Papers by Antoine Roblain
Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis which called for two crucial modes of social regulation: social... more The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis which called for two crucial modes of social regulation: social control and social solidarity. In the present pre-registered study, we examine how the perceived non-compliance with health measures relates to attitudes towards these modes of social regulation, as well as to the role played by the perception of disintegrated and disregulated society (anomie). Using data from an online cross-sectional survey conducted in Belgium in April 2020 (N = 717), results show that the causal attribution of the crisis to insufficient compliance was differentially associated with support for social control and social solidarity behaviors. Specifically, greater attribution to insufficient compliance was associated with a perceived breakdown in the social fabric (disintegration), which explained stronger support for social control and fewer solidaritybased actions. Perceived disregulation, conversely, was associated with less support for social control and more social solidarity. Therefore, the perception of the pandemic and associated perceived anomie tend to polarize citizens' attitudes towards these two modes of social regulation. In this way, prosocial behaviors might be inhibited by communications that attribute the pandemic's causes to incivility. Other implications of our findings for the social psychological literature on communities' reactions to the pandemic are discussed.
Anthropologie & développement
European Psychologist, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes an unprecedented threat for individuals and societies, revealin... more The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes an unprecedented threat for individuals and societies, revealing stark inequalities in preparedness, exposure, and consequences. The present systematic literature review complements extant knowledge on disasters and pandemic diseases with programmatic research on the COVID-19 pandemic. Building upon an integrative definition of threat, we merge intra-personal threat regulation with group dynamics and inter-group relations. Via streamlined methods of knowledge synthesis, we first map out a broad taxonomy of threats, as appraised by the majority population and ethno- racial and immigrant minorities. Second, we delve into research linking threat appraisals with either conflict or prosociality within and across group boundaries. To conclude, we propose some guidelines for researchers to actively involve ethno-racial and immigrant minorities, and for societies to cope cohesively with the impact of COVID-19.
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2021
In the context where immigration divides the political space of Western societies, perceived soci... more In the context where immigration divides the political space of Western societies, perceived social polarization as an explanation of collective action is surprisingly understudied in contemporary social psychology. We hypothesize that the more people perceive polarization, the more they will engage in collective action in line with their attitudes. Moreover, this effect should be explained by two interrelated factors: identification and perceived efficacy. Perceived polarization should shape how important immigration attitudes are for individuals’ self-definition and thereby believing oneself capable of making a change, which in turn triggers collective action. To test our predictions, we conducted three studies (Studies 1 and 2 were correlational and Study 3 exper- imental) among mobilized and non-mobilized samples in two countries (i.e., Belgium and Switzerland). Results partially support our predictions that perceived social polarization on immigration issues relates to engaging in collective action. Indirect effect analyses revealed the predominant role of identity dynamics in the social psychological processes linked to perceiving polarization. These results provide potential explanations to the strong mobilization that emerged since 2015 following the so-called migrant crisis. Implications of our findings for collective action literature are discussed.
UNHCR funded report, 2021
This UNHCR funded analytical report describes the refugee committee pilot project established in ... more This UNHCR funded analytical report describes the refugee committee pilot project established in Brussels during the COVID-19 outbreak, and it shows preliminary survey results on refugees’ reactions to the pandemic. Overall, this analytical report underlines the need for an inclusive process of community-based social support, also advocating for the consolidation of locally-grounded refugee-led representative bodies.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 2020
Using an ego-centered network approach, we examine across two studies whether and how injunctive ... more Using an ego-centered network approach, we examine across two studies whether and how injunctive network norms-behaviors that are approved by alters-are related to majority members' decisions to participate in helping actions supporting migrants. We hypothesize that the more people perceive their personal social networks as positive toward humanitarian actions for migrants, the more they consider their opinions on migration issues as self-defining, and the more they are willing to mobilize in helping behaviors. With a name generator approach, we collected personal social network data among majority members of Belgian, mobilized volunteers (Study 1, N=204) and Swiss, non-mobilized participants (Study 2, N=247). Results demonstrate the impact of injunctive network norms in promoting and maintaining helping actions for migrants, and the role of self-defining attitudes. Overall, the results highlight the importance of injunctive norms within personal social networks on participation in intergroup helping behaviors.
International Review of Social Psychology, 2020
Several European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt t... more Several European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt the host culture. While research has shown that members of national majority groups consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable, the effect of making host culture adoption mandatory on attitudes toward immigrants has so far not been investigated. We argue that perceiving host culture adoption as mandatory yields less positive evaluation of immigrants than voluntary adoption. Moreover, we contend that this effect is explained by a lower perception of identification with the host nation by immigrants in the former case than in the latter. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a first study in France (N = 63) and a second preregistered study in Switzerland (N = 110). In both studies, participants received information about an immigrant who adopted the host culture either voluntarily or as part of a mandatory integration program. As expected, granting civic rights to the immigrant is perceived as more legitimate in the voluntary adoption condition than in the mandatory adoption condition, and this effect was mediated by perception of host nation identification. These results highlight the role of the situational context of acculturation practices in social judgments about immigrants. Implications for mandatory integration policies are discussed.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 2020
Immigrant naturalization is a rite of passage, making assimilationist attitudes particularly pron... more Immigrant naturalization is a rite of passage, making assimilationist attitudes particularly pronounced among host nationals. Three experimental studies investigate whether heritage culture maintenance violate expectations that citizenship should be deserved by proving strong attachment to the host nation (i.e., neoliberal communitarianism). Study 1 (N = 293) demonstrates that naturalization applicants’ high degree of heritage culture maintenance impairs application evaluations. Perceived attachment to the host nation and citizenship deservingness mediated this effect. Study 2 ( N = 220) replicates results across two national contexts and reveals that heritage culture maintenance impairs evaluations only among naturalization applicants from devalued countries. Study 3 (N = 117) manipulates attachment to the host nation and shows that perceived citizenship deservingness mediates the negative effects of naturalization applicants’ low attachment to the host nation on application evaluations. Overall, assimilationist attitudes among host nationals are best explained by the combination of neoliberal and communitarian criteria of evaluation
Journal of personality and social psychology, 2019
We investigated whether violent conflict provides individuals with a sense of meaning that they
a... more We investigated whether violent conflict provides individuals with a sense of meaning that they
are hesitant to let go of, thus contributing to the perpetuation of intergroup conflict. Across a wide variety of contexts, we found that making intergroup conflict salient increased the meaning people found in conflict and, in turn, increased support for conflict-perpetuating beliefs, ideologies, policies, and behaviors. These effects were detected among participants exposed to reminders of intergroup conflict (the American Revolutionary War and the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS; Studies 1A and 1B), participants living through actual intergroup conflict (the 2014 Israel-Gaza war; Study 2), and participants who perceived actual intergroup conflicts to be larger versus smaller in scope (the November 2015 Paris attacks; Studies 3 and 4). We also found that directly manipulating the perceived meaning in conflict (in the context of the 2014 NYC “hatchet attack”; Study 5) led to greater perceived meaning in life in general and thereby greater support for conflict escalation. Together, these findings suggest that intergroup conflict can serve as a source of meaning that people are motivated to hold on to. We discuss our findings in the context of the meaning making and threat compensation literatures, and consider their implications for perspectives on conflict escalation and resolution.
International Review of Social Psychology, 2017
Despite the current societal emergency, little is known about the acculturation processes undergo... more Despite the current societal emergency, little is known about the acculturation processes undergone by Syrian and Iraqi asylum seekers. The present paper investigates their early-stage acculturation preferences in relation to their perception of majority members’ acculturation expectations and to their settlement intentions. 103 Syrian and Iraqi male asylum seekers were recruited during the peak of the 2015 “refugee crisis” in a provisional reception centre and completed a brief questionnaire. Results showed that asylum seekers reported a high willingness to participate in the host society and to adopt the host culture, while maintaining their culture of origin. Moreover, as predicted, asylum seekers’ settlement intentions and their perceptions of majority members’ acculturation expectations were key predictors of their own acculturation preferences. Implications for integration policies are discussed. Open Access : http://www.rips-irsp.com/articles/10.5334/irsp.49/
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2016
Research has shown that members of the national majority group generally consider host culture ad... more Research has shown that members of the national majority group generally consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable. However, so far, this positive effect of perceived host culture adoption on attitudes toward immigrants has not been explained. We argue that majority members infer national identification of immigrants from their cultural adoption. Moreover, we predict that this inference should decrease majority members' feeling of ingroup threat, therefore also improving their attitudes toward immigrants. We conducted two experimental studies. In Study 1, majority members who were presented an immigrant group that adopted the host culture held more positive attitudes than those who were presented one that disregarded it. In line with our hypothesis, this effect was fully mediated by perceived identification of the immigrants with the host nation, itself decreasing perception of ingroup threat. Study 2 reproduced the same experimental design, but used descriptions of individual immigrants' acculturation strategies, and the immigrant group's status – valued vs. devalued origin – was also manipulated. In addition, Study 2 focused on dimensions of the " Big Two " of social perception. Results replicated the mediational effect of perceived identification on attribution of both warmth and competence traits. The status manipulation had no significant effect and did not interact with cultural adoption. These two studies provide robust evidence that perception of host nation identification explains the effects of perceived cultural adoption on attitudes towards immigrants.
Journal du droit des jeunes, 2015
L’exode des djihadistes qui ont décidé de tout quitter pour prendre les armes en Syrie et en Ir... more L’exode des djihadistes qui ont décidé de tout quitter pour prendre les armes en Syrie et en Irak alimente depuis maintenant deux ans les débats tant populaires que politiques. Les mêmes questions reviennent sans cesse. Qui sont-ils et quelles sont leurs motivations ? Que va-t-il se passer quand ces djihadistes vont revenir sur le territoire européen ? Comment comprendre et interpréter ces engagements djihadistes ? L’objectif de cet article n’est pas d’ajouter une couche de sensationnalisme à cette problématique mais plutôt d’essayer le plus objectivement possible de lever une partie du voile sur ces questions.
Conference Presentations by Antoine Roblain
Many European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt the ... more Many European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt the host culture. Indeed, research has shown that members of national majority groups consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable. However, so far, the effect of making host culture adoption mandatory on attitudes towards immigrants has not been investigated. We argue that mandatory adoption yields less positively evaluations than spontaneous adoption. Moreover, we contend that this effect is explained by a lower perception of identification with the host nation by immigrants. Participants received information about an immigrant who either adopted the host culture voluntarily or by obligation. As expected, he was perceived more positively in the voluntary condition, and this effect was fully mediated by perception of national identification. These results highlight the importance of inferred motivations underlying cultural adoption in social judgments about immigrants. Implications for mandatory integration programs are discussed.
Au-delà des problématiques liées à l'accueil des demandeurs d'asile, l'intégration de ces populat... more Au-delà des problématiques liées à l'accueil des demandeurs d'asile, l'intégration de ces populations apparait comme le prochain défi posé aux sociétés européennes. Or, aucune recherche empirique ne s'est penchée sur les perspectives d'intégration envisagées par ces demandeurs d'asile. Au regard de ce manque et de l'urgence sociale, nous avons mené une enquête par questionnaire entre octobre et décembre 2015 auprès de 103 demandeurs d'asile syriens et irakiens afin de mettre en évidence leurs préférences acculturatives ainsi que les facteurs influençant ces attitudes. Suivant les cadres théoriques de Berry (1980) et de Bourhis, Moïse, Perreault et Senécal (1997), nous nous sommes intéressés à leurs attitudes concernant le maintien de leur culture d'origine, la participation à la société d'accueil et l'adoption de la culture d'accueil. Dans l'analyse des facteurs pouvant influencer ces préférences, nous nous attendions à ce que leur perception des attentes du pays d'accueil influence leur choix acculturatif dans la mesure où le futur de ces demandeurs d'asile est suspendu à l'obtention du statut de réfugié délivré par la société d'accueil. De plus, étant donné la nature forcée de leur migration, nous nous sommes intéressés à l'influence de leur volonté de s'implanter durablement au sein du pays d'accueil comme prédicteur des préférences acculturatives. Les résultats ont tout d'abord montré une intention de maintenir leur culture d'origine, d'adopter la culture et de participer à la société d'accueil. Ensuite, à travers des analyses de régressions multiples, nous avons pu corroborer nos hypothèses suggérant un rôle singulier des intentions migratoires et des perceptions des attentes du pays d'accueil. Plus ceux-ci percevaient des attentes de maintien ou d'adoption culturelle, plus ils étaient enclins à vouloir respectivement maintenir ou adopter. Les résultats soulignent également une relation positive entre le désir de s'installer durablement et la volonté tant de participer à la société que d'adopter la culture d'accueil. Du point de vue méthodologique, cette étude a fait l'objet de nombreuses précautions afin de minimiser l'effet de la désirabilité sociale (p. ex. les questionnaires ont été distribués par des personnes d'origine syrienne ou irakienne). Finalement, les implications de l'étude sur les politiques d'intégration et notamment sur l'implantation de parcours d'intégration contraignant l'acculturation des demandeurs d'asile sont discutées. Pour voir les slides de la présentation :
Books by Antoine Roblain
Évaluation psychologique dans un contexte multilingue et multiculturel, 2021
Le présent chapitre apporte un éclairage psychosocial sur la problématique de l’acculturation des... more Le présent chapitre apporte un éclairage psychosocial sur la problématique de l’acculturation des personnes issues de l’immigration et montre notamment les implications psychologiques de ce processus et les facteurs prédisant la manière dont ces individus vont vivre la rencontre entre des appartenances socioculturelles différentes. En se basant entre autres sur les travaux de Berry (1997), ce chapitre soutiendra que le positionnement acculturatif des personnes issues de l’immigration est multidimensionnel, évolutif, mais également profondément influencé par les contextes sociaux et politiques dans lesquels ces individus s’inscrivent. De plus, ce chapitre souligne que les processus d’acculturation constituent bien plus que des orientations, contraintes ou choisies, concernant certaines formes d’identités ou de pratiques, mais jouent également un rôle déterminant dans le bien-être et la santé mentale de ces populations.
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Souvent négligées au sein de la littérature, les dynamiques de formalisa-tion et d'informalisatio... more Souvent négligées au sein de la littérature, les dynamiques de formalisa-tion et d'informalisation dans le contexte des migrations contemporaines occupent pourtant une place prépondérante au sein de nombreuses pro-blématiques. À cet égard, le présent numéro de la collection Sociograph prend la forme d'une invitation à questionner la manière dont les cadres politiques, les interactions entre individus ainsi que leurs pratiques font face, s'accommodent, contestent ou jouent avec la légalité et, plus large-ment, les frontières de la régularité. Il souligne notamment les différents enjeux soulevés par les cadres légaux et les politiques publiques engen-drant des systèmes de sélection ou d'exclusion et amenant à décrire ces personnes en mouvement comme régulières ou irrégulières ou à les ca-tégoriser comme immigrées, clandestines, réfugiées ou rapatriées. For-melles ou informelles, ces catégories offrent un cadre de lecture sur cer-taines situations sociales, sur des relations passées, présentes ou futures marquées par des formes de domination, voire de servitude. Fruit du projet G3 « Gérer les migrations face aux défis identitaires et sécuritaires » regroupant des chercheuses et chercheurs venant de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), de l’Université de Ge- nève (Unige) et de l’Université de Montréal (UMontreal), le présent numéro du Sociograph reprend une partie des présentations réalisées lors d’une rencontre des trois partenaires à Genève en avril 2017. Juristes, anthropologues, sociologues, psycho- logues sociaux, politologues, historiennes et historiens ont exposé des problématiques de recherche en mettant en évidence les dyna- miques de formalisation et d’informalisation animant leurs travaux scientifiques.
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Papers by Antoine Roblain
are hesitant to let go of, thus contributing to the perpetuation of intergroup conflict. Across a wide variety of contexts, we found that making intergroup conflict salient increased the meaning people found in conflict and, in turn, increased support for conflict-perpetuating beliefs, ideologies, policies, and behaviors. These effects were detected among participants exposed to reminders of intergroup conflict (the American Revolutionary War and the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS; Studies 1A and 1B), participants living through actual intergroup conflict (the 2014 Israel-Gaza war; Study 2), and participants who perceived actual intergroup conflicts to be larger versus smaller in scope (the November 2015 Paris attacks; Studies 3 and 4). We also found that directly manipulating the perceived meaning in conflict (in the context of the 2014 NYC “hatchet attack”; Study 5) led to greater perceived meaning in life in general and thereby greater support for conflict escalation. Together, these findings suggest that intergroup conflict can serve as a source of meaning that people are motivated to hold on to. We discuss our findings in the context of the meaning making and threat compensation literatures, and consider their implications for perspectives on conflict escalation and resolution.
Conference Presentations by Antoine Roblain
Books by Antoine Roblain
are hesitant to let go of, thus contributing to the perpetuation of intergroup conflict. Across a wide variety of contexts, we found that making intergroup conflict salient increased the meaning people found in conflict and, in turn, increased support for conflict-perpetuating beliefs, ideologies, policies, and behaviors. These effects were detected among participants exposed to reminders of intergroup conflict (the American Revolutionary War and the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS; Studies 1A and 1B), participants living through actual intergroup conflict (the 2014 Israel-Gaza war; Study 2), and participants who perceived actual intergroup conflicts to be larger versus smaller in scope (the November 2015 Paris attacks; Studies 3 and 4). We also found that directly manipulating the perceived meaning in conflict (in the context of the 2014 NYC “hatchet attack”; Study 5) led to greater perceived meaning in life in general and thereby greater support for conflict escalation. Together, these findings suggest that intergroup conflict can serve as a source of meaning that people are motivated to hold on to. We discuss our findings in the context of the meaning making and threat compensation literatures, and consider their implications for perspectives on conflict escalation and resolution.