“To serve and protect” when expecting to be seen negatively: The relation between police officers' contact with citizens, meta-stereotyping, and work-related well-being

Policing in a Pandemic: a Commentary on Officer Well-being During COVID-19

The role of police officers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is challenging, faced with the difficult task of keeping communities safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19 while putting their physical and mental health at risk. Emerging evidence points to the stress experiences of officers during the COVID-19 pandemic. With cases now surpassing 174 million and close to four million deaths worldwide, as well as stringent lockdown measures, police officers are faced with unprecedented challenges resulting from the pandemic. This commentary suggests police departments strengthen resources by putting in place appropriate emergency planning for future public health incidents, in addition to preparing for temporary or permanent loss of human resources. It is important to implement robust training plans post-pandemic to allow officers to offer better care for communities when faced with future public health emergencies. Finally, police officers should be provided with the resources and support to cope with the stresses associated with COVID-19.

The role of optimal conditions and intergroup contact in promoting positive intergroup relations in and out of the workplace: A study with ethnic majority and minority workers

A field study was conducted with majority and minority group members to test whether the effects of optimal contact conditions and of intergroup contact generalize across situations, and extend to the support of intergroup equality in terms of agreement with social policies benefitting the minority group. Participants were 163 Italian and 129 immigrant workers in three corporate organizations. Results from structural equation modelling analyses revealed that, for the majority group, positive contact stemming from optimal contact conditions was indirectly associated, via reduction in negative stereotypes, with more positive behavior that generalized across situations. For both majority and minority groups, positive contact stemming from optimal contact conditions was associated with less negative stereotypes, and in turn with greater support for social policies favoring the minority. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, also in relation to the significance of the present results for research investigating the relation between intergroup contact and social change.

Metastereotypes, perceived mattering, and well-being among minority groups

Perception of mattering may be especially important for those who are more likely to be the object of negative stereotypes, such as members of minority groups. The present study aimed to analyse the relationship between perceived mattering to family and friends, metastereotypes, and well-being among two minority groups: people living with HIV (PLWHA) and people with disabilities (PWDs). Of 100 participants, 39 were living with HIV and 61 were individuals with disabilities. Multiple regression analyses showed that positive (more than negative) metastereotypes could significantly predict perceived mattering and well-being among both groups. Mattering to both family and friends significantly predicted many dimensions of well-being among both PLWHA and PWDs. These findings show that perception of mattering is related to the well-being of minority group members. Interventions aimed at improving the well-being of individuals who belong to minority groups should focus on positive metastereotypes and the perception of being important to significant others, considering both friends and family members.

The relative importance of personal beliefs, meta-stereotypes and societal stereotypes of age for the wellbeing of older people

Negative images of old age can harm older individuals’ cognitive and physical functioning and health. Yet, older people may be confronted with age stereotypes that are inconsistent with their own personal beliefs. We examine the implications for older people's wellbeing of three distinct elements of age stereotypes: their personal beliefs about their age group, their perception about how others generally perceive older people (i.e. their meta-stereotypes) and the societal age stereotypes that are empirically widely shared in society. Using measures from the Stereotype Content Model and survey data of older people from the United Kingdom (UK) (Study 1, N = 171), we found only partial overlap between older people's personal beliefs and their meta-stereotypes. Personal beliefs were unrelated to wellbeing, but positive meta-stereotypes of older people's competence were linked to higher wellbeing. These findings were largely replicated with a sample of baby-boomers from Switzerland (Study 2, N = 400) controlling for socio-demographics. Study 3 used representative survey data (N = 10,803) across 29 European countries, to test and confirm that the link between positive competence meta-stereotypes and wellbeing can be generalised to different cultures, and that positive warmth meta-stereotypes were an additional predictor. At the country level, societal age stereotypes about competence were positively related to the wellbeing of older people, but only in countries that provide greater opportunities for competence attainment.

Implications of metastereotypes for attitudes toward intergenerational contact

Metastereotypes, the stereotypes a person believes that those outside of their group hold of a social group to which (s)he belongs, have been implicated in problematic intergroup relationships and communication. Using an online survey administered to participants (aged 18–30, or 65 and older) recruited via Amazon’s MTurk (final N = 311), we tested the degree to which eliciting positive versus negative age-based metastereotypes affected perceptions of interage distance and the desire to avoid interage contact. The results of conditional process model analyses suggest that metastereotype valence has an indirect effect on these outcomes via intergroup anxiety, but that this is only the case when individuals believe that age-related stereotypes are applied to them personally by members of an age-based outgroup. These findings suggest that thinking of positive metastereotypes rather than negative ones could be a route to facilitating or improving interage contact, and that personalization could amplify these potential benefits.