In many Western countries, the proportion of the population that is White will drop below 50% within the next century. Two experiments examined how anticipation of these future ethnic demographics affects current intergroup processes. In Study 1, White Americans who viewed actual demographic projections for a time when Whites are no longer a numerical majority felt more angry toward and fearful of ethnic minorities than Whites who did not view future projections. Whites who viewed the future projections also felt more sympathy for their ingroup than Whites in the control condition. In Study 2, the authors replicated the effects for intergroup emotions with a sample of White Canadians. White Canadians who thought about a future in which Whites were a numerical minority appraised the ingroup as more threatened, which mediated the effect of condition on intergroup emotions. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for race relations in increasingly diverse societies.

Two well-established predictors of collective action are perceptions of group effi cacy and feelings of anger. The current research investigates the extent to which the relative impact of these variables differs when fear is or is not also included as a predictor of collective action. The results of two experiments indicate that when fear is not assessed, the importance of anger as a predictor of action is underestimated while the importance of group effi cacy is overestimated. The results further indicate that fear, in addition to affecting the impact of known causes of collective action (anger and group effi cacy), is a powerful inhibitor of collective action. The implications for current theoretical models of collective action instigators are discussed.For the Roman Emperor Caligula, the above quote was a favorite maxim. History suggests that Caligula was a tyrannical ruler who was hated by both the general population and the Roman Senate. Although Caligula was well aware of how he was perceived, he believed he could avoid being overthrown as long as people feared him more than they hated him. Caligula's quote nicely illustrates the potential connection between fear, anger, and collective action. Although common-sense explanations of collective action imply that fear can inhibit collective action, social psychologists have largely overlooked fear as an inhibitor of protest

Two broad distal causes of prejudice are past history of intergroup contact and general political predispositions. Two studies investigate the extent to which these effects are mediated by emotions directed at the outgroup, as proposed by Intergroup Emotions Theory (Smith, 1993). In both studies, past intergroup contact and Social Dominance Orientation predict prejudice, as measured either by a feeling thermometer or the Modern Racism Scale. Furthermore, for both studies these effects are significantly mediated by intergroup emotions, above and beyond measures of stereotypes (stereotype endorsement in Study 1 and stereotype knowledge in Study 2) that were entered as alternative potential mediators. Stereotype endorsement also plays a significant mediational role in one case. Increased attention to the role of emotions in intergroup relations, including in the mediation of such powerful and well-known effects as those of intergroup contact and political predispositions, appears to be warranted.

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Two experiments show that repeated exposure to information about a target person reduces individuation and thereby increases stereotyping of the target person based on social group memberships. The eVect is not due to familiarity-induced liking (the mere exposure eVect), nor is it mediated by increased accessibility of the target's social category, nor by increases in perceived social judgeability. The results are most consistent with the use of feelings of familiarity as a regulator of processing mode, such that familiar objects receive less systematic or analytic processing. In everyday life, frequent exposure to another person ordinarily produces not only familiarity but also liking, individuated knowledge, and friendship, factors that may eVectively limit stereotyping. But when previous exposure is unconfounded from these other factors, its eVect can be to increase stereotyping.