Monica Rubini

Two preregistered studies, longitudinal Study 1 with African immigrants in Italy ( N = 253) and cross‐sectional Study 2 with second‐generation Vietnamese in Czechia ( N = 311), investigated whether immigrants' intergroup contact (positive vs. negative) with members of the host society associates with immigrants' acculturation preferences (original culture maintenance vs. host culture adoption) and relevant intergroup outcomes (behavioural tendencies towards host society members and support for collective action on immigrants' behalf). In both studies, positive contact with host society members was associated with more positive behavioural tendencies towards them. In the newly arriving immigrants (Study 1), positive intergroup contact further predicted lower preference for immigrants' original culture maintenance, whereas negative contact predicted higher preference for original culture maintenance, intention to engage in collective action and, unexpectedly, immigrants' preference for host culture adoption. In the established immigrants (Study 2), positive intergroup contact was not only associated with positive behavioural tendencies to members of the host society but also with immigrants' preference for host culture adoption, whereas negative contact was associated with preference for original culture maintenance and collective action. Overall, positive and negative intergroup contact with members of receiving societies is key for immigrants at all stages of their adaptation, while other factors may depend on the particular stage. Trial Registration: The authors have pre‐registered this research with an analysis plan prior to conducting the research at: https://osf.io/36unt/

In current multicultural societies, mutual adjustment of majority and ethnic minority groups is a crucial issue shaped by groups' acculturation preferences and their encounters. These aspects are particularly relevant in adolescence when young people extend their social relationships and develop attitudes towards others. However, the association between acculturation preferences across domains and the quantity and quality of intergroup contact in adolescence remains underexplored. Thus, we conducted a three‐wave longitudinal study with majority ( N = 740; 64.73% female; M _age = 14.58) and ethnic minority ( N = 244; 56.56% female; M _age = 14.91) adolescents to examine these links. Results of random‐intercept cross‐lagged models showed that among majority adolescents, at the between‐person level, their preferences for minority acculturation were mainly associated with contact quality in and out‐of‐school, with preference for heritage culture maintenance linked to more positive contact and preference for adoption linked to more negative contact. Within‐person increases in positive contact in school were followed by decreases in adoption preference. Among ethnic minority adolescents, at the between‐person level, their adoption preference was related to more frequent and positive contact across contexts, with additional within‐person associations. Overall, the findings emphasize the context‐specific and asymmetrical interplay between acculturation and intergroup contact in adolescence.

Migration flows and geopolitical changes in Western countries have contributed to increasing globalization and, consequently, to growing ethnic and cultural diversity within contemporary societies ...

Gender-fair language policies promoting inclusivity are increasingly adopted in organizations, yet their effects on employees remain underexplored. We conducted two studies in an Italian public administration to examine the relationship between inclusive language and resignation intentions. Study 1 ( n = 369) investigated the associations among formal communications (e.g., official documents), perceived gender discrimination, inclusion, and turnover intentions. Results showed that formal inclusive language was associated with lower resignation intentions through perceived inclusion, but not through perceived discrimination. Study 2 ( n = 587) extended Study 1's findings by incorporating informal gender-inclusive language (e.g., casual conversations) into the language measure. Results showed that gender-inclusive language is indirectly and negatively associated with resignation intentions via the mediating effect of perceived workplace inclusion and, in turn, job satisfaction. These findings indicate that gender-inclusive language is most effective when organizational policies align with employees’ everyday communication. Both formal and informal channels play critical roles in shaping employees’ sense of inclusion and retention, highlighting the importance of integrating inclusive practices across organizational communication.

This contribution examines the role of linguistic abstraction and valence of terms in the portrayal of immigrants and Italians in national and local newspapers with different political leanings. Specifically, it investigates how linguistic abstraction and valence of terms vary between the two most popular Italian national outlets and between these and a highly read local newspaper. The sample consisted of 218 newspaper articles on immigration. Results showed that across newspapers, immigrants are generally described using negative terms at a higher level of abstraction than Italians, as well as with negative terms at a higher level of abstraction than positive terms. Furthermore, national newspaper articles used terms at a higher level of abstraction than those in the local newspaper when describing immigrants and Italians. This contribution offers novel insights into how linguistic intergroup discrimination is conveyed in newspapers of a country where immigration is increasingly becoming a debated topic.

In recent years, Western societies have seen unprecedented attention to gender inequality and its repercussions for women and society as a whole. Amid this societal change, this research aims to study whether and how perceiving gender inequalities relates to women university students’ investment in study and professional aspirations. Since inequalities between women and men unfold along different domains, we considered four dimensions of inequalities: workplace inequalities, domestic unbalance, sexual harassment, and gendered social expectations. Furthermore, we examined whether achievement-related contingencies of self-worth mediated the relationship between perceiving inequalities and students’ career aspirations. Study 1, conducted in Italy (N = 418), showed that perceiving gender inequalities had both direct and indirect positive associations with women’s career aspirations. Study 2, conducted in Spain (N = 401), extended these findings by additionally considering women students’ self-reported academic effort. The key results, which align with expectations based on relative deprivation theory, suggest that perceiving systematic disadvantages for women motivates women students to invest more in their academic and professional pursuits, and this might represent an act of social change. Remarkably, domains often perceived as unrelated to the workplace, such as domestic imbalance, significantly influenced professional aspirations, emphasizing the pervasive influence of gender inequalities across multiple life contexts.

Gender-based collective action is essential to close widespread gender gaps in the workplace and pursue gender equality. To understand the processes underlying engagement in different forms of action, this research focused on women’s relative deprivation arising from the perception of unjust disparity between women’s and men’s conditions at work. Across one correlational (Study 1; N = 455) and one experimental study (Study 2; N = 320) conducted in Italy, we tested a serial mediational model linking perceived relative deprivation in the workplace to women’s engagement in collective action through resentment about gender inequalities at work and moral conviction to address gender inequality in the workplace. Two forms of collective action were considered: traditional collective action (i.e., organized action, such as signing a petition) and small acts in the workplace (i.e., more informal behaviors for gender equality). Results of the serial mediation model showed that perceiving relative deprivation was associated with a greater willingness to engage in collective action, and this association was explained through resentment and moral conviction. These findings suggest that raising awareness of gender discrimination in the work domain is a critical step toward increasing women’s mobilization to act for gender equality.

The present research investigates when and how contact among ethnic minority groups members is linked with solidarity, as a joint effort aimed at mitigating social inequalities. Two cross-sectional studies in Belgium (Study 1a) and Turkey (Study 1b) with North African immigrants and Iraqi immigrants respectively, were conducted. Convergent results supported the assumptions that having positive inter-minority contact is linked with solidarity with other ethnic minorities and the association is mediated by affective injustice. In addition, across both studies, having positive inter-minority contact attenuated the link between positive contact with the majority group and lower inter-minority solidarity and it enhanced the link between negative contact with the majority group and higher inter-minority solidarity. Inconsistent results were found for negative inter-minority contact. Only in the Turkish context, it was positively associated with affective injustice that in turn showed an indirect effect in the link between negative inter-minority contact and solidarity. Overall, results underscore the pivotal role of positive inter-minority contact in fostering cooperation among ethnic minority groups and highlight for the first time the complex interplay between the valence of majority-minority and inter-minority contact experiences.

Gender inequalities are pervasive across various life domains, yet research has often overlooked how people perceive that women are treated differently than men. To fill this gap, we developed and validated the 16-item multidimensional Social Treatment and Experiences of Women (STEW) scale across different samples of women and different cultural contexts, namely Italy and the UK N = 1,195). Using exploratory (Study 1, N = 703) and confirmatory (Study 2, N = 550; Study 3a, N = 132; Study 4, N = 201; Study 5, N = 233) factor analysis, we identified four dimensions: workplace inequalities, domestic imbalance, harassment towards women, and social expectations. Studies 3a and 3b (N = 96) demonstrated convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the STEW, linking the STEW’s subscales to group-based emotions, reported experiences of sexism, attitudes towards affirmative action, and attitudes towards women’s sexual freedom. Replicating the factor structure in the UK, Study 4 found the STEW explained unique variance in group-based emotions and intergroup attitudes beyond personal experiences of sexism. Last, Study 5 showed that the STEW explains unique variance in collective action intentions and feminist identification beyond people’s attitudes towards gender equality. Highlighting the importance of conceiving gender inequalities as a multifaceted issue, the STEW provides a robust tool for assessing perceptions of differential treatment of women across domains and can inform more comprehensive interventions promoting gender equality.

The current study aims to examine the influence of group membership and cultural conceptions on the regulation of interpersonal distance (IPD) among Chinese and Italian adolescents. Two‐hundred forty participants completed an online computerized version of the Interpersonal Visual Analogue Scale to assess their preferred IPD. A greater distance was found in Chinese than Italian participants. Chinese participants also chose a larger distance from outgroup than ingroup members, whereas no such tendencies were found among Italian participants. Moreover, in the Chinese group, a larger distance from the male target was chosen by females compared to male participants. Finally, all participants maintained greater distance when outgroup members approached from the back than from the front. These findings not only provide evidence that nationality and group membership impact on how individuals regulate spatial boundaries, but also offer a new lens to understand intergroup dynamics shaping social interactions among individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds.