Fun statistic: Our paper "A sense of powerlessness fosters system justification" was the #5 most downloaded Political Psychology article in 2015, with 982 downloads.
Knowledge Platform Integration & Society: From Confrontation to Less Discrimination in the Workplace
Knowledge Platform Integration & Society (KIS) investigated whether diversity programs that aim to create awareness through confrontation with one’s own prejudices or stereotypes, reduces discrimination. This September, they published a literature review entitled (translated): “From confrontation to less discrimination in the workplace. Research into the plausibility of training aimed at awareness of bias in recruitment and selection”, to which I provided an expert contribution.
The full review by Felten, van Oostrum, Taouanza and Keuzenkamp can be found here (in Dutch): “Van Confrontatie naar Minder Discriminatie op de Arbeidsmarkt.”.
Image Credit: https://www.kis.nl/sites/default/files/bestanden/Publicaties/factsheet-discriminatie-confrontatie.pdf
Introduction for new employees
This morning I and other UU newbies received a formal introduction to our new place of work including a tour of University Hall, the university's public face and ceremonial heart. According to the website "It was here that the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1579, an event that is generally viewed as marking the origin of the Dutch nation. When Utrecht University was founded in 1636 it was given the Auditorium by the city." The building sure breathes history!
Photo credit: Rutger Hermsen (Creative Commons)
What makes authorities legitimate in the eyes of citizens?
I had the pleasure of serving on Honorata Mazepus' dissertation committee and receiving the answer to this question first-hand. In her dissertation, Honorata investigated which factors contribute to perceptions of political authorities as legitimate by individuals socialized in different political regimes. She found that citizens care about the outcomes they derive from governing (e.g., material welfare and stability), but are even more so are concerned with the fairness in which goods and services are distributed across society. Results were surprisingly consistent across regimes, thus challenging the notion that there may be something unique about the expectations about political authorities that citizens in non-democratic regimes have.
Honorata did a fabulous job at her defense and very deservedly goes by Dr. Mazepus now!
Starting a new position at Utrecht University
Today felt like a first day at school! My coffee mug on a brand new desk. Feeling nostalgic for having said goodbye to friends and colleagues at Leiden University, but very excited about the new opportunities and adventures that this new post will bring.
Exciting new collaboration
This summer I had the pleasure of welcoming Efraín García-Sánchez to our lab. He is a PhD student at the University of Granada, supervised by Profs. Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón and Guillermo Willis. Efraín has an interest in understanding the legitimization of economic inequality and researches how people map their perceptions of the ideal level of inequality in society to their perceptions of the existing level of inequality (naturalistic fallacy). During his research stay, Efraín and I analyzed and interpreted studies that he had conducted earlier this year and outlined several research papers. In addition, we worked on a large-scale multi-level analysis including publicly available data from over forty countries to replicate previous research findings from the Spanish context. I was impressed by how quickly he acquired this new technique and was able to put it to use. Efraín's research is novel and exciting and I couldn't have wished for a more fun and productive collaboration! Looking forward to continuing our work together
See this paper for earlier work on this topic: Willis, G. B., Rodríguez-Bailón, R., López-Rodríguez, L., & García-Sánchez, E. (2015). Legitimacy moderates the relationship between perceived and ideal inequalities. Social Justice Research, 28, 493-508.
ISPP 2016 - Warsaw
The International Society of Political Psychology held their annual conference in Warsaw this year, what a great pick! Thoroughly enjoyed spending time in this city and catching up with colleagues and friends.
Getting to know each other in Utrecht
On June 22, those affiliated with the lab groups of Naomi Ellemers and Belle Derks met to get to know each other and their research. A wonderful way to get acquainted with the people I will be working with from September 1st on.
The Martinus J. Langeveld building at Utrecht University
An Introduction to R
I took my first steps in the world of R thanks to the 3-day KLI workshop “An Introduction to R” and the competent lecturing of Willem Sleegers and Dalya Semur.
Another successful PhD defense!
Today, Marlon Mooijman successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "On the determinants and consequences of punishment goals: The role of power, distrust, and rule compliance" at Leiden University. My intelligent and critical questioning as opponent on his committee didn't throw him off one bit!
Summary
This dissertation focuses on the determinants and consequences of leaders’ punishment goals. I investigate how and why leaders rely on certain punishment goals, and how and why leaders’ reliance on such punishment goals affects punishment effectiveness. Specifically, in this dissertation I demonstrate that—with increasing power over others—leaders rely more on punishment goals that are actually suboptimal in promoting rule compliance. I demonstrate that power fosters a distrustful mindset towards people, which increases reliance on deterrence—but not just deserts as a punishment goal. Using deterrence—as opposed to just deserts—as a justification for punishments, in turn, decreases people’s willingness to comply with rules because they feel distrusted by the leader. Finally, leaders' reliance on suboptimal punishment goals can be explained by their motivation to maintain power over others. Although power may thus increase leaders’ reliance on punishments to deter rule-breaking behavior, paradoxically, this may at times decrease the effectiveness of the punishment.
