This study examined the efficacy of an intervention that combines an imagined contact task with positive information about hypothetical peers with vulnerabilities. The goal was to promote children's attitudes, stereotypes, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward target outgroups. These outgroups included a peer with visual disability, a peer with Autism Spectrum Disorder, a Moroccan peer, and a Roma peer. Moreover, it verified the efficacy of the intervention in promoting social interactions between students without and with vulnerabilities who were at high risk of social exclusion in their school contexts. A total of 184 Italian children were involved, 100 of whom were assigned to the experimental group and 84 to the control group. The analyses found that the intervention improved the experimental group's attitudes, stereotypes, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward hypothetical peers with vulnerabilities. Moreover, children with vulnerabilities at risk of social exclusion in the experimental group received more positive peer sociometric nominations and social behaviors from their classmates in the post-test. The study highlighted the intervention's potential to promote positive attitudes, stereotypes, feelings, and behavioral intentions among students towards classmates with vulnerabilities, and to enhance social interactions between students with and without vulnerabilities.

The secondary transfer effect (STE) is based on the idea that contact with a primary outgroup may shape attitudes towards secondary outgroups uninvolved in the contact setting. Most research has investigated attitudes towards the primary outgroup as a mediator of the STE. We conducted one correlational and one three-wave longitudinal study with Italian participants (Total N = 912), to test whether the secondary transfer effect can be explained at least partly by personality change. Specifically, we tested agreeableness and openness to experience as two facets of the five-factor model of personality as possible mediators of the STE. Main findings across the two studies are that the quality of contact with immigrants (primary outgroup) is indirectly associated with attitudes towards dissimilar secondary outgroups (gay people, individuals with disabilities) via greater agreeableness and greater openness to experience (in Study 2, STE effects emerged at the within-person level for openness only); effects for quantity of contact were inconsistent across studies. In general, the present findings show that (changes in) personality can underlie the STE. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the STE are discussed.

Introduction The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the workplace ostracism scale (WOS), developed by Ferris and colleagues. Workplace ostracism (WO)-the perception of being ignored or excluded by colleagues or supervisors-is a painful experience that negatively impacts employees and the whole organization. We tested the unidimensional structure of the Italian WOS, its independence of social desirability issues, and invariance across genders and ages. We also tested the nomological validity of the WOS by considering ostracism as a job demand and including it in the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory.Method A sample of Italian employees (N = 653), working for different organizations in several Italian regions, completed an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Network analysis was applied to test the nomological validity of the scale.Results Findings confirmed the unifactor structure of the Italian WOS and its invariance. Social desirability only absorbed a limited portion of variance of ostracism items. Data also supported the nomological validity of the WOS, that is, the expected association of ostracism with basic need frustration, lower work engagement, altruism, and performance.Discussion In the discussion, we clarified the advantages of conceiving ostracism as a job demand and using network analysis to verify the JD-R theory. Practical implications of findings in order to contain workplace ostracism were commented.

Prejudicial access to leadership positions for members of groups that are perceived as counterstereotypical or unfit (i.e., women, Black people, homosexuals) for leadership positions in organisations is still a matter of concern. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Italy (a context wherein these three groups are underrepresented in leadership roles) on a sample of workers and addressed whether the outcomes of positive contact with women as managers could be extended towards secondary outgroups of Black/homosexual managers. Evidence supported the expectation that the positive target-focused outcomes of contact with women managers in participants characterised by high need for cognitive closure (NCC) would be translated into more favourable attitudes towards Black and homosexual managers not involved in the contact experience. Implications of results concerning the reduction of inequalities in the workplace and changes in individuals' mindsets were discussed. Specifically, the eventual tertiary effects of positive contact with counterstereotypical women in managerial positions in challenging high NCC individuals' mindsets, thus smoothening their tendency to be prejudice-prone, were discussed.

Theories of organizational commitment (OC) and related measures are the background of this work. A valid measure of OC, useful for its brevity and adaptability to different targets, was proposed by Klein and colleagues (the KUT; "Klein n et al., Unidimensional, Target- free" scale). The goal of the present study was to test its validity in the Italian context. A sample of employees (N = 906), belonging to different organizations, was interviewed using an online questionnaire. Findings supported the unidimensional structure of the scale and its reliability. Furthermore, the KUT was invariant across occupational levels, genders, job seniority, and educational levels. Findings also showed its nomological validity: the KUT was associated, in the expected direction, with the constructs included in Meyer and Maltin's model of well-being. The incremental validity was demonstrated as well. Thus, findings proved the validity of the KUT's Italian version and provided support to Meyer and Maltin's model.

Building on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, in this study we investigated the association between technology-related risk factors - referred to in the literature as technostress creators (TCs) -, job autonomy (JA), and the ratio of cortisol to dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA(S)) in hair as possible biomarker of work-related stress. A total of 85 remote workers (i.e., smart workers) in a private metalworking company completed a self-report questionnaire (i.e., psychological data) and contextually provided a strand of hair (i.e., biological data). Results from moderated multiple regression analysis showed that techno-insecurity was positively associated with log cortisol/DHEA(S) ratio at average levels of job autonomy. Additionally, JA exacerbated - rather than buffered - the association between technooverload/-invasion/-insecurity and log cortisol/DHEA(S) ratio. Our results suggest that hair cortisol/DHEA(S) ratio is a promising biomarker of technostress, and that remote workers may not necessarily benefit from traditional job resources such as JA. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Healthcare professionals tend to assign a lower human status to patients. We hypothesized that two mindsets are responsible for this attribution: burnout (emotional exhaustion) and work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption in one's work). We predicted that exhaustion is negatively related to patient humanizing perceptions (Hypothesis 1), whereas engagement is positively related to them (Hypothesis 2). In addition, we formulated hypotheses on the relationship between job characteristics and humanity perceptions. Based on the Job Demands-Resources theory, we predicted that resources (e.g., performance feedback) are positively related to humanizing perceptions being positively linked to work engagement (Hypothesis 3a) and negatively linked to exhaustion (Hypothesis 3b). For demands (e.g., work overload), in contrast, they should be negatively related to humanizing perceptions, being positively linked to exhaustion (Hypothesis 4a) and negatively linked to work engagement (Hypothesis 4b). To test the hypotheses, we conducted an online survey. Participants were physicians and nurses (N = 302); a questionnaire was used. The mediation model was estimated by applying path analysis with observed variables. Findings supported the prediction that reduced humanizing perceptions are associated with care providers' exhaustion (Hypothesis 1). No association was found between humanity perceptions and work engagement. For job aspects, resources were linked to higher humanizing perceptions through the mediation of lower exhaustion (Hypothesis 3b), whereas demands were linked to lower humanizing perceptions through the mediation of higher exhaustion (Hypothesis 4a). Findings suggest that appropriate manipulations of demands and resources may increase patient humanization and improve the therapeutic relationship.

In this work, we tested basic propositions of the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory. The vignette technique was applied. A 2 x 2 experimental design was used, defined by the following between-participants factors: resources (high vs. low) and demands (high vs. low). A specific scenario was devised for each cell of the experimental design. Participants were university students; the majority was enrolled in bachelor's or master's degrees in social or occupational psychology. A paper-and-pencil questionnaire was the study's tool. In analyzing data, ANOVA was applied, and mediation models were tested with path analysis. Validating basic propositions of the JD-R theory, findings showed that resources instigate a motivational process leading to work engagement and performance; they also reduce burnout (exhaustion). Demands, in contrast, lead to exhaustion and have a low (negative) impact on work engagement. Findings also showed the central role that basic need satisfaction (self-determination theory) plays in the association between job characteristics and work engagement and exhaustion.

Clinical Impact Statement The COVID-19 pandemic also presents high mental health challenges for medical staff. The present study highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed Italian medical staff and how dehumanization of patients and colleagues has been associated with distress, alienation, and moral injury. The results show that the processes involved in humanizing care in medicine strengthen the patient-centered relationship but may have been affected by the impact of the pandemic. It is necessary to generate more in-depth research on the relationship between dehumanization, humanization, and medical staff well-being. Regarding humanization of care in medicine, the results suggest that training needs to be both implemented to enable medical staff to learn how to properly manage relationships and communication with patients and colleagues and conducted by mental health professionals. Background: Italy was the first country outside Asia to deal with the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, and health care facilities and medical staff were not fully prepared. Research worldwide has documented the enormous effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care providers' mental health, including experiences of dehumanization, but less work has focused on factors which may influence the development of these outcomes in response to COVID-19-related stress. Objective: This study examined the association of dehumanization, self-efficacy, and alienation to burnout, depression, and PTSD among medical staff. Potential moderators included moral injury, professional role, COVID workload, and work in a critical care unit (CCU). Method: Participants were recruited through the Internet. The sample consisted of 270 medical staff members who completed a self-report survey online. Instruments included: Human Traits Attribution Scale for dehumanization; NYP-Queens Survey - Self-Efficacy Subscale for self-efficacy; Moral Injury Events Scale for moral injury; Alienation Scale for alienation; PTSD-8 for posttraumatic stress disorder; Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression; and a single item for burnout. The analytic plan included ANOVAs, zero-order correlations, logistic regression analyses, multiple linear regression models, and parallel mediation. Results: Results show that dehumanization was associated with higher levels of burnout, PTSD, and depressive symptoms and effects were consistent across professional role and work context. Dehumanization was significantly associated with PTSD symptoms only among those who had increased COVID-19-related caseloads. Moral injury was positively associated with dehumanization, displayed an independent association with all 3 mental health outcomes, over and above dehumanization, and tended to exacerbate the effects of dehumanization. The effect sizes across analyses were small to medium. Conclusion: This research confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic stressed Italian medical staff in a way not documented in the prepandemic literature. There is a need to support staff in their complex relationships and communication with patients.

Outgroup dehumanisation, the denial of full humanity to outgroups relative to ingroups, is pervasive in many contemporary societies. The aim of the present work is to review effective strategies aimed at fostering outgroup humanity attribution. After presenting the main models of humanity attribution, we differentiate two types of strategies. Outgroup-specific strategies are focused on a target outgroup, therefore their effectiveness is more dependent upon the specific intergroup relationship. These include intergroup contact, meta-humanisation, and social categorisation. Outgroup-independent strategies are not inherently linked to a target outgroup, implying that their effectiveness is less dependent on the specific intergroup dynamics under consideration. These involve human-animal similarity and secure relationship attachment. We provide evidence for the effectiveness of these strategies and their underlying processes, showcasing our research programme within the larger literature. In so doing, we take into account the distinction between blatant and subtle dehumanisation, and conclude with suggestions for future research.

This research investigated the relationship between individual preference for the need for cognitive closure (NCC) and attitudes towards women as managers and the moderating role of direct or imagined contact with women leaders. In two studies (total N = 369) collected in different countries and with different methods (Study 1: Italy, correlational; Study 2: U.S., experimental), it was found that the positive relationship between NCC and negative attitudes towards women as managers was moderated by the quality, but not the quantity of current or past direct contact experiences with women managers. In Study 1, employees with higher scores on NCC had more positive attitudes towards women managers when they had more positive work experience with women managers. In Study 2, those with higher NCC scores had less negative attitudes towards women as managers when they merely imagined (positive) contact with them (vs. a control group). These results advance the literature on the interaction between NCC and positive intergroup contact; theoretical and practical implications of NCC and positive intergroup contact are presented.

A longitudinal field study tested the long-term effects (three years) of intergroup contact on both explicit and implicit outgroup attitudes. Participants were majority (Italian) and minority (immigrant) high-school students, who were tested at four waves from the beginning of their first year in high-school to the end of the third school year. Results revealed, first, a longitudinal association of quantity (but not quality) of contact with lower intergroup anxiety and more positive explicit attitudes, as well as bidirectional effects over time between explicit attitudes and intergroup anxiety, on the one hand, and quantity and quality of contact, on the other. Second, reduced intergroup anxiety mediated the association between quantity of contact and improved explicit attitudes over time. Third, the product of quantity and quality of contact longitudinally predicted more positive implicit outgroup attitudes over school years. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of findings.

Individuals tend to dehumanize the outgroup. In this paper, we explore whether the activation of attachment security can attenuate dehumanization. Two studies were performed. In Study 1, attachment security was primed by showing pictures that depicted relationships with attachment figures; the outgroup was the homeless and humanization was measured considering the attribution of uniquely human and non-uniquely human emotions to this group. In Study 2, the sense of interpersonal security was activated by inviting participants to relive a recent interaction that left them with a feeling of safety and warmth. Outgroup members were the Roma, and humanization was measured considering the attribution of uniquely human and human nature traits to them. In Study 2, the mediation effect of intergroup emotions was investigated. In both studies, outgroup humanization effects were highlighted. In Study 2, these effects were mediated by increased empathy toward the outgroup. Interestingly, the positive impact of security activation was not moderated by chronic attachment orientations. Findings suggest strategies that can be used to improve intergroup relations in specific contexts and in society at large.

In this study, we explore whether different self-perceptions in terms of human traits are associated with attachment orientations (secure, anxious, and avoidant) and whether these perceptions explain the relationship between attachment orientations and prosocial behaviors. A sample of adult participants was investigated through an online questionnaire. To test the mediation model path analysis was applied. Findings show that secure attachment is related to the perception of being qualified by emotional responsiveness and relational skills (human nature traits). Anxious and avoidant attachment are, in contrast, related to self-denial of these traits. Attachment anxiety is also linked to the perception of not being defined by uniquely human characteristics like rationality and self-control. As predicted, humanity self-attributions mediated the relationship between dispositional attachment and prosocial or antisocial orientations. This mediation effect was observed when controlling for self-esteem. Limits and practical implications of findings are discussed.

The secondary transfer effect (STE) constitutes the generalization of the effects of intergroup contact from the outgroup one has contact with to uninvolved outgroups. In this article, we provide a review of the research on the STE. After presenting evidence on the robustness of the phenomenon, we discuss relevant mediating processes and outline a model that distinguishes them in three categories: mediators referring to the outgroup, mediators referring to the ingroup, and mediators referring to the self. We then present moderators of the STE, and recent evidence of the STE from indirect contact (extended, vicarious, and imagined contact) and from negative contact. By relying on our distinction in three sets of mediators, we suggest directions for future research, largely pointing to the importance of integrating the STE with research on generalized prejudice and of exploring contact as an agent of cognitive liberalization.

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between patient dehumanizing perceptions and nurses' well-being, by testing the hypothesis that this relationship may be moderated by secure attachment orientation. A cross-sectional study was conducted, surveying Italian nurses through a questionnaire. Humanity attributions to patients and nurses were assessed using uniquely human and non-uniquely human traits; well-being was assessed using job burnout and work engagement measures. Results showed patient infrahumanization effects, with nurses perceiving patients as less defined by uniquely human characteristics than nurses. A moderating effect of attachment security was found for work engagement, indicating that nurses defined by low security may be more inclined to resort to patient infrahumanization to improve well-being at work than their high-security colleagues. Practical implications of findings for the nursing profession and healthcare organizations are discussed.

This prepost test experimental study examined the effectiveness of an intervention providing information about peers with sensory disability, intellectual disability, and behavioral difficulties (cognitive intervention), an intervention using imagined contact with peers with these disabilities (behavioral intervention), and an intervention combining information with imagined contact, against a no-intervention control condition. One hundred and forty-two typically developing children were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 conditions. Measures of attitudes, stereotypes, and feelings toward and intentions to engage in contact with peers with sensory disability, intellectual disability, and behavioral difficulties were administered. Results revealed that the combined cognitive and behavioral intervention improved all outcome variables considered. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Recent research has shown the negative effect of meta-dehumanization: the perception that out-group members deny a fully human status to the in-group. So far, no strategies have been investigated that allow the improvement of humanity meta-attributions. In this work, we focused on the two mind perception dimensions: agency (e.g., the capacity of planning actions) and experience (e.g., the capacity of feeling emotions), and investigated whether direct and indirect intergroup friendships are associated with the expectation that the out-group will recognize our mental capacities. A survey was conducted considering the relationship between two regional groups in Italy (Northern and Southern Italians). Participants were Northern university students. A two-level mediation model was tested, in which the exogenous variables were cross-group friendship and extended contact, the first-level mediators were IOS (the inclusion of the out-group in the self mechanism), in-group and out-group norms, and the second-level mediators were anxiety, empathy, and trust toward the out-group. The dependent variables were the evaluations of agency and experience regarding one's group (Northerners) expected by Southerners. Models were estimated by path analysis with observed variables. To replicate prior findings, the attributions of agency and experience to the out-group (Southerners) were also assessed. Results showed that both direct and indirect friendships are related to more positive meta-attributions through the mediation of affective and cognitive factors. Findings have practical implications: contact may favor the expectation of being perceived both as moral agents and as moral patients, thus improving intergroup relations.