Browsing by Author "Coksan, Sami"

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Do Positive and Negative Intergroup Contact Create Shifts in Ingroup and Outgroup Attitudes Over Time: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study Testing Alternative Mediation Models
(Wiley, 2024) Bagci, Sabahat Cigdem; Coksan, Sami; Turnuklu, Abbas; Tercan, Mustafa
The current study investigated how contact experiences may be associated with attitudes towards the ingroup and the outgroup using a three-wave longitudinal study. We assessed Turkish native children's contact with Syrian refugees (N = 487, Mage = 10.60, SDage = 0.90) and explored relationships between initial contact and later ingroup and outgroup attitudes testing alternative mediation models. We also examined whether negative contact with outgroup members may directly or indirectly predict more positive ingroup attitudes. Findings demonstrated that positive contact was associated with both reduced ingroup positivity and increased outgroup positivity over time. However, unlike the traditionally suggested mediational pathway in contact-deprovincialization literature, initial positive contact (T1) was associated with less positive ingroup attitudes (T3) through more positive outgroup attitudes at T2. There was no evidence for the role of negative intergroup contact on ingroup or outgroup attitudes. Findings are discussed within the broader scope of contact theory and the recently growing deprovincialization literature. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.
The Effects of Intergroup Helping on Supporting Social Policies Among Non-Weird Advantaged Group Members: An Experimental Study of Turks' Responses Towards Kurds in Türkiye
(Springer, 2025) Coksan, Sami; Cakmak, Hakan
Addressing persistent inequalities between advantaged and disadvantaged groups often requires public support for social policies aimed at reducing intergroup disparities. Previous research suggests that interventions emphasizing intergroup helping or similarity-focused contact can increase advantaged group members' willingness to support social policies benefiting disadvantaged groups. However, the applicability of these interventions outside Western contexts remains underexplored. This study investigated whether exposure to video-based interventions promoting intergroup helping or similarity-focused contact increased policy support among advantaged Turks (N = 259) towards disadvantaged Kurds during the COVID-19 pandemic in T & uuml;rkiye. Participants, recruited via convenience sampling through social media, were randomly assigned to intergroup-helping, similarity-focused contact, or a neutral control condition. Policy support was measured using scales assessing support for high- and low-cost social policies. ANCOVA analyses indicated that, compared to the control condition, both intergroup helping and similarity-focused interventions significantly increased support for high-cost social policies, while no differences were found for low-cost policies. Within the Turkish context, this finding implies that, despite prevalent ethnic tensions and structural inequalities, interventions emphasizing intergroup helping or similarity-focused contact can equally and effectively foster a common ingroup identity among advantaged group members, enhancing their willingness to endorse costly policies benefiting disadvantaged groups. Nevertheless, results should be interpreted considering potential sampling biases due to the recruitment method. Future research should replicate these findings with more representative samples and explore boundary conditions in different cultural settings.
Egalitarian Norms Can Deflate Identity-Bias Link in Real-Life Groups
(Public Library of Science, 2025) Coksan, Sami; Saglamoz, Ahmed Faruk
Social identity theory posits that group membership influences individual behavior by fostering a sense of belonging and promoting normative conformity within groups. While much research has shown a link between ingroup identification and ingroup bias, the role of ingroup norms in moderating this association remains less explored. Specifically, how varying norms (egalitarianism vs. favoritism) affect bias in individuals with high ingroup identification requires further investigation. To address this gap, we examined whether ingroup norms alter the strength of the identification-bias relationship in two studies (N = 322). We investigated how non-WEIRD real-life group members' ingroup bias was driven by their identification levels and perceived ingroup norm in Study 1 with a correlational design, and we experimentally manipulated ingroup norms in a simulated group discussion in Study 2. Both studies demonstrated that under a favoritism norm, participants with high ingroup identification showed greater ingroup bias, whereas this bias was deflated under an egalitarianism norm. However, contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find evidence that participants with high ingroup identification showed lower ingroup bias under the egalitarianism norm. We discuss these findings and suggest that fostering egalitarian norms within groups may reduce ingroup bias and discrimination, offering insight for interventions aimed at promoting intergroup harmony.
Focusing on Fake News' Contents: The Association Between Ingroup Identification, Perceived Outgroup Threat, Analytical-Intuitive Thinking and Detecting Fake News
(Wiley, 2024) Coksan, Sami; Yilmaz, Aysenur Didem
This study aims to reveal the fake news content in the context of the social identity approach and to examine the mediating role of perceived outgroup on the association between ingroup identification and detecting fake news blaming ingroup, outgroup, or fictional groups. Study 1 found that fake news could be gathered under six themes: contacted-outgroup blaming, represented-outgroup blaming, outgroup derogation, outgroup appreciation, ingroup glorification, and phantom-mastermind blaming. In preregistered Study 2 with representative non-weird participants (N = 216), we examined the mediating role of perceived outgroup threat on the association between ingroup identification and detecting fake news revealed in Study 1. Perceived outgroup threat was only mediating for detecting outgroup-blaming fake news when intuitive and analytical thinking styles were controlled. Detecting ingroup-blaming fake news was associated with ingroup identification. Analytical thinking predicted only detecting phantom-mastermind-blaming fake news. Findings demonstrated that the contents of fake news play a vital role in detecting them, and variables pointing to content (i.e., ingroup identification for ingroup-blaming fake news, and perceived outgroup threat for outgroup-blaming fake news) are predictive for detecting fake news.
How Collective Punishment Harm Intergroup Relations Through Ingroup Homogeneity, Perceived Fairness, and Counter-Collective Action: A Registered Report
(Wiley, 2024) Uysal, Mete Sefa; Coksan, Sami; Kessler, Thomas
In collective punishment, a group as a whole receives negative consequences because of the actions of a few. We argue that collective punishments lead to ingroup cohesiveness and adverse intergroup relations by instigating a punishment-revenge cycle. In four experimental studies conducted in Turkey and Germany (N = 2059), we demonstrated that collective punishment increased ingroup homogeneity, negative outgroup attitudes, and counter-collective action intention, while it decreased perceived outgroup fairness. However, the impact on perceived fairness and negative outgroup attitudes was consistent regardless of whether all group members or only perpetrators were punished. This reveals that punishment itself influences the perception towards the punishing outgroup, regardless of the legitimacy and the target of punishment. Overall, willingness for retaliation was boosted by collective punishment; therefore, collective punishment not only fails to silence conflicts but, on the contrary, exacerbates them by fueling the urge for revenge.
Multiculturalism, Social Distance, and Xenophobia Among Non-Weird Individuals Toward Syrian Refugees: Positive and Negative Emotions as Moderators
(Springer, 2024) Uygur, Mehmet Recai; Eser, Hamza Bahadir; Coksan, Sami; Saridag, Sumeyra
T & uuml;rkiye, the country hosting the most refugees in the world, hosted millions of refugees due to the Syrian civil war, the Taliban coup, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Among these communities, Syrian refugees are the majority in number and have been mainly influencing T & uuml;rkiye's agenda for the last decade. This unexpected and sudden contact elevated intergroup tension and conflict between host and Syrian refugee communities. We aimed to examine the association between multiculturalism, positive and negative emotions, perceived outgroup threat, social distance, and xenophobia toward refugees among non-WEIRD participants in the prejudice-intense intergroup context through two correlational studies (Ntotal = 898) to shed light on possible remedies for these conflicts. Study 1 revealed that multiculturalism negatively predicted social distance toward Syrian refugees. This association was mediated by positive and negative emotions. Study 2, which focused on xenophobia as an outcome, found that multiculturalism negatively predicted xenophobia, and positive and negative emotions had a mediator role on the association between these variables. We also found that participants with higher social distancing towards Syrian refugees had lower and poorer intergroup contact quality and perceived more outgroup threat than those with lower social distancing. The findings indicated that greater multiculturalism and positive emotions were associated with low social distance and xenophobia in the prejudice-intense context. We discussed the findings in terms of the potential benefits of multiculturalism and the positive emotions for attitudes towards refugees in prejudice-intense relationships between hosts and refugees.
Personality Traits and Common Ingroup Identity: Support for Refugee Policies Among Host Members
(Ural Federal Univ Publishing Center, 2024) Coksan, Sami; Kekeli, Burak; Turgut, Buse; Sagdis, Elif
T & uuml;rkiye, which has hosted the largest number of refugees in recent years, requires remedial intervention programs to facilitate adaptation and coexistence. The irony of harmony studies that guide these interventions seem incomplete due to limited sample characteristics and a lack of attention to personality traits. Hence, we aimed to explore relationships between personality traits, identification with common ingroup identity, and support for social policies toward refugees by sampling the advantaged majority and the disadvantaged largest minority in T & uuml;rkiye across two correlational studies ( N total = 772). In Study 1, agreeableness, extraversion, openness, narcissism, and psychopathy were associated with support for positive social policies. On the other hand, neuroticism was linked with support for negative social policies. However, when identification with common ingroup identity was included in the model, the significance of personality traits in almost all models disappeared, indicating that only the prediction of identification with common ingroup identity remained. The findings of Study 2 replicated and extended the previous result by sampling disadvantaged group members. We suggest that it may be more effective to focus on intergroup variables rather than personality traits to strengthen support for refugee policies, as the overall findings pointed out.
Social Contact, Academic Satisfaction, Covid-19 Knowledge, and Subjective Well-Being Among Students at Turkish Universities: A Nine-University Sample
(Springer, 2022) Erden, Gulsen; Ozdogru, Asil Ali; Coksan, Sami; Ogel-Balaban, Hale; Azak, Yakup; Altinoglu-Dikmeer, Ilkiz; Baytemir, Gulsen
Adverse effects of COVID-19 are seen not only on the physical health of infected individuals but also on their subjective well-being. Sudden changes in social lives, lockdowns, and shifts towards online education have had a negative impact on many people, especially university students. As part of an international study, the current study focused on the well-being of students at Turkish universities in relation to social contact, academic satisfaction, and COVID-19 knowledge. A total of 7363 students from nine universities (86.6% from state universities, 71.04% female, and 73.52% at bachelor's level) participated in an online survey. Results revealed that females had lower levels of subjective well-being and academic satisfaction. According to a mediation model in the study, the relationship between social contact and well-being was mediated by academic satisfaction and COVID-19 knowledge. Our findings can guide future researchers, mental health professionals, universities, and policymakers to understand and improve subjective well-being of university students.
When Those Fleeing the War Are Blue-Eyed and Blond: The Effects of Message Content and Social Identity on Blatant Dehumanization in Four Nations
(Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, 2025) Coksan, Sami; Yasin-Tekizoglu, Fatma; Uysal, Mete Sefa; Hartwich, Lea; Alcaniz-Colomer, Joaquin; Loughnan, Steve
Varying behaviours and attitudes towards those who experience the same devastating event are increasingly becoming the focus of criticism. Open expressions of these distinctions based on group membership, such as Kelly Cobiella's statement on NBC about refugees who fled Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "These are not refugees from Syria; these are refugees from neighbouring Ukraine", have raised the question of the social psychological antecedents of these varying attitudes. This research examines how refugees' social identity (ingroup vs. outgroup) and the given reason for their fleeing from a regional war (fear vs. human rights violations) affect the blatant dehumanization of refugees by receiving country communities in four different countries (Ntotal = 1274). In Study 1, we found that Turks in T & uuml;rkiye showed higher dehumanization toward Syrian refugees (outgroup members compared to Turkmen refugees) and toward those portrayed as fleeing the war due to fear (vs. human rights violations). Study 2, which focused on Germans' attitudes toward Ukrainian and Afghan refugees, showed that dehumanization was negatively associated with the perception of ingroup similarity. In Study 3, with a Spanish sample, we found that ethnic outgroup refugees (Syrians) were more dehumanized than ethnic ingroup refugees (Ukrainians). Similarly, Study 4, which sampled British participants and focused on the same ingroup and outgroup, found that ethnic outgroup refugees were more dehumanized than ethnic ingroup