Vukašin Gligorić, PhD
@vukasin.bsky.social
340 followers 62 following 25 posts
Post-doc at NYU AD PhD at University of Amsterdam Political and social psychologist Decolonial psychology, stereotypes, ideology, inter- and intra- group relations; trust in scientists; systemic social psychology
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vukasin.bsky.social
🌍Do all nations believe they’re superior—or do some feel inferior?

Western social sciences claimed the first. But Fanon & Memmi argued colonization by the West left many in the Global South with colonial mentality—internalized oppression.

🧵Findings from our 45-country study:
vukasin.bsky.social
Good question! Yes, that's basically what the graph shows though we got calculations estimated from the mixed model!
vukasin.bsky.social
✨On a personal note, this has been the most ambitious and rewarding project I’ve ever led (started in 2022 on the shores of Egypt). Even better, I carried it out with some of my closest and beloved people, and many new colleagues who became friends. Special thanks to Prof. John Jost for co-leading!
vukasin.bsky.social
💡Takeaway: global structural inequalities can override the usual ingroup favoritism. Sometimes nations admire powerful outsiders more than their own.
Full paper here 👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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journals.sagepub.com
vukasin.bsky.social
🔎What did we find?

• Advantaged outgroups = seen as more competent, but less warm.
• Disadvantaged outgroups = less competent, no difference in warmth.
• In poorer & more exploited countries, outgroup favoritism on competence was strongest.
vukasin.bsky.social
📊Our team of 76 researchers studied 12,339 participants across 45 non-Western countries.
We asked how people stereotype:
• their own nation
• a relatively advantaged outgroup (Western Europeans)
• a relatively disadvantaged outgroup (Western Africans)
vukasin.bsky.social
🌍Do all nations believe they’re superior—or do some feel inferior?

Western social sciences claimed the first. But Fanon & Memmi argued colonization by the West left many in the Global South with colonial mentality—internalized oppression.

🧵Findings from our 45-country study:
vukasin.bsky.social
This also marks the last empirical chapter of my PhD with great supervisors Gerben Van Kleef & Bastiaan Rutjens! 🎓

For those unable to access the paper behind the paywall, I uploaded the free preprint version (link should be working soon):

🔗 osf.io/v6pbg_v1
vukasin.bsky.social
Speaking of systemic issues, with science cuts looming across the West (UK, US, NL), what can scientists do? Petitions/statements have their place, but can’t match the bargaining power of organized workers. Join a union, talk to colleagues, and organize to defend science 🚩
vukasin.bsky.social
More broadly, we argue that low trust in scientists goes beyond political ideology. Neoliberal policies (privatization, commercialization) have damaged science. Corporations with vested interests (e.g., tobacco, climate change) and the "publish or perish" mentality don't help.🏢
vukasin.bsky.social
Furthermore, we tested interventions to boost conservatives' trust in scientists (N = 7,800). Unfortunately, none worked. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of short, one-time interventions in increasing trust in science. 😕
vukasin.bsky.social
In our registered report (two years in the making ⏳), we find that liberals trust scientists more, not just in fields like climate change, public health, & social sciences, but also in neuroscience, biology, & nuclear science.
Reposted by Vukašin Gligorić, PhD
overbye.bsky.social
Excellent study by @vukasin.bsky.social (2025) finds US liberals trust scientists more than conservatives across all fields. Despite generally high trust levels overall, the gap is largest for climatologists. 5 interventions failed to increase trust, suggesting attitudes resistant to interventions 🧪
vukasin.bsky.social
To academics in Netherlands (and especially Amsterdam), we are organizing a symposium *Social sciences and the System: Challenging or Upholding the Status Quo* that includes John Jost, Enzo Rossi and Marija B. Petrović on 18th February in Amsterdam!

register here:
forms.gle/NSzoNxu2EKMf...
Registration for symposium
Social Sciences and the System: Challenging or Upholding the Status Quo? It is widely acknowledged that neoliberal capitalism has led to rampant socioeconomic inequalities, wars, and ecological crise...
forms.gle
vukasin.bsky.social
We also measured behaviors - voodoo doll, petition signing and donation.

Started as a Master's student project and now we're here! Kudos to all the collaborators and supervisors on this one. Happy to say it's my fourth PhD project that is published 🎊
vukasin.bsky.social
Across two studies (N=749), we investigated a number of predictors. We found that science cynicism (belief that scientists are incompetent and corrupt) drives harassment of scientists. Perceiving scientists as threatening and dark personality traits also play a role!👇🏼

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
vukasin.bsky.social
In the past several years, and especially in the first few years of COVID-19, scientists have experienced harassment - from unwanted emails and doxxing to death threats and even lynching attempts. But who wants to harm scientists? Find out in our new paper just published in Scientific Reports! 🎉💥✨
vukasin.bsky.social
So sing, thou psychological science! And celebrate your children's null results because your children are children no more

I have the right to shitpost because I have no followers (yet)
vukasin.bsky.social
In that particular project, we found no experimental effects. Naive and puzzled, we didn't know what was going on. As we learned about the replication crisis, we always had a soft spot for replicating this project. Six years later, our dreams came true - we did a replication and found no effects.