This research analyses the mediational role of threat perception in the relationship between prejudice and discrimination (opposition to immigration and opposition to naturalization of immigrants). In the first study, using representative samples in 21 European countries (N ¼ 36 566) from European Social Survey (2002), we showed that the relationship between prejudice and opposition to immigration was more strongly mediated by realistic than by symbolic threat perceptions. In Study 2, using representative samples in two countries with different traditions of immigration (Switzerland, N ¼ 940; Portugal, N ¼ 1514), we showed that realistic threat more strongly mediated the relationship between prejudice and opposition to immigration, while only symbolic threat perception mediated the link between prejudice and opposition to naturalization. The theoretical implications of considering threat perceptions as factors that legitimize discrimination are discussed. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Research on the relationship between prejudice and discrimination (e.g. Lord, Lepper, & Mackie, 1984;McConahay, 1983;Smith & Dixon, 1968;Weitz, 1972) has been carried out within the more general framework of the early studies on the connection between attitude and behaviour (e.g. Kutner, Wilkins, & Yarrow, 1952;LaPiere, 1934;Wicker, 1969). While the literature on the relationship between attitude and behaviour specifies when attitudes predict behaviour (e.g. Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975;Zanna, Olson, & Fazio, 1980) and presents some hypotheses on how this process occurs (e.g. Fazio, 1990;Snyder, 1982; for a review, see Eagly & Chaiken, 1998), the literature on the prejudice-discrimination link still reveals some shortcomings in these matters (see Fiske, 1998Fiske, , 2000, for a review). In fact, the few studies concerning the when question have shown that the prejudice-discrimination correlation has a moderate magnitude (Dovidio, Brigham, Johnson, & Gaertner, 1996), and that this correlation depends on several moderators (Schutz & Six, 1996). To our knowledge, only the model proposed by Pereira, Vala, and Leyens (2009) has addressed the how question, predicting that the psychological processes through which preconceived attitudes lead to discriminatory behaviour involve justifying factors, such as threat perception. In fact, Pereira et al. experimentally showed that symbolic threat perception mediates the relationship between infra-humanization of Turkish people and the opposition to the adhesion of Turkey to the European Union (EU). The current paper extends Pereira et al.'s findings by testing whether distinct types of threats differentially mediate the relationship between prejudice and discrimination. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that the relationship between prejudice and opposition to immigration in Europe is more strongly mediated by realistic threat (Studies 1 and 2) and that the relationship between prejudice and opposition to naturalization is more strongly mediated by symbolic threat (Study 2).Europe...

ResumoEste artigo analisa, na perspectiva das representações sociais, as formas como estudantes universitários expressam o preconceito contra homossexuais e a relação desse preconceito com as explicações da homossexualidade. Para tanto, aplicaram-se questionários a 220 alunos de uma universidade pública da cidade de João Pessoa. Os resultados permitiram classificar os estudantes em uma tipologia composta por três grupos de indivíduos: preconceituosos flagrantes, preconceituosos sutis e não preconceituosos. A análise da ancoragem social do tipo de preconceito apresentado pelos estudantes mostrou que os preconceituosos flagrantes se opuseram às explicações psicossociais (próprias das mulheres e dos estudantes de psicologia) e aderiram mais fortemente às explicações ético-morais e religiosas (próprias dos estudantes de engenharia). Os não preconceituosos estudam psicologia e aderem às explicações psicossociológicas. Já os preconceituosos sutis explicaram a homossexualidade a partir de causas biológicas e psicológicas, próprias dos estudantes de medicina e das mulheres. Palavras-chave: Representações sociais; preconceito; homossexualidade. A Study of Prejudice Forms against Homosexuals Anchored on Social RepresentationsAbstract This paper analyses, in terms of social representations, the way university students express their prejudice against homosexuals and how this prejudice relates to explanations concerning homosexuality. Questionnaires were used with 220 students of a public university in João Pessoa city. The results led to a classification of the students into three different groups: flagrantly-prejudiced, subtly-prejudiced and non-prejudiced. The analysis of the social anchorage of the students type of prejudice revealed that the flagrantly-prejudiced group opposed the psycho-social explanations (typical of women and psychology students), more strongly adhering to ethical-moral and religious explanations (characteristic of engineer students). The non-prejudiced were students of Psychology and adhered to psycho-sociological explanations, whereas the subtly-prejudiced explained homosexuality in terms of biological and psychological causes (explanations typical of medical students and women). Keywords: Social representations; prejudice; homosexuality. Nas últimas décadas, os países ocidentais desenvolveram normas que coíbem a discriminação explícita contra grupos minoritários (McConahay, Hardee & Batts, 1981;Wittenbrink, Judd & Park, 1997). Por exemplo, na maioria dos países o racismo é formalmente proibido e qualquer manifestação racista é desencorajada (Santos, 1999). Mesmo assim, observa-se um aumento na discriminação expresso na violência racial (Mummendey & Wenzel, 1999;Oliveira, Lima & Santos, 1999) e nos indicadores sócio-econômicos das minorias raciais (Browser,1995). Esta situação contraditória mostra o preconceito assumindo formas de expressão que não contrariam abertamente as normas antiracistas atuais (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986;Katz & Hass, 1988;Kinder & Sears, 1981;McConahay, 1983;Pettigrew & Meerte...

a b s t r a c tThis set of studies tests the link between infra-humanization, symbolic threat, and discrimination within normative contexts. In two experiments, manipulating the degree of humanity of a disliked outgroup has an effect upon the discrimination towards it. The infra-humanized outgroup is more discriminated than the humanized one. Also, the perception of symbolic threat plays the role of a justifying factor for discrimination, and mediates the relationship between degrees of humanity and discrimination. Study 2 further shows that this mediation occurs only when an egalitarian norm is activated, and not when meritocracy is made salient. The discussion focuses on factors likely to prevent infra-humanization of outgroups. It also considers how norms may change the role of threat.

This introductory article for the special issue entitled "Social Psychological Perspectives on the Legitimation of Social Inequality" reviews various theoretical frameworks applied to the study of this topic. Legitimation of social inequality occurs through individual-level, group-level, and system-level processes. In societies in which egalitarianism and fairness are core cultural values, legitimation permits differential treatment of people on the basis of their social group memberships while allowing people to maintain positive self-images, to reinforce group-based hierarchies and to justify a status quo that systematically benefits some individuals and groups more than others. In this article, we focus on three major theoretical perspectives in social psychology that have inspired most of the research featured in this special issue, and we offer a general overview of the articles to follow, expanding upon their connections to one another and to the theme of the issue. We highlight the promise of research on legitimation of social inequality not only for developing a deeper and more integrative theoretical understanding of intergroup relations but also for guiding interventions to achieve social equality in practice.

Framed by the Belief in a Just World theory (BJW; Lerner, M. J. (1980). Belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation), this article presents two studies that analyze people's reactions to the suffering of victims belonging to an ingroup and an outgroup. In Study 1, participants viewed a videotaped film containing the victimization story. The victim was presented as a non-categorized, ingroup or outgroup (Gypsy) victim. Threat to BJW was measured using the modified Stroop task developed by Hafer (J Pers Soc Psychol 79: [165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172][173] 2000). In the second study, a non-victimization story was introduced and a 2 (victim, non-victim) 9 2 (ingroup, outgroup) between-subjects design was used. Both studies show that the ingroup victim is more threatening to the BJW than the outgroup victim. The expected secondary victimization of the ingroup victim was only obtained in the second study when a non-obtrusive derogation measure was used.

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Embora a Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS: Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) seja uma escala parcimoniosa, vários autores referem a necessidade de desenvolver versões reduzidas da escala. Este estudo desenvolveu uma versão portuguesa reduzida da PANAS portuguesa (adaptada por Galinha & Ribeiro, 2005), analisou a sua estrutura fatorial e testou a invariância temporal, num intervalo de dois meses. Uma amostra de 245 participantes adultos, no ensino superior e em formação profissional, foi recolhida e replicada com dois meses de intervalo. A nova versão reduzida da PANAS portuguesa (PANAS-VRP) foi posteriormente analisada numa segunda amostra de 535 estudantes universitários. Os resultados mostram que embora a estrutura da PANAS-VRP se tenha revelado variável entre as duas amostras do estudo (o que pode ser explicado pelos pressupostos teóricos da escala), apresentou boas características psicométricas em ambas as amostras. A PANAS-VRP revelou ainda invariância temporal num intervalo de dois meses e uma correlação elevada com a versão integral da escala, nas duas amostras, indicando que ambas as versões estão a medir os mesmos constructos.

a b s t r a c tPrevious research on the motivation for environmentally responsible behaviour has focused mainly on individual variables, rather than organizational or collective variables. Therefore, the results of those studies are hardly applicable to environmental management. This study considers individual, collective, and organizational variables together that contribute to the management of environmental waste. The main aim is to identify, through the development of a multilevel model, those predictive variables of recycling behaviour that help organizations to increase the recycling rates in their communities. Individual (age, gender, educational level, self-efficacy with respect to residential recycling, individual recycling behaviour), organizational (satisfaction with the quality of the service provided by a recycling company), and collective (community recycling rates, number of inhabitants, community efficacy beliefs) motivational factors relevant to recycling behaviour were analysed. A sample of 1501 residents from 55 localities was surveyed. The results of multilevel analyses indicated that there was significant variability within and between localities. Interactions between variables at the level of the individual (e.g. satisfaction with service quality) and variables at the level of the collective (e.g. community efficacy) predicted recycling behaviour in localities with low and high community recycling rates and large and small populations. The interactions showed that the relationship between self-efficacy and recycling is stronger in localities with weak community efficacy beliefs than in communities with strong beliefs. The findings show that the relationship between satisfaction with service quality and recycling behaviour is stronger in localities with strong community efficacy beliefs than in communities with weaker beliefs and a smaller population. The results are discussed accordingly in relation to theory and possible contribution to waste management. Those findings may be incorporated in national and international environmental policies in order to promote environmentally responsible behaviour in citizenship.