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Developing critical awareness: the consequences of action and reflection for perceptions of group injustices
Author(s) -
TurnerZwinkels Felicity M.,
Postmes Tom,
van Zomeren Martijn
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12351
Subject(s) - psychology , injustice , expectancy theory , social psychology , action (physics) , critical reflection , perception , just world hypothesis , critical thinking , pedagogy , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
Individuals often cannot address (objective) group injustices until they develop a (subjective) critical awareness of them. In three studies, we tested two potential psychological pathways toward critical awareness: Reflection (deductive, knowledge driven) and action (inductive, action driven) mindsets. Across studies, participants were exposed to an objectively unjust event, enacted by the experimenter. Based on a pilot study ( N = 31) and first experiment ( N = 28), we developed the hypothesis that action (vs. reflection) mindsets increase group entitativity (due to their reliance on expectancy effects), but not necessarily (subjective) critical awareness of (objective) group injustice. Study 2 ( N = 121) confirmed this hypothesis. We discuss the difficulties of developing (subjective) critical awareness of (objective) group injustices.