Browsing by Author "Plaza, Alejandro"

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    A longitudinal examination of the factors that facilitate and hinder support for conservative and progressive social movements
    (2022) Gonzalez, Roberto; Chayinska, Maria; Plaza, Alejandro; Bargsted, Matias; Miranda, Daniel
    This paper examines social-psychological factors that can facilitate and hinder public support for conservative agendas over time. Using four waves of longitudinal panel data from Chile (N = 2,394), we estimated the between-person and within-person associations among individuals' self-reported conservative ideologies, political disaffection, civic behaviour, political attitudes towards democracy and social change, and their support for conservative (vs progressive) social movements over time. As expected, between-person increases in social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), right-wing self-categorization, and political disaffection correlated positively with support for conservative social movements. Between-person increases in people's social change beliefs, support for democracy, and civic participation predicted less support for conservative social movements over time. Within-person increases in RWA and SDO correlated positively with conservative social movement support, whereas civic participation correlated negatively with it. Results provide novel evidence for the dynamic processes underlying support for conservative/progressive agendas.
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    Does intergroup contact affect political attitudes and behaviours? - A longitudinal mediation analysis using the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (ELSOC)
    (2025) Friehs, Maria Therese; Plaza, Alejandro; Schäfer, Sarina J.; Gonzalez, Roberto; Christ, Oliver
    Intergroup contact has been known to not only affect attitudes towards contacted and noncontacted outgroups, but also to affect people’s open and liberal thinking, which in turn affects a variety of human experiences, cognitions and behaviours outside the intergroup dimension (called tertiary transfer effect, TTE). This manuscript explores one suggested TTE of intergroup contact affecting political attitudes and behaviours mediated via intergroup ideologies in a multiverse approach combining several intergroup contact, intergroup ideologies and political attitudes and behaviours indicators. We used three waves of the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (ELSOC, N =2,863). Using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models, we found numerous stable betweenperson associations between intergroup contact, intergroup ideologies and political attitudes and behaviours, but we did not find consistent longitudinal evidence supporting the investigated TTE on a within-person level . However, we did find isolated longitudinal effects of negative intergroup contact frequency predicting preference for social equality and outgroup liking on a within-person level, which we advise to interpret with caution (due to, e.g., overall very low frequency of contact in the analysed dataset). We contextualise our findings in the existing literature and provide suggestions for future research to investigate the causal processes proposed to underlie TTEs. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.
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    Networked inequality: The role of changes in network heterogeneity and network size in attitudes towards inequality
    (Elsevier B.V., 2026) Plaza, Alejandro; Beck Villarroel, Guillermo Ignacio; Iturra-Sanhueza, Julio; Otero, Gabriel; Muñoz, Benjamín
    Existing research on attitudes towards inequality has predominantly focused on individual class or socioeconomic position, with little attention paid to the role of personal networks. The limited existing research has primarily focused on the influence of specific class ties, while overlooking a crucial dimension: network size. Moreover, the lack of quantitative data containing information about socioeconomic standing, network configuration and attitudes over time for a group of the same individuals has hindered the accurate testing of the influence of personal networks on attitudes towards inequality. To address these gaps, the main goal of this paper is to examine the extent to which changes in the size and heterogeneity of acquaintanceship networks affect attitudes towards inequality in Chile – a country with high levels of income and wealth inequality. We utilise quantitative data from two waves (2016–2018) of a representative panel survey for the urban Chilean population, provided by the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (ELSOC). Our cross-sectional analyses indicate that network heterogeneity and network size both enhance perceptions of income inequality and preferences for equality, while decreasing perceptions of meritocracy. In the fixed effects regression models, however, network size is more closely linked to an increased perception of inequality, while network heterogeneity is more strongly associated with greater preferences for equality. Moreover, increases in network size tend to reduce meritocratic perceptions. These findings suggest that network size and network heterogeneity are complementary network characteristics in explaining attitudes towards inequality.