The Nature of Prejudice

In this article, we review the different functions that language and symbols (in particular clothing) fulfill in group life; language and clothing are rarely, if ever, discussed together in the same conceptual space. Our review includes a consideration of how social identities are communicated and discredited, boundaries crossed, and group norms established, maintained, and regulated. Throughout, we integrate motivational and social-cognitive approaches, ending with proposals for future research and theory in intergroup communication.

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Communication and group life: How language and symbols shape intergroup relations:

Covering faces with masks, due to mandatory pandemic safety regulations, we can no longer rely on the habitual daily-life information. This may be thought-provoking for healthy people, but particularly challenging for individuals with neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Au fait research on reading covered faces reveals that: 1) wearing masks hampers facial affect recognition, though it leaves reliable inferring basic emotional expressions; 2) by buffering facial affect, masks lead to narrowing of emotional spectrum and dampen veridical evaluation of counterparts; 3) masks may affect perceived face attractiveness; 4) covered (either by masks or other veils) faces have a certain signal function introducing perceptual biases and prejudices; 5) reading covered faces is gender- and age-specific, being more challenging for males and more variable even in healthy aging; 6) the hampering effects of masks on social cognition occur over the globe; and 7) reading covered faces is likely to be supported by the large-scale assemblies of the neural circuits far beyond the social brain. Challenges and limitations of ongoing research and parallels to the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test are assessed. Clarification of how masks affect face reading in the real world, where we deal with dynamic faces and have entree to additional valuable social signals such as body language, as well as the specificity of neural networks underlying reading covered faces calls for further tailored research.

Reading Covered Faces.

Stigmatization is a process by which certain individuals are devalued and alienated from specific types of social interactions, because they are perceived to possess a negatively valenced characteristic (e.g., age, gender, and medical condition). Due to its diverse and context‐driven nature, stigmatization potentially affects a large percentage of the population. Consequently, many individuals are likely victimized by stigmatization processes in a particular situation and subsequently may be deprived of the organizational opportunities available to nonstigmatized individuals. The purpose of this paper is to review and organize the literature by drawing on a suggested typology of stigmas found in organizations. We ground this novel typology in both the stigmatization and management literatures, incorporating the dimensions of controllability and visibility of stigmatizing attributes as well as whether or not the attribute is protected under federal law. Because all stigmatizing characteristics are not equally deleterious, we present 8 separate groups of stigmas and the differential effects that each have on stigmatized individuals' opportunities within organizations (i.e., access and treatment discrimination). Further, we outline mechanisms (i.e., imputed characteristics) that underlie the differential treatment afforded those who are stigmatized. We then provide a research roadmap to better understand the role stigmas play in organizations moving forward.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1058&context=management_pubs

A typology of stigma within organizations: Access and treatment effects

Does Muslim women’s religiosity deter them from paid work outside the home? I extend this question to Muslims in the United States, where the Muslim community is both ethnically and socioeconomical...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2378023117729969

Religiosity and Muslim Women’s Employment in the United States:

Given the prominence of Muslim veils—in particular the hijab and full-face veil—in public discourse concerning the place of Muslims in Western society, we examined their impact on non-Muslims’ responses at both explicit and implicit levels. Results revealed that responses were more negative toward any veil compared with no veil, and more negative toward the full-face veil relative to the hijab: for emotions felt toward veiled women (Study 1), for non-affective attitudinal responses (Study 2), and for implicit negative attitudes revealed through response latency measures (Studies 3a and 3b). Finally, we manipulated the perceived reasons for wearing a veil, finding that exposure to positive reasons for wearing a veil led to better predicted and imagined contact (Study 4). Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jasp.12278

Covered in stigma? The impact of differing levels of Islamic head-covering on explicit and implicit biases toward Muslim women

Few studies assessing the effects of COVID-19 on mental health include prospective markers of risk and resilience necessary to understand and mitigate the combined impacts of the pandemic, lockdowns, and other societal responses. This population-based study of young adults includes individuals from the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network (n = 2403) recruited from English primary care services and schools in 2012-2013 when aged 14-24. Participants were followed up three times thereafter, most recently during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak when they were aged between 19 and 34. Repeated measures of psychological distress (K6) and mental wellbeing (SWEMWBS) were supplemented at the latest assessment by clinical measures of depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7). A total of 1000 participants, 42% of the original cohort, returned to take part in the COVID-19 follow-up; 737 completed all four assessments [mean age (SD), 25.6 (3.2) years; 65.4% female; 79.1% White]. Our findings show that the pandemic led to pronounced deviations from existing mental health-related trajectories compared to expected levels over approximately seven years. About three-in-ten young adults reported clinically significant depression (28.8%) or anxiety (27.6%) under current NHS guidelines; two-in-ten met clinical cut-offs for both. About 9% reported levels of psychological distress likely to be associated with serious functional impairments that substantially interfere with major life activities; an increase by 3% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Deviations from personal trajectories were not necessarily restricted to conventional risk factors; however, individuals with pre-existing health conditions suffered disproportionately during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Resilience factors known to support mental health, particularly in response to adverse events, were at best mildly protective of individual psychological responses to the pandemic. Our findings underline the importance of monitoring the long-term effects of the ongoing pandemic on young adults' mental health, an age group at particular risk for the emergence of psychopathologies. Our findings further suggest that maintaining access to mental health care services during future waves, or potential new pandemics, is particularly crucial for those with pre-existing health conditions. Even though resilience factors known to support mental health were only mildly protective during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains to be seen whether these factors facilitate mental health in the long term. 

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Jessica Memarzia

Papers

Covered in stigma? The impact of differing levels of Islamic head-covering on explicit and implicit biases toward Muslim women

The impact of the initial COVID-19 outbreak on young adults’ mental health: a longitudinal study of risk and resilience factors