28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

discrimination, C. Stangor, University of Maryland, MD, USA
Although traditional social-psychological approaches have usually assumed that stereotypes,
prejudice and discrimination are learned and changed through direct contact with members of the
outgroup, these beliefs and behaviors are also at least in part the result of the sharing of social
reality. People are prejudiced because they think other members of their reference groups are too,
and they discriminate when such behaviors are seen as normatively appropriate. Our research has
investigated the extent to which stereotypes are developed, maintained, and changed through
perception of social consensus. Experiments are presented that demonstrate the remarkable ability
of social perceptions to influence our intergroup attitudes and behaviors.
2051.4 A pragmatic approach to collectively shared cognition, M. Karasawa, Kobe University,
Hyogo, Japan
Communicators normally take the viewpoint of their communication partners into consideration.
Such role-taking tendency in turn influences the contents of the communication in a reflexive
manner. Based on this pragmatic perspective, I will report findings from our own studies
concerning how stereotypic information and causal reasoning are communicated as collectively
shared information processing. Evidence regarding the relationship between the individual and
collective levels of processing will also be provided. I will furthermore address an attempt to
construct a conceptual framework for the study of shared cognition.
2052 INVITED SYMPOSIUM
Applications of psychology to public policy: Part II
Convener and Chair: J. Berry, Canada
2052.1 Disperal of immigrants and their implications for policy formation, David Lackland
Sam, University of Bergen, Norway
Assimilation policy enshrined in dispersal of immigrants tends to be the settlement policy of
choice when countries and societies that for years have been culturally homogenous are
confronted with immigration and cultural diversity. The underlying motive for this is the desire to
avoid the creation of ghettoes and large ethnic communities that may be out of touch -- culturally,
socially and politically -- with the larger society of settlement. In this paper we review studies
dealing this policy, and contrast it with other settlement policies and their implications for
migrants' long-term. Central to the presentation is the size of the ethnic community and adaptation
outcome.
2052.2 Indigenous psychologists and public policy – making it to the table, L.W. Nikora, M.
Levy, B. Masters, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
The number of indigenous psychologists engaged in the task of researching, documenting and
producing indigenous psychological knowledge in Aotearoa/New Zealand is still limited to a
handful of people, most of whom are recent graduates of psychology. Even so, some critical
indigenous psychological concepts have, over the last 2-3 decades, become integral to public
policy in New Zealand. One such concept is that of whanau and whanaungatanga. In this paper,
we track the journey taken by this concept into the arena of public policy and make critical
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