Overview:

• Gender, gender roles, and gender stereotypes.
• Sexual orientation, intersectionality and discrimination
• Social exclusion
• Diversity
• Conflict and cooperation between groups

Gender, gender roles, and gender stereotypes

Contact persons: Melanie Steffens, Claudia Niedlich, Carolin Scheifele, Sven Kachel & Franziska Ehrke

In our gender research, the basic dimensions of person perception (i.e., interpersonal warmth and task-related competence) play an important role. Here, we investigate which traditional notions of the typical woman/man can still be found today and to what extent a change in our gender stereotypical understanding can be observed (e.g., acceptance of men taking over child-rearing or care work). Along with this, we are interested in what gender stereotypes are due to, what effects they have (e.g., experiencing being "not man enough"), and how they can be changed. We pay special attention to implicit cognitions, i.e., those thought contents that individuals are either not aware of themselves or do not want to admit to others, typically due to social desirability processes.

Another aspect of this research is to examine determinants of the so-called "glass ceiling" - the phenomenon that at a certain point in their career paths, women encounter an invisible barrier that prevents them from advancing further. Here, we are interested in both inhibiting factors on the part of (potential) female executives and those attributable to their environment (such as social context, corporate cultures, established gender roles in heterosexual relationships). Related to this are research questions about what interventions help (e.g., quotas for women, awareness of sexism and beauty norms). An important feature of our work is to apply the available findings of social psychological research as well as the results of our ongoing projects to the work context, to develop concrete instructions for action for practice and to make these available to actors from business and politics.

Selected publications:

Kachel, S., Steffens, M. C., & Niedlich, C. (2016). Traditional masculinity and femininity: Validation of a new scale assessing gender roles. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00956

Scheifele, C., Ehrke, F., Viladot, M. A., Van Laar, C. & Steffens, M. C. (2021). Testing the basic socio-structural assumptions of social identity theory in the gender context: Evidence from correlational studies on women’s leadership. European Journal of Social Psychology (Special Section of Registered Reports on the topic “Revisiting basic tenets of and new directions for Social Identity Theory”). https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2746

Steffens, M. C., & Ebert, I. D. (2016). Frauen – Männer – Karrieren. Eine sozialpsychologische Perspektive auf Frauen in männlich geprägten Arbeitskontexten. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Steffens, M. C., Preuß, S., & Scheifele, C. (2019). Work-related impression formation: Reviewing parenthood penalties and investigating a “fatherhood penalty” for single fathers. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 41(5), 287–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2019.1652177

Sexual orientation, intersectionality and discrimination

Contact persons: Claudia Niedlich, Melanie Steffens, Sven Kachel, Elena Ball & Franziska Ehrke

In addition to the category of gender, we are interested in other social characteristics, such as a person's sexual orientation. Here we ask which indirect signals (e.g., manner of speaking, face, clothing) and their concrete characteristics are used to (correctly) judge persons as lesbian/gay or heterosexual. We are particularly interested in the role played by gender stereotypes and the effects of the perception of a particular sexual orientation. We examine processes of discrimination primarily in the context of work. We are interested in whether lesbian/gay and heterosexual persons with the same qualifications are ascribed the same chances of getting an advertised job and advancing professionally.

These judgments interact with notions of traditional femininity and masculinity and influence how individuals are perceived. Because these images are in a state of constant flux, we also examine changes in perceptions and attitudes toward lesbians and gay men as well as interventions that contribute to improving attitudes toward sexual minorities (e.g., paradoxical intervention, vicarious contact).

In addition, as part of this research focus, we are concerned with the question of what impressions are formed and whether discrimination results when a person belongs to multiple stigmatized groups ("intersectionality"). This research approach assumes that experiences of discrimination do not add up in this case, but that there is a complex interaction between them. To this end, in some experiments we additionally vary the nationality of the applicants and examine how, for example, people with German and Turkish names and different sexual orientations are assessed.

Selected publications:

Büttner, C. M., Rudert, S. C., & Kachel, S. (2024). Ostracism experiences of sexual minorities: Integrating target perspective and perception by others.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241240675

Kachel, S., Steffens, M. C., Preuß, S., & Simpson, A. P. (2020). Gender (conformity) matters: Cross-dimensional and cross-modal associations in sexual orientation perception. Journal of Language and Social Psychology (Special Issue: Sounding strange(r): Origins, consequences, and boundary conditions of socio-phonetic discrimination), 39(1), 40–66, https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19883902

Niedlich, C., Steffens, M. C., Krause, J., Settke, E., & Ebert, I. D. (2015). Ironic effects of sexual minority group membership: Are lesbians less susceptible to invoking negative female stereotypes than heterosexual woman? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(5), 1439–1447. https://doi: 10.1007/s10508-014-0412-1.

Preuß, S., & Steffens, M. C. (2020). A video intervention for every straight man: The role of pre-attitudes and emotions in vicarious-contact effects. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. Advance online publication.https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220910462

Steffens, M. C., Niedlich, C., & Ehrke, F. (2016). Discrimination at work on the basis of sexual orientation: Subjective experience, experimental evidence, and interventions. In T. Köllen (Ed.), Sexual Orientation and Transgender Issues in Organizations (pp. 367–388). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29623-4_22

Social exclusion

Contact persons: Selma Rudert, Larissa Damp & Christoph Kenntemich

Social exclusion and marginalization are everyday occurrences in many different contexts and institutions, such as schools, but also in economic organizations and at the level of society as a whole. However, since exclusion has a negative impact on performance as well as well-being, social exclusion can cause significant damage on an individual as well as on an economic level.

The focus of this research area is on the one hand the question why people exclude others. Here, we investigate the influence of different motives, personality traits, and social contexts that promote exclusionary behavior. On the other hand, we investigate how people conceive of and experience social exclusion - both when they themselves are excluded and when they observe others being excluded. These different perspectives contribute to understanding the causes of social exclusion and how social exclusion and its associated negative consequences can be prevented.

Selected publications:

Rudert, S. C., Janke, S., & Greifeneder, R. (2020). The experience of ostracism over the adult life span. Developmental Psychology, 56(10), 1999–2012. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001096

Rudert, S. C., Keller, M. D., Hales, A. H., Walker, M., & Greifeneder, R. (2020). Who gets ostracized? A personality perspective on risk and protective factors of ostracism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118(6), 1247–1268. https://doi: 10.1037/pspp0000271

Rudert, S.C., Möring, R., Kenntemich, C., & Büttner, C.M. (2023). When and why we ostracize others: Motivated social exclusion in group contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125(4), 803-826.https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000423

Rudert, S.C., Sutter, D., Corrodi, C., & Greifeneder, R. (2018). Who’s to blame? Similarity affects moral judgments of observed ostracism episodes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(1), 31–53. https://doi: 10.1037/pspa0000122

Diversity

Contact persons: Franziska Ehrke, Melanie Steffens, Selma Rudert & Sven Kachel

In our research on diversity, we investigate how social diversity is perceived and by whom and under which circumstances social diversity is evaluated as positive or negative. Furthermore, we address the question of how the perception of diversity affects relationships within and between different groups (e.g., cooperation, conflict).

Another aspect of this research deals with the importance of social diversity in the field of politics, e.g. for trust in political parties as well as in politicians. In addition, one concern of our diversity research is to link it to other relevant psychological foci, such as justice research (e.g., sensitivity to injustice).

A major goal of our research is to identify and apply diversity-based intervention strategies to improve intergroup attitudes. Thus, we are primarily concerned with the design and evaluation of diversity training - one of the most commonly practiced interventions in diversity management. We also want to consider different target groups. For example, we investigate how to prevent privileged groups from feeling threatened by the perception of diversity and the presence of disadvantaged minority groups. We cooperate closely with projects and organizations that implement anti-discrimination measures to ensure the external validity of our research.

Selected publications:

Ehrke, F., Ashoee, A., Steffens, M. C., & Louvet, E. (2020). A brief diversity training: Raising awareness of ingroup privilege to improve attitudes towards disadvantaged outgroups. International Journal of Psychology, 55(5), 732–742. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12665

Ehrke, F., Berthold, A., & Steffens, M. C. (2014). How diversity training can change attitudes: Increasing perceived complexity of superordinate groups to improve intergroup relations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.03.013

Ehrke, F., Bruckmüller, S., & Steffens, M. C. (2020). A double-edged sword: How social diversity affects trust in representatives via perceived competence and warmth. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(7), 1540–1554.https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2709

Jaffé, M. E., Rudert, S. C., & Greifeneder, R. (2019). You should go for diversity, but I’d rather stay with similar others: Psychological distance modulates one’s preference for diversity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 85. https://doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103881

Steffens, M. C., Reese, G., Ehrke, F., & Jonas, K. J. (2017). When does activating diversity alleviate, when does it increase intergroup bias? An ingroup projection perspective. PLoS one, 12, e0178738. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178738

Conflict and cooperation between groups

Contact persons: Melanie Steffens, Tamara Wolf & Selma Rudert

An important topic in teaching and research in social psychology are conflicts between social groups and how cooperation and reconciliation can be brought about. Which stereotypes and prejudices, which feelings of threat and emotions determine how people deal with foreign groups (e.g., whether someone is committed to or against refugees)? Can assistance best be explained by taking into account both social identification with different groups and a personality trait (so-called sensitivity to injustice)? And what interventions increase willingness to engage with an outside group?

In addition, we address the question of the extent to which victim and perpetrator groups differ in their preference of how offenses are portrayed. Our goal is to understand whether the different needs of members of victim and offender groups are reflected in these preferences. Here we cooperate with Tel Aviv University and investigate the question with German and Jewish-Israeli samples.

Furthermore, we are interested in a type of positive unconscious discrimination towards refugees in Germany. Here, we look at the factors (e.g., stereotypes) to which people who support refugees attribute their norm-violating behavior.

Selected publications:

Klein, S.A., Rudert, S.C. (2021). If they don’t care, I won’t share: Feeling unrelated to one’s in-group increases selfishness instead of behavior for the greater good. European Journal of Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2771

Knab, N., & Steffens, M. C. (2018). One world in diversity – a social-psychological intervention to foster international collective action intention. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 6(1), 8–26. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v6i1.601

Knab, N., & Steffens, M. C. (2020). Emotions for solidarity: The relations of moral outrage and sympathy with hierarchy-challenging and prosocial hierarchy-maintaining action intentions in support of refugees. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.

Knab, N., Winter, K., & Steffens, M. C. (2021). Flexing the extremes: Increasing cognitive flexibility with a paradoxical leading questions intervention. Social Cognition, 39(2), 225-242. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2021.39.2.225