Doctor in Social Psychology from the University of Granada. My line of research focuses on the analysis of group attitudes among religious groups and the different forms of collective political and cultural violence as well as the processes of radicalization. Likewise, other secondary research lines deal with the identity of pilgrims and fake news. In addition to the research, I am the editor of the blog La Mente es Maravillosa where I carry out the work of scientific dissemination, exposing central theories in areas such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology.
Violent extremism is one of the biggest problems nowadays. Particularly, some characteristics of ... more Violent extremism is one of the biggest problems nowadays. Particularly, some characteristics of young people make them more vulnerable to radicalisation, so different prevention strategies have been developed. However, these strategies do not always take into consideration risk and protective factors, nor the skills that professionals should have. Therefore, this research aims at identifying prevention strategies through the reinforcement of protective factors that strength resilience against violent extremism considering the skills that professionals should have. A total of 70 professionals were interviewed on risk and protective factors in seven different countries of the European Union. After categorising these factors, a network analysis showed four clusters corresponding to four different prevention strategies: ‘empowering community identities’, ‘breaking out the brick wall’, ‘dismantling the extremist dynamics’, and ‘believing in higher values’. In summary, these four prevent...
<jats:p>Introduction: Hostile and benevolent classism influence the derogation of poor peop... more <jats:p>Introduction: Hostile and benevolent classism influence the derogation of poor people and groups, with negative consequences. The present study aims to adapt and validate the Ambivalent Classism Inventory (ACI) to obtain an adequate tool for expanding research on this topic among the Spanish-speaking population. Method: Toward this end, the researchers back-translated the ACI version originally developed for English speakers. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses verify the ACI's reliability and factor structure with a sample of Mexican participants. Results: The results demonstrated that the adapted scale's psychometric properties are acceptable. Its original and factor structure are similar to those of the original scale:hostile classism (12 items), protective paternalism (4 items), and complementary class differentiation (4 items). Furthermore, the study tests the convergent and divergent validity of the scale´s sub-dimensions concerning other ideological and socioeconomic variables. Conclusion:The proposed ACI adaptation should contribute to understanding attitudes toward the poor as well as their consequences among Spanish speakers.</jats:p>
La participación en el Camino de Santiago tiene un efecto en la identidad de los peregrinos. En c... more La participación en el Camino de Santiago tiene un efecto en la identidad de los peregrinos. En concreto, la fusión de su identidad personal con la identidad grupal (i.e., peregrinos). Una investigación longitudinal ha mostrado que las variables que predicen la fusión con el grupo y su mantenimiento a lo largo del tiempo son la participación de los rituales del camino (p.ej., dejar piedras en el camino) y el mantenimiento del contacto con los peregrinos una vez finalizada la peregrinación. Estos resultados tienen implicaciones de cara al mantenimiento y la reducción de la fusión de la identidad.
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material5 for On the way to fusion through ... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material5 for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material3 for On the way to fusion through ... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material3 for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material2b for On the way to fusion through... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material2b for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material1 for On the way to fusion through ... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material1 for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
espanolEl Grupo de la Gente de la Sunnah para la Predicacion y la Yihad, mas conocido como Boko H... more espanolEl Grupo de la Gente de la Sunnah para la Predicacion y la Yihad, mas conocido como Boko Haram, es un grupo insurgente cuyo origen lo encontramos en Nigeria en el ano 2002. Este grupo ha llegado a convertirse en uno de los mas mortiferos del siglo XXI y es el principal actor insurgente en Nigeria, aunque sus acciones tambien se extienden por la region del Africa occidental. El presente trabajo describe su ideologia y objetivos, su origen y evolucion, su estructura y organizacion, sus metodos de financiacion, sus conexiones y alianzas, y su actividad violenta. Finalmente, el estudio culmina con una valoracion sobre su posible evolucion, peligrosidad de cara al futuro y medidas a tomar. EnglishThe Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad, better known as Boko Haram, is an insurgent group whose origin is found in Nigeria, 2002. This group has become one of the deadliest of the 21st century and is the main insurgent actor in Nigeria, although his actions also extend ...
Radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism have received preferential attention from differe... more Radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism have received preferential attention from different government agencies, security agencies and social actors from multiple countries. Likewise, they constitute one of the greatest challenges for the security forces of these countries and have been present in their political agendas for some time. For example, individuals who are radicalized within the European territory (homegrown terrorists; King & Taylor, 2011) and those who return from war zones (foreign fighter returnees; Bakowski & Puccio, 2016) pose a challenge at the time to identify them and manage their behaviors. Consequently, prevention emerges as a way to fight the increase of radicalism and violent extremism in which more means and efforts should be invested (Marrero & Trujillo, 2018; Navarro & Villaverde, 2014). However, it must be borne in mind that in order to prevent these phenomena, it is necessary to first describe it rigorously and identify the existing functional r...
Introduction and objective: Workers contend with many threats while performing their daily routin... more Introduction and objective: Workers contend with many threats while performing their daily routine that could undermine their dignity, such as denigrating comments from supervisors or co-workers. Denying workers’ dignity constitutes a direct threat towards their well-being. The aim of this paper is to adapt and validate the Spanish version of the Workplace Dignity Scale (WDS). Method: An instrumental design was executed in order to adapt the scale to Spanish with a Mexican population (N = 588). Following back-translation, three studies were conducted in which confirmatory factor analysis, correlations, regressions, and invariance analysis were applied. Results: The results showed that the Spanish adaptation conforms to the six-factor structure of the original scale and that organisational dehumanisation and workers’ self-objectification predicted dignity at work; with workers’ self-objectification being the variable that most strongly predicted workers’ dignity. Finally, we also eva...
Population ageing is one of the present and future challenges in the European context. In additio... more Population ageing is one of the present and future challenges in the European context. In addition to age-related changes, negative and judicious attitudes by society are also prevalent. Therefore, there is a need for reliable instruments to evaluate attitudes toward ageing. In this vein, the present research aims to provide a reliable version of the Kogan's Attitudes toward Older People scale adapted to the Spanish context. In a sample from the academic community (N = 163), we evaluated the reliability, the psychometric properties, and the internal consistency of a version of Kogan's scale translated into Spanish. The results showed a reliable short version of the scale with adequate psychometric properties and two factors: positive and negative. Moreover, the correlates with similar measures of attitude toward older people proved external validity measures by the short scale. The implications and contributions to the geriatric population are discussed.
Violent extremism is one of the biggest problems nowadays. Particularly, some characteristics of ... more Violent extremism is one of the biggest problems nowadays. Particularly, some characteristics of young people make them more vulnerable to radicalisation, so different prevention strategies have been developed. However, these strategies do not always take into consideration risk and protective factors, nor the skills that professionals should have. Therefore, this research aims at identifying prevention strategies through the reinforcement of protective factors that strength resilience against violent extremism considering the skills that professionals should have. A total of 70 professionals were interviewed on risk and protective factors in seven different countries of the European Union. After categorising these factors, a network analysis showed four clusters corresponding to four different prevention strategies: ‘empowering community identities’, ‘breaking out the brick wall’, ‘dismantling the extremist dynamics’, and ‘believing in higher values’. In summary, these four prevent...
<jats:p>Introduction: Hostile and benevolent classism influence the derogation of poor peop... more <jats:p>Introduction: Hostile and benevolent classism influence the derogation of poor people and groups, with negative consequences. The present study aims to adapt and validate the Ambivalent Classism Inventory (ACI) to obtain an adequate tool for expanding research on this topic among the Spanish-speaking population. Method: Toward this end, the researchers back-translated the ACI version originally developed for English speakers. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses verify the ACI's reliability and factor structure with a sample of Mexican participants. Results: The results demonstrated that the adapted scale's psychometric properties are acceptable. Its original and factor structure are similar to those of the original scale:hostile classism (12 items), protective paternalism (4 items), and complementary class differentiation (4 items). Furthermore, the study tests the convergent and divergent validity of the scale´s sub-dimensions concerning other ideological and socioeconomic variables. Conclusion:The proposed ACI adaptation should contribute to understanding attitudes toward the poor as well as their consequences among Spanish speakers.</jats:p>
La participación en el Camino de Santiago tiene un efecto en la identidad de los peregrinos. En c... more La participación en el Camino de Santiago tiene un efecto en la identidad de los peregrinos. En concreto, la fusión de su identidad personal con la identidad grupal (i.e., peregrinos). Una investigación longitudinal ha mostrado que las variables que predicen la fusión con el grupo y su mantenimiento a lo largo del tiempo son la participación de los rituales del camino (p.ej., dejar piedras en el camino) y el mantenimiento del contacto con los peregrinos una vez finalizada la peregrinación. Estos resultados tienen implicaciones de cara al mantenimiento y la reducción de la fusión de la identidad.
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material5 for On the way to fusion through ... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material5 for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material3 for On the way to fusion through ... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material3 for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material2b for On the way to fusion through... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material2b for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material1 for On the way to fusion through ... more Supplemental material, OntheWaytoFusion_Supplementary_material1 for On the way to fusion through the pilgrims' route: Factors that maintain identity fusion in collective rituals by Roberto M. Lobato and Mario Sainz in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
espanolEl Grupo de la Gente de la Sunnah para la Predicacion y la Yihad, mas conocido como Boko H... more espanolEl Grupo de la Gente de la Sunnah para la Predicacion y la Yihad, mas conocido como Boko Haram, es un grupo insurgente cuyo origen lo encontramos en Nigeria en el ano 2002. Este grupo ha llegado a convertirse en uno de los mas mortiferos del siglo XXI y es el principal actor insurgente en Nigeria, aunque sus acciones tambien se extienden por la region del Africa occidental. El presente trabajo describe su ideologia y objetivos, su origen y evolucion, su estructura y organizacion, sus metodos de financiacion, sus conexiones y alianzas, y su actividad violenta. Finalmente, el estudio culmina con una valoracion sobre su posible evolucion, peligrosidad de cara al futuro y medidas a tomar. EnglishThe Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad, better known as Boko Haram, is an insurgent group whose origin is found in Nigeria, 2002. This group has become one of the deadliest of the 21st century and is the main insurgent actor in Nigeria, although his actions also extend ...
Radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism have received preferential attention from differe... more Radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism have received preferential attention from different government agencies, security agencies and social actors from multiple countries. Likewise, they constitute one of the greatest challenges for the security forces of these countries and have been present in their political agendas for some time. For example, individuals who are radicalized within the European territory (homegrown terrorists; King & Taylor, 2011) and those who return from war zones (foreign fighter returnees; Bakowski & Puccio, 2016) pose a challenge at the time to identify them and manage their behaviors. Consequently, prevention emerges as a way to fight the increase of radicalism and violent extremism in which more means and efforts should be invested (Marrero & Trujillo, 2018; Navarro & Villaverde, 2014). However, it must be borne in mind that in order to prevent these phenomena, it is necessary to first describe it rigorously and identify the existing functional r...
Introduction and objective: Workers contend with many threats while performing their daily routin... more Introduction and objective: Workers contend with many threats while performing their daily routine that could undermine their dignity, such as denigrating comments from supervisors or co-workers. Denying workers’ dignity constitutes a direct threat towards their well-being. The aim of this paper is to adapt and validate the Spanish version of the Workplace Dignity Scale (WDS). Method: An instrumental design was executed in order to adapt the scale to Spanish with a Mexican population (N = 588). Following back-translation, three studies were conducted in which confirmatory factor analysis, correlations, regressions, and invariance analysis were applied. Results: The results showed that the Spanish adaptation conforms to the six-factor structure of the original scale and that organisational dehumanisation and workers’ self-objectification predicted dignity at work; with workers’ self-objectification being the variable that most strongly predicted workers’ dignity. Finally, we also eva...
Population ageing is one of the present and future challenges in the European context. In additio... more Population ageing is one of the present and future challenges in the European context. In addition to age-related changes, negative and judicious attitudes by society are also prevalent. Therefore, there is a need for reliable instruments to evaluate attitudes toward ageing. In this vein, the present research aims to provide a reliable version of the Kogan's Attitudes toward Older People scale adapted to the Spanish context. In a sample from the academic community (N = 163), we evaluated the reliability, the psychometric properties, and the internal consistency of a version of Kogan's scale translated into Spanish. The results showed a reliable short version of the scale with adequate psychometric properties and two factors: positive and negative. Moreover, the correlates with similar measures of attitude toward older people proved external validity measures by the short scale. The implications and contributions to the geriatric population are discussed.
IV Congreso Internacional de Antropología (AIBR. Antropólogos Iberoamericanos en Red) , 2018
La fusión de la identidad se desencadena cuando la identidad personal y la grupal se vuelven poro... more La fusión de la identidad se desencadena cuando la identidad personal y la grupal se vuelven porosas. Cuando esto ocurre, las personas con la identidad fusionada se vuelven más sensibles a las problemáticas de su grupo pudiendo llegar a mostrar conductas extremas en su defensa. Si bien hay indicios de cómo se desencadena la fusión, mediante la realización de rituales que supongan un alto coste, y de las consecuencias que tiene, comportamientos extremos a favor del endogrupo, los trabajos centrados en cómo se mantiene la fusión de la identidad son más escasos. A este respecto, se realizó un estudio con los peregrinos del Camino de Santiago para dilucidar qué factores eran los que intervenían en el mantenimiento de la fusión. Para ello se aplicó un cuestionario a 122 peregrinos en dos puntos temporales diferentes. Una vez finalizaban el camino y tres meses después. De acuerdo a los resultados, si bien los rituales contribuían a la fusión de la identidad, éstos no intervenían en su mantenimiento. El único factor que se encontró que contribuía al mantenimiento de la fusión fue el contacto con otros peregrinos después de haber finalizado el camino. Partiendo de estos resultados podemos afirmar que, en el caso de los peregrinos del Camino de Santiago, el hecho de que la identidad se mantenga fusionada va a depender de que se mantengan en contacto con otros peregrinos con los que compartieron su travesía.
III International ISA Forum of Sociology (International Sociological Association), 2016
Spanish stereotypes towards Palestinians and Israelis are based, among
other aspects, on the info... more Spanish stereotypes towards Palestinians and Israelis are based, among other aspects, on the information that media broadcast of these two groups. A discourse analysis was performed in order to check how the representation of Palestinians and Israelis in the Spanish media is and what are the stereotypes that both representations come up to. The analyzed corpus consisted of all the news related to Palestinians and/or Israelis published in the digital edition of two of the most widely read newspapers in Spain: “El País” and “ABC”, from February 1st, 2015 to July 31st, 2015. On one hand, the critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to study the linguistic representation of Palestinians and Israelis and, on the other hand, the analysis of contingency tables to detect anomalies in the representation of both groups in newspapers. The following variables were analyzed: month, newspaper, amount of content, topic, and discursive representation of the actors. The analysis showed that the representation of the Palestinians and the Israelis had the following characteristics: greater representation of Israelis and a more passive and refusal one of the Palestinians. Regarding to the differences in the newspapers, the number of news and topics about them is similar in both newspapers but there are many differences in the representation of both groups. These representations contribute to create a simplistic stereotype about Palestinians and Israelis that make misunderstand the real relationship between the both groups. At the end, what is discussed is the role representation of Palestinians and Israelis into their conflictive relationships, which are widely different in media representation and reality.
XII Congreso Español de Sociología (Federación Española de Sociología), 2016
Analizar qué variables actitudinales predicen la aceptación de refugiados. Concretamente nos inte... more Analizar qué variables actitudinales predicen la aceptación de refugiados. Concretamente nos interesa analizar el papel de determinadas variables que se asocian tanto con las actitudes y el prejuicio como con la imagen distorsionada (ej. terroristas) que existe de los refugiados. Se realizo un estudio correlacional con población estudiantil de la provincia de Granada. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 196 personas (52% Mujeres, con una media de edad de 22,43). En cuanto a la educación, el 1% estudiaba bachillerato, el 65% estaba realizando un grado, el 21% había finalizado un grado/ licenciatura y el 13% realizaba estudios de master/posgrado. En cuanto a orientación política, el 47% eran de izquierda, el 37% de centro y el 16% de derecha.
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Papers by Roberto M Lobato
other aspects, on the information that media broadcast of these two groups. A discourse analysis was performed in order to check how the representation of Palestinians and Israelis in the Spanish media is and what are the stereotypes that both representations come up to. The analyzed corpus consisted of all the news related to Palestinians and/or Israelis published in the digital edition of two of the most widely read newspapers in Spain: “El País” and “ABC”, from February 1st, 2015 to July 31st, 2015. On one hand, the critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to study the linguistic representation of Palestinians and Israelis and, on the other hand, the analysis of contingency tables to detect anomalies in the representation of both groups in newspapers. The following variables were analyzed: month, newspaper, amount of content, topic, and discursive representation of the actors. The analysis showed that the representation of the Palestinians and the Israelis had the following characteristics: greater representation of Israelis and a more passive and refusal one of the Palestinians. Regarding to the differences in the newspapers, the number of news and topics about them is similar in both newspapers but there are many differences in the representation of both groups. These representations contribute to create a simplistic stereotype about Palestinians and Israelis that make misunderstand the real relationship between the both groups. At the end, what is discussed is the role representation of Palestinians and Israelis into their conflictive relationships, which are widely different in media representation and reality.