Societies undergo rapid changes due to shifting gender roles, migration, globalization or crises like Covid-19. Social change can be threatening, leading to polarization, rigidity or even hostility. To better understand how people respond to these societal challenges, this project examines the interplay between individuals’ physiological threat responses and their subjective feelings.
Project info
Project consists of following studies
Description
Heated debates and overly defensive responses suggest that social change is often appraised as a threat. reflecting on social change elicits physiological responses indicative of threat, especially among members of privileged groups.3 However, how people regulate this negative arousal, and how it shapes opinions about social change, is as yet poorly understood. We aim to develop and test a psychophysiological threat-and-coping model of social change, focusing on the interaction between lower-level physiological responses and higher-level information processing in shaping opinions about social change.
Project start
02/10/2023
End date
31/03/2026
Behavioral theory
- Identities
Researchers
Subjects
- Diversity and inclusion
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Sustainable behaviour
Audience
- Psychology
- Social psychology
- Sociology
Work package
- Inclusion
- Synthesis
Sustainability threat
- External Shocks
Challenge
- Accommodating newcomers
- Connecting communities
- Dealing with diversity
Theoretical background
On the basis of the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (BPS-CT) the state of threat (‘negative stress’) can be contrasted against a state of challenge (‘positive stress’). According to the model, threat and challenge occur in motivated performance situations where people evaluate the demands of the situation (required effort, uncertainty, danger) against the resources that the person brings into the situation to deal with these demands (skills, knowledge, support). When demands outweigh resources threat emerges; when resources approach or exceed demands challenge emerges. While threat leads to more local, detailed and rigid information processing, challenge leads to more global, abstract, and open-minded information processing. This project aims to examine how we can move people from an initial state of threat, to a more open, challenged state to deal with societal change.
Research design
Within this project we develop a 'mobile lab' to conduct psychophysiological research among broader research samples, such as at festivals, organizations and local communities, thereby moving away from student samples and increasing the external validity of our research. Our research consists of a speech-paradigm, where research participants are asked to share their opinions on social change or engage in conversations about social change, while we measure cardiovascular measures.
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Funders
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Grant ID