec 21, 2007
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd eBooks, Mar 17, 2008
... individual is magnified considerably when the consequence is denial of access to an important... more ... individual is magnified considerably when the consequence is denial of access to an important social network, effectively reducing ... Overall, one can conclude that there is an asymmetry in control over exclusion pro-cesses. ... A RELATIONAL ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION ...
A number of critiques have been published drawing attention to gaps in research methods applied t... more A number of critiques have been published drawing attention to gaps in research methods applied to issues surrounding homelessness in the United Kingdom. In this article, we discuss the use of innovative approaches and methods drawn from the field of applied social psychology and their applications to these issues. In so doing, we review the recent social psychology and homelessness literature, highlighting themes such as social identity, agency (efficacy), and service utilisation. Finally, the relevance of these perspectives for future research on homelessness in the United Kingdom is discussed.
Translational Issues in Psychological Science
We test the hypothesis that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is attributable to ‘distrustful complacenc... more We test the hypothesis that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is attributable to ‘distrustful complacency’ – an interactive and not just additive combination of concern and distrust. Across two studies, 9695 respondents across 13 different parts of Britain reported their level of concern about COVID-19, trust in the UK government, and intention to accept or refuse the vaccine. Multilevel regression analysis, controlling for geographic area and relevant demographics, confirmed the predicted interactive effect of concern and trust. Respondents with both low trust and low concern were 10%-22% more vaccine hesitant than respondents with either high trust or high concern, and 20%-29% more hesitant than respondents with both high trust and high concern. Results hold equally among White, Black, and Muslim respondents, consistent with the view that, regardless of mean level differences, a common process underlies vaccine hesitancy, underlining the importance of tackling distrustful complacency bot...
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2021
The impact of COVID-19 on our way of life is yet to be fully understood. However, social psycholo... more The impact of COVID-19 on our way of life is yet to be fully understood. However, social psychology theory and research offer insights into its effect on social attitudes and behaviors, and here we gather the views of a unique group of experts in group processes and intergroup relations. Group processes and intergroup relations are major factors in social resilience and change arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. This special issue was developed to foreground the crucial role of group processes and intergroup relations in the COVID-19 pandemic. This article provides an overview of the areas explored in the special issue. First, we focus on the impact on societies, covering the evolution of intergroup processes during the pandemic, leadership, social connectedness, cultural differences in responses, and social development. Second, we turn to intergroup inequality and focus on gender inequality, ageism, xenophobia, and racial bias during COVID-19. Third, we explore worldviews during th...
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) funded Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC), in partn... more The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) funded Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC), in partnership with the University of Kent, to adapt a more generic evaluation tool from the Anne Frank Trust UK (2014, 2016) to evaluate the impact of SRtRC’s anti-racism educational intervention on the attitudes of young people in secondary school education. The evaluation was carried out with two participating schools based in England – John Lyon School, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex (South) and Bedlingtonshire Community High School, Northumberland (North East) – via evaluations before (‘pre’) and after (‘post’) interventions delivered during early to mid-February 2017. Understanding whether, and how, SRtRC is meeting its intended aims will enable the organisation to strengthen its current educational content and form part of a ‘virtuous circle’ of feedback to support the continual revision and development of SRtRC workshops with both young people and adults. Prior to undertaking this evaluat...
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2021
COVID-19 is a challenge faced by individuals (personal vulnerability and behavior), requiring coo... more COVID-19 is a challenge faced by individuals (personal vulnerability and behavior), requiring coordinated policy from national government. However, another critical layer—intergroup relations—frames many decisions about how resources and support should be allocated. Based on theories of self and social identity uncertainty, subjective group dynamics, leadership, and social cohesion, we argue that this intergroup layer has important implications for people’s perceptions of their own and others’ situation, political management of the pandemic, how people are influenced, and how they resolve identity uncertainty. In the face of the pandemic, initial national or global unity is prone to intergroup fractures and competition through which leaders can exploit uncertainties to gain short-term credibility, power, or influence for their own groups, feeding polarization and extremism. Thus, the social and psychological challenge is how to sustain the superordinate objective of surviving and re...
Nature Human Behaviour, 2020
What role does intergroup contact play in promoting support for social change toward greater equa... more What role does intergroup contact play in promoting support for social change toward greater equality? Drawing on the needs-based model of reconciliation, we theorized that when inequality between groups is perceived as illegitimate, disadvantaged groups members will experience a need for empowerment and advantaged groups members a need for acceptance. When intergroup contact satisfies each group’s needs, it should result in more mutual support for social change. Using four sets of survey data collected through the Zurich Intergroup Project in 23 countries, we tested several preregistered predictions derived from the above reasoning across a large variety of operationalizations. Two studies of disadvantaged groups (Ns=689 ethnic minority members in Study 1 and 3,382 sexual/gender minorities in Study 2) support the hypothesis that, after accounting for the effects of intergroup contact and perceived illegitimacy, satisfying the need for empowerment (but not acceptance) during contact...
Ageing & Society, May 29, 2020
Negative images of old age can harm older individuals' cognitive and physical functioning and hea... more Negative images of old age can harm older individuals' cognitive and physical functioning and health. Yet, older people may be confronted with age stereotypes that are inconsistent with their own personal beliefs. We examine the implications for older people's well-being of three distinct elements of age stereotypes: their personal beliefs about their age group, their perception about how others generally perceive older people (i.e., their meta-stereotypes), and the societal age stereotypes that are empirically widely shared in society. Using measures from the Stereotype Content Model and survey data of older people from the UK (Study 1, N = 171), we found only partial overlap between older people´s personal beliefs and their metastereotypes. Personal beliefs were unrelated to well-being, but positive meta-stereotypes of older people's competence were linked to higher well-being. These findings were largely replicated with a sample of baby boomers from Switzerland (Study 2, N = 400) controlling for socio-demographics. Study 3 used representative survey data (N = 10,803) across 29 European countries, to test and confirm that the link between positive competence meta-stereotypes and well-being can be generalized to different cultures, and that positive warmth meta-stereotypes were an additional predictor. At the country level, societal age stereotypes about competence were positively related to well-being of older people, but only in countries that provide greater opportunities for competence attainment.
Social Indicators Research, Jan 4, 2024
Routledge eBooks, Jul 5, 2017
The first EB survey was conducted between April and May 1992 with a sample of 12,800 people. The ... more The first EB survey was conducted between April and May 1992 with a sample of 12,800 people. The second survey was a special follow up survey of 400 people aged 60 and over in each member state, with the exception of 200 people in Luxembourg and 800 people in Germany. A total of 5,000 respondents took part. Sample size and methodology used is that of Euro-Barometer surveys as carried out by the Directorate General for Communication, Research and Political Analysis Unit. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/index_en.htm A large sample of the English population aged 50 and over took part in the first wave which took place during 2002 and 2003. The second wave involved a total of 9,432 interviews. Of these, 8,780 (93 per cent) were respondents from the previous wave. At wave three a total of 9,771 interviews were completed, of which 7,535 (77.1 per cent) were from the original cohort. The 2002 report was based on the 57th EB survey conducted in spring 2002 in the 15 European member states.
Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent. His research focuses on the ps... more Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent. His research focuses on the psychological dynamics of social exclusion and inclusion within and between groups. He is codirector and founder of the European Research Group on Attitudes to Age, which designed the European Social Survey Round 4 module on experiences and expressions of ageism, (http://www.eurage.com). He is coeditor with Michael A. Hogg of the journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. He is a past president of SPSSI, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Vice President of the British Academy.
Wiley eBooks, Dec 21, 2007
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd eBooks, Mar 17, 2008
... individual is magnified considerably when the consequence is denial of access to an important... more ... individual is magnified considerably when the consequence is denial of access to an important social network, effectively reducing ... Overall, one can conclude that there is an asymmetry in control over exclusion pro-cesses. ... A RELATIONAL ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION ...
A number of critiques have been published drawing attention to gaps in research methods applied t... more A number of critiques have been published drawing attention to gaps in research methods applied to issues surrounding homelessness in the United Kingdom. In this article, we discuss the use of innovative approaches and methods drawn from the field of applied social psychology and their applications to these issues. In so doing, we review the recent social psychology and homelessness literature, highlighting themes such as social identity, agency (efficacy), and service utilisation. Finally, the relevance of these perspectives for future research on homelessness in the United Kingdom is discussed.
Translational Issues in Psychological Science
We test the hypothesis that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is attributable to ‘distrustful complacenc... more We test the hypothesis that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is attributable to ‘distrustful complacency’ – an interactive and not just additive combination of concern and distrust. Across two studies, 9695 respondents across 13 different parts of Britain reported their level of concern about COVID-19, trust in the UK government, and intention to accept or refuse the vaccine. Multilevel regression analysis, controlling for geographic area and relevant demographics, confirmed the predicted interactive effect of concern and trust. Respondents with both low trust and low concern were 10%-22% more vaccine hesitant than respondents with either high trust or high concern, and 20%-29% more hesitant than respondents with both high trust and high concern. Results hold equally among White, Black, and Muslim respondents, consistent with the view that, regardless of mean level differences, a common process underlies vaccine hesitancy, underlining the importance of tackling distrustful complacency bot...
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2021
The impact of COVID-19 on our way of life is yet to be fully understood. However, social psycholo... more The impact of COVID-19 on our way of life is yet to be fully understood. However, social psychology theory and research offer insights into its effect on social attitudes and behaviors, and here we gather the views of a unique group of experts in group processes and intergroup relations. Group processes and intergroup relations are major factors in social resilience and change arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. This special issue was developed to foreground the crucial role of group processes and intergroup relations in the COVID-19 pandemic. This article provides an overview of the areas explored in the special issue. First, we focus on the impact on societies, covering the evolution of intergroup processes during the pandemic, leadership, social connectedness, cultural differences in responses, and social development. Second, we turn to intergroup inequality and focus on gender inequality, ageism, xenophobia, and racial bias during COVID-19. Third, we explore worldviews during th...
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) funded Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC), in partn... more The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) funded Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC), in partnership with the University of Kent, to adapt a more generic evaluation tool from the Anne Frank Trust UK (2014, 2016) to evaluate the impact of SRtRC’s anti-racism educational intervention on the attitudes of young people in secondary school education. The evaluation was carried out with two participating schools based in England – John Lyon School, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex (South) and Bedlingtonshire Community High School, Northumberland (North East) – via evaluations before (‘pre’) and after (‘post’) interventions delivered during early to mid-February 2017. Understanding whether, and how, SRtRC is meeting its intended aims will enable the organisation to strengthen its current educational content and form part of a ‘virtuous circle’ of feedback to support the continual revision and development of SRtRC workshops with both young people and adults. Prior to undertaking this evaluat...
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2021
COVID-19 is a challenge faced by individuals (personal vulnerability and behavior), requiring coo... more COVID-19 is a challenge faced by individuals (personal vulnerability and behavior), requiring coordinated policy from national government. However, another critical layer—intergroup relations—frames many decisions about how resources and support should be allocated. Based on theories of self and social identity uncertainty, subjective group dynamics, leadership, and social cohesion, we argue that this intergroup layer has important implications for people’s perceptions of their own and others’ situation, political management of the pandemic, how people are influenced, and how they resolve identity uncertainty. In the face of the pandemic, initial national or global unity is prone to intergroup fractures and competition through which leaders can exploit uncertainties to gain short-term credibility, power, or influence for their own groups, feeding polarization and extremism. Thus, the social and psychological challenge is how to sustain the superordinate objective of surviving and re...
Nature Human Behaviour, 2020
What role does intergroup contact play in promoting support for social change toward greater equa... more What role does intergroup contact play in promoting support for social change toward greater equality? Drawing on the needs-based model of reconciliation, we theorized that when inequality between groups is perceived as illegitimate, disadvantaged groups members will experience a need for empowerment and advantaged groups members a need for acceptance. When intergroup contact satisfies each group’s needs, it should result in more mutual support for social change. Using four sets of survey data collected through the Zurich Intergroup Project in 23 countries, we tested several preregistered predictions derived from the above reasoning across a large variety of operationalizations. Two studies of disadvantaged groups (Ns=689 ethnic minority members in Study 1 and 3,382 sexual/gender minorities in Study 2) support the hypothesis that, after accounting for the effects of intergroup contact and perceived illegitimacy, satisfying the need for empowerment (but not acceptance) during contact...