IMMIGRATION

From 2009 until 2013, Prof. Vaes coordinated a research project that tested the role of the media in molding our perceptions towards immigrants in Italy. This research project both studied the way immigrants are portrayed in the Italian media and how such portrayals increase prejudice towards immigrants. Specifically, we conducted a detailed analysis of the linguistic biases that can be observed in crime news when describing similar crimes that were committed by immigrant or Italian aggressors; we studied whether it is the group membership of the aggressor or the use of linguistic biases that underlies people’s increase in prejudice towards immigrants; and the role of the political affiliation of various media outlets in this process.

Since 2017, we are part of the International Migration Laboratory (IML) that coordinates the research activities on the subject of international migration across the various departments of the University of Trento.

To know more about this line of research, contact jeroen.vaes@unitn.it or mariapaola.paladino@unitn.it

Some relevant publications:

Cortese, F., Cvajner, M., Paladino, M. P., Sciortino, G., & Vaes, J. (2019). «Crisi» migratorie e mobilità umana: una prospettiva multi-disciplinare. Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 46(3), 409-432.

Vaes, J., Latrofa, M., Suitner, c., & Arcuri, L. (2019). They are All Armed and Dangerous! Biased Language Use in Crime News with Ingroup and Outgroup Perpetrators. Journal of Media Psychology, 31, 12–23.

Vaes, J., Latrofa, M., Vieno, A., & Pastore, M. (2015). Exposure to politicized media and prejudice against immigrants in Italy: Identifying its impact and psychological mediators. Psicologia Sociale, 2, 141-160.

LINGUISTIC IDENTITY AND DISCRIMINATION

The way one speaks conveys a considerable amount of social information. This is the case for non-native accents that might, for instance, signal the foreign status of a person, but also for more ambiguous cues like “sounding” gay.

The way one speaks might also constitute an important part of one’s social identity. In this line of research, (1) I investigated how the “way of speaking” might influence social categorization, lead to stereotyping and, ultimately, be a source of social discrimination; and (2) inspired by the intergroup relations in South-Tyrol, I examined the interplay between linguistic identity and intergroup contact and second language mastery and acquisition.

To know more about this line of research, contact mariapaola.paladino@unitn.it

Selected relevant publications:

Paladino, M. P., & Mazzurega, M. (2019). One of Us: On the Role of Accent and Race in Real-Time In-Group Categorization. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 39,22-39.

Sulpizio, S., Fasoli, F., Antonio, R., Eyssel, F., Paladino, M. P., & Diehl, C. (2019). Auditory Gaydar: Perception of Sexual Orientation Based on Female Voice. Language and Speech, 1- 23.

Sulpizio, S., Fasoli, F., Maass, A., Paladino, M. P., Vespignani, F., Eyssel, F., & Bentler, D. (2015). The Sound of Voice: Voice-Based Categorization of Speakers’ Sexual Orientation within and across Languages. PloS one, 10(7), e0128882.

Paladino M.P., Poddesu L., Rauzi M., Vaes J., Cadinu M., Forer D. (2009). Second language competence in the Italian-speaking population of Alto Adige/Südtirol: evidence for a linguistic stereotype threat. Journal of Language and Social Psychology,28,3, 222-243.