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European Bulletin of Social Psychology 35,2 (November 2023)WelcomeDear friends and colleagues, Welcome to the second issue of the EASP bulletin for 2023. We hope it finds you all well. In this issue, we begin with the President's Corner from our new president Nurit Shnabel. We then say a few words about the wonderful General Meeting in Kraków and share some feedback from those who attended. We remind you about our election for the Supervisory Board and share a meeting report from one of our Social Psychology Ambassadors. Our colleagues Anne Maass, Myron Rothbart, Gün Semin, and Raffaella Rumiati share a tribute to our late colleague Francesco Foroni. We also share information about future meetings, reports from previous meetings, grants awarded, reports on previous grants, and we share the list of new members who we warmly welcome to our association. Season's Greetings, Happy Holidays, and we wish you all the best for a happy and prosperous New Year ahead. The EASP Executive Committee President's CornerDear EASP members, The first bulletin following the General Meeting (GM) in Krakow was supposed to celebrate its success. After six years (as the GM planned for 2020 was cancelled due to Covid-19), it was great to reconnect with our colleagues and friends, present and learn about new and exciting research, and have ample opportunities for formal and informal exchanges and discussions. The report summarizing your feedback on the GM, which appears below, indicates that the organizing team, headed by Małgorzata Kossowska, did a great job. Thank you and chapeau!!! By now, however, the feelings of celebration and inspiration are shadowed by the horrific and tragic reality we found ourselves in since the seventh of October. We are all deeply affected by the events, which fill us with acute anxiety about the immediate and distant future. The danger of global war, which became tangible following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, became even more tangible. Within these extreme circumstances, we held the first meeting of the new Executive Committee. While we were divided in our view and interpretation of the situation, we agreed on one thing: we have no influence on the global events, yet we do have (some) influence on our own community – and we do not want to use this influence in a way that escalates the conflict between ourselves. We have seen it happening in our ‘sister’ associations, and we didn’t want the same to happen in the EASP. As explained in the statement we issued, many forces and processes polarize contemporary societies, threatening their functioning and very existence. EASP should not become a microcosm of these processes. We are sure that even if our members have different, and even opposite opinions on these global issues, they all support the common good and wish to minimize human suffering. Several ‘sister’ associations adopted a similar approach to us, which strengthened our confidence that we made the right decision under the circumstances. With the hope of returning to some form of normality, we continued our committee work. Those of you who read the “president's corners” in the previous bulletins, written by our former president Kai Jonas, know that EASP has undergone a transition in recent years. The purpose of this transition is to make EASP more professional and efficient considering the changing legal and tax regulations in the Netherlands (where the association was founded and registered) and the growth in the number of memberships. Besides adding functions to our membership database and improving our financial documentation, we also strive to increase our organizational memory and adhere to current requirements (e.g., by establishing a supervisory board). In addition to handling bureaucratic tasks, we continue to organize EASP’s scientific activities. We are grateful to our members who volunteer to carry out these activities. Our flagship activity besides the GM is the Summer School. In 2024, this will take place in Slovakia and be organized by our former Social Psychology Ambassador, Jana Papcunová, and also Yasin Koc. Another important activity, intended to promote diversity in our field, is the workshop on scientific writing and publishing, delivered by Roger Giner-Sorolla and Sabina Čehajić-Clancy. We are also working on organizing a joint meeting with the IARR (International Association of Social Psychology). Like the joint symposium on diversity in couples and close/intimate relationships (held in 2022), the purpose is to promote cross-fertilization between our societies. We will communicate about additional issues (e.g., membership fees, training needs survey) in the coming weeks. For now, I wish us all safety and peace, Sincerely,  Nurit Shnabel EASP General Meeting - Thank you!Four months have already passed since the Krakow General Meeting, but memories of this special event are still vivid for all of us. The fact that we waited so long to be able to get together made this General Meeting even more special and made us realise how important the meeting is for our community. We were able to see—beyond the specific areas of research that each of us pursues—how prolific and active our research community is in the many areas of social psychology. We were able to be inspired by the work of our colleagues, encounter new research questions, and learn new methodologies. We were able to share and discuss our work with others. But we were also able to experience once again the special sense of belonging that makes our association unique. We would therefore like once again to thank the organising and scientific committees of the General Meeting for the wonderful work they did to make the meeting so successful. We also thank everyone who attended for supporting the meeting and the association. We are very grateful. Having experienced once again how important meetings are for our community, we have decided to promote a larger number of smaller meetings for the next year. You can find these under the heading ‘Upcoming Meetings’. The EASP Executive Committee  EASP General Meeting 2023 EASP General Meeting FeedbackThe Krakow 2023 General Meeting was one of the largest EASP meetings organised to date. We received a record number of 2048 abstracts! The event hosted 1759 participants from 45 countries (71.6% from Western Europe, 9.6% from Eastern Europe, 7.6% from North America, 6% from the Middle East, 3.9% from Oceania, 0.7% from Asia, 0.3% from South America, and two participants from Africa). Abstracts were submitted to one of eight panels: applied social psychology, attitudes, emotion and motivation, group processes, intergroup relations, interpersonal processes, research methods and ethics, social cognition, and self and identity. Although the submission rates were different between the panels, acceptance rates were similar across all panels (68% for symposia and blitz presentations). This acceptance rate for symposia and blitz presentations was lower than in previous General Meetings. This was not due to lower quality of the abstracts submitted. EASP has been growing significantly in recent years and our members—both old and new—were eager to meet again after the pandemic. With such a large number of submissions, we needed to manage the acceptance rate considering various constraints such as finding an affordable space for the meeting. We hope in the future to be able to increase capacity for the General Meeting so that we can include a higher number of high-quality submissions in the programme. Based on the evaluation survey, the General Meeting was received favourably by attendees (see Figure 1). We also received valuable observations from the scientific committee and constructive feedback from attendees that will guide us in the organisation of the next General Meeting. We now have an open call to organise and host the next General Meeting in three years’ time (2026). The work involved in planning and hosting this event is vast but incredibly valuable for our community. We are looking forward to receiving your proposals and to working towards the next occasion we can see each other again. Please see the call here: https://www.easp.eu/news/itm/call_for_organising_the_2026_eas-1693.html We are also working on the organisation of the 2024 summer school to be held in Kosice, Slovenia, and a call with detailed information will go out in a few weeks.  Upcoming Meetings17-19 April 2024 18-20 April 2024 20-24 April 2024 15-17 May 2024 28-30 August 2024 Ongoing Election of Supervisory BoardWe are holding an election for three members based in Europe to join the EASP Supervisory Board. Please see the EASP Articles and Standing Orders (https://www.easp.eu/news/itm/new_statutes_and_standing_orders-1700.html). The Supervisory Board will oversee the activities of The Executive Committee and the general affairs of the Association. The Executive Committee will report twice a year to the Supervisory Board on its activities and decisions. The Supervisory Board will meet online twice a year. This is a voluntary role and is for a period of three years from 2024. The board will consist of three members. For more information, or to indicate your interest, please email the Executive Officer (office@easp.eu). Please express your interest by 30 November, 2023. In Memory of Francesco ForoniOn July 21st of this year, an aggressive tumor took the life of our dear friend and colleague Francesco Foroni, who was only 50 years of age. He was in Sydney, where he had moved with his wife Arianna in 2016 and where he was Deputy Director of the School of Behavioral and Health Sciences at the Australian Catholic University. The last of 8 brothers, Francesco (Kekko to his Italian friends) grew up in a large and loving family in Pieve di Soligo, a small town in the North-East of Italy, surrounded by vineyards. Despite the geographical distance, Francesco remained very attached to his family throughout his life. Francesco got his early training in Psychology at the University of Padua where he received his Laurea degree (roughly equivalent to an American MS degree) in 1998. During his studies, he also spent a year as Erasmus student in Germany, which was the beginning of his international career. Already during these early years, it became clear that Francesco was a true intellectual and a deep thinker. He liked theory as much as he liked the technical aspects of research, two features that characterize his entire career. Francesco expressed interest in joining Myron Rothbart’s lab at the University of Oregon in 1999, the same year in which Myron had officially retired from formal teaching. Faced with the difficult decision whether to commit himself to supervising a last graduate student for 4 to 5 years or spend his time relaxing on the beaches of the Mediterranean, Myron chose Francesco, which he considers one of his absolutely best decisions. Francesco was a joy to work with, and the collaboration lasted for 6 years. During that time Francesco completed a number of diverse research projects. The two most important included the way in which an overarching narrative can influence scores on the IAT (with Ulrich Mayr), and the other on the effects of the ‘strength’ of category labels on the perception of similarity between group members occupying the same or different categories. The latter studies attempted to assess whether perceived similarity was influenced by category labels when the labels themselves added no new information to the existing uncategorized objects. Francesco found such effects, found they were influenced by the ‘strength’ of the labels, and in addition, that these effects persisted when the category labels were subsequently removed. These were not easy studies to design or conduct, but the results have clearly made a major contribution to the work on categorization. During his years in Oregon, Francesco received another MS and a PhD in Psychology. In 2006, Francesco went to the Netherlands to join Gün Semin and his research team as a postdoc, at a time when work on ‘embodiment’ was taking root. He started at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and then moved to Utrecht University with Gün in 2011. He contributed to some of the most frequently cited work that was produced by that lab during this period, such as a paper in Psychological Science in 2009. This was a groundbreaking piece of research showing that verbal stimuli (action verbs) that refer to emotional expressions, even if presented subliminally, elicit the same facial muscle activity (facial electromyography) as visual stimuli do. This and other related research were possible thanks to Francesco’s professional many-sidedness. He mastered EMG and co-developed the research on embodiment with his keen and constructively critical mind. His open and friendly nature made creative collaboration possible. In 2012 Francesco joined, in the role of senior research fellow, Raffaella Rumiati’s lab at SISSA in Trieste where he remained until 2016. The School had received funding for a multidisciplinary project to study the psychological and neuronal mechanisms underlying food choices. Francesco joined the project with contagious enthusiasm and contributed to this innovative and productive line of research with his passion for theoretical analysis and with extremely accurate experimental skills. The collaboration with the lab members continued long after he moved to Australia, up to now. During the Trieste period he also collaborated with Andrea Carnaghi on the influence of hormones on social cognition. In 2016, Francesco joined the Australian Catholic University in Sydney as Senior Lecturer in the School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, where he became Deputy Head of School in 2020. All of us feel extremely lucky to have known Francesco and to have had the opportunity to work with him. We came to appreciate the depth of his thought, his intellectual integrity, his outstanding methodological skills, and his “slow science” philosophy that gives precedence to depth and quality over sheer quantity. Much of Francesco’s work has been at the forefront of newly developing fields, attesting to the originality of his thought. During his career he has made very creative and influential contributions to implicit stereotyping, to the then emerging field of embodiment, and, more recently, to the psychology of food and eating. All of these contributions relied on Francesco’s unusually multi-disciplinary background that situates him somewhere at the intersection of psychology, neuro-science, and health sciences and that makes it difficult to place him in a clear disciplinary box. His broad theoretical and methodological knowledge allowed him to tackle research questions from multiple standpoints and with multiple research tools (such as combining explicit and implicit measures from social psychology with physiological and neuroscience tools such as EEG and fMRI). Possibly as a consequence of his exposure to different research cultures, Francesco has turned into a particularly thoughtful, theory-driven researcher. Collaborating with Francesco also gave us the opportunity to discover many of his non-academic skills (including volley ball and his amazing skills as pastry chef) and to develop a friendship well beyond our academic engagement. As a colleague, as a friend, and as a generous human being, Francesco was unparalleled. As an example, Myron’s wife at some point required emergency neurosurgery which forced him to cancel all appointments, without knowing when they would return home. Upon their return, they noticed a warm, freshly baked fruit tart next to the front door. Francesco had determined their return date and had anticipated their arrival. In true Italian form, the dessert looked beautiful, and was as tasty as it looked. We all were unprepared to learn that Francesco had passed away. His unexpected departure makes it very difficult to visualize the world without his colorful and creative presence. His sudden death deprived us and the people who belonged to his network forever of his friendship and his selfless critical voice. He will be missed deeply, both as a friend and scientist. (Written by Anne Maass, Myron Rothbart, Gün Semin, and Raffaella Rumiati)  Francesco Foroni Reports from EASP MeetingsEASP Brief Summer SchoolThe Brief Summer School 2023 in Kraków brought together a diverse group of participants, most of whom aspired to pursue careers in academia after completing their PhDs. The competitive academic landscape can often be daunting, but this short summer school fostered a sense of collaboration and collective growth, leaving a lasting impact on all of us. Nevertheless (and I think that I can speak for everyone there) after the Brief Summer School we ended up having a feeling of collaboration and joint advancement. That’s the magic of the summer schools, bringing everyone together and creating friendship and/or potential collaborators, as everyone that has attended a summer school says. 1. The Briefness of the Summer School One common sentiment shared during breaks and in the hallways was the awareness of the short duration of the program. The excitement was palpable, but we knew that our time together was limited before the EASP 2023 conference began. This sense of brevity motivated us to quickly connect with fellow attendees, introducing ourselves to colleagues from other workshops and creating a more familiar and friendly environment. 2. The workshops The summer school featured four workshops, each led by outstanding
scholars: Balancing the Brief Summer School with preparations for the upcoming conference was a challenging task. It was my first international, in-person conference, and the prospect of a large, potentially overwhelming event weighed on my mind. However, having connected with peers at the Brief Summer School proved invaluable. I recognized familiar faces and even had the opportunity to meet some of their supervisors, which eased my anxieties and made the impending conference experience more enjoyable. In the Disidentification workshop, our first day was dedicated to discussing our research topics and how they connected to the theoretical framework of disidentification. Engaging discussions emerged around the practical application of disidentification theory to our individual studies and our expectations from it. Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti fostered a warm and friendly atmosphere from the outset, enabling us to explore our colleagues' work and gain insights into their respective theses. The discussions were vibrant and diverse, as each of us brought our unique perspectives. Inga's guidance helped us bridge the gap between theory and our own research, and it was enlightening to see the potential impact of disidentification on our work. On the second day, we delved into the theory of disidentification, with Inga providing clear explanations of some of her key studies. We then broke into small groups to develop research proposals, benefiting from the collaborative spirit we had cultivated. We discussed and fine-tuned our ideas, with each conversation sparking new insights. We collaborated on research proposals, exchanging ideas and concerns with our fellow classmates. Building on the collaborative and warm atmosphere, we created a joint PowerPoint presentation to share our workshop's progress with the rest of the participants. But what made this workshop truly special was the sense of togetherness. Inga fostered an environment where learning didn't happen in isolation. We found ourselves sharing not only our research but also our thoughts, concerns, and even a few laughs. It was a place where everyone's ideas mattered, and we all contributed to a rich tapestry of understanding. The collaborative spirit we experienced in the Disidentification workshop set the tone for the entire summer school. It's a testament to the incredible power of academic exchanges in bringing people together and fostering growth, both academically and personally. In summary, the Brief Summer School 2023 provided a short yet intense experience, fostering collaboration, friendship, and a sense of community among participants, which carried forward to the EASP 2023 conference. (Report written by Danna Galván Hernández, University of Granada)  EASP Brief Summer School 2023 Social Psychology AmbassadorsAs part of the Social Psychology Ambassadorship grant and building upon the discussions from the Diversity and Inclusion panel at the EASP General Meeting in Krakow this year, the Regional Meeting of PhD Students, Postdocs, and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) took place in Košice, Slovakia, on October 19th-20th, 2023. The event was hosted at the Institute of Social Sciences in Košice, Slovakia, and welcomed participants from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Czechia, Ukraine, and Slovakia. The meeting highlighted the commitment of the attendees to advancing (social) psychology research in Central and Eastern Europe, while encouraging discussions on the need for regional collaborations, open science and responsible research practices. Attendees collectively shared ideas on how to amplify the voice and visibility of early career researchers (both from the region and more broadly), address their unique needs, and foster collaboration. Most importantly, the attendees discussed the many-faceted nature of diversity and inclusion, both within the EASP and the field of social psychology in general, and especially the invaluable role ECRs can have in fostering inclusion and representation of marginalized voices. The Regional Meeting concluded with a strong commitment to advancing the interests and representation of early career researchers within EASP, with a focus on further collaboration on grants and initiatives that benefit the research community, not only in Central and Eastern Europe, but beyond. If you would like to join the discussions on this matter or learn more, please feel free to write an email to jpapcunova@saske.sk. Members of this initiative: Marija Petrović and Milica Ninković (University of Belgrade, Serbia), Ena Uzelac and Iva Kapović (University of Zagreb, Croatia), Andrej Simić (University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Yehor Hrymchak (SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland), Simona Oľhová (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czechia), Nora Anna Lantos (ELTE University, Hungary), Xenia Daniela Poslon (Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia), Jana Papcunova (Institute of Social Sciences, CSPS, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia). Grants AwardedThe following grants have been awarded by the Executive Committee: Seedcorn Grants:Lisa Fourgassie (University of Tours-Poitiers) - "Visualising social class: the effect of gender and socioeconomic context on the mental representations of the rich and the poor" Giulia Rosa Policardo (University of Bologna) - "Solidarity or competition? The role of ethnic minorities in promoting social equality" Xenia Daniela Polson (Slovak Academy of Sciences), Francesa Prati (University of Bologna), Emine Bilgen (Royal Holloway University of London), Luca Fusco (Università degli studi di Napoli "Parthenope”), Mariacarolina Vacca (Sapienza University of Rome), Ayse Sule Yuksel (Ministry of National Education Turkey, University of Exeter) - "Explaining the effects of social identity complexity on majority members' acculturation preferences" Boyka Bratanova (University of St. Andrews), Silvia Filippi (University of Padova), Kim Peters (University of Exeter Business School), Niklas Steffens (The University of Queensland) "Vertical pay disparity and employee well-being: A social identity perspective" Grant ReportsIn the following links, you can read reports from previous grants awarded by the EASP: Joke of threat? Can male-disparaging comedy elicit masculinity
threat? Travel grant report by Stefano Ciaffoni New Members of the AssociationFull Membership:Emily Courtney (University of South Florida) Marika Rullo (University of Sienna) Matteo Masi (University of Munster) Joel Cooper (Princeton University) Michael Barthelmäs (Ulm University) Andrea Velandia-Morales (Granada University) Junhua Dang (Uppsala University) Tarela Ike (Teeside University) Michael Schmitt (Simon Fraser University) Ivana Vrselja (Catholic University of Croatia) Vladimira Čavojová (Slovak Academy of Sciences) Carmen Cervone (University of Padova) Karolina Koszalkowska (University of Lodz) Rawan Charafeddine (Universite de Lorraine, Nancy) Andrea Scatolon (University of Padova) Asmir Gracacin (University of Rijeka) Simona Ol’hová (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) Jessie Hillekens (Tilburg University) Alexander Kirchner-Häusler (University of Sussex) Andrej Simic (University of Tuzla) Ana-Maria Bliuc (University of Dundee) Postgraduate Membership:Mahshid Esmaeili Kolahdooz (University of Verona) Helenor Tormis (University of Helsinki) Alice Carpinelli (University Catholoque de Louvain-la-Neuve) Bryan Bilven (Eötvös Loránd University) Julian ter Horst (Osnabruck University) Elisavet Panagiotou (University of Cyprus) Julia Wagrowska (University of Lodz) Eleni Anastasiou (University of Cyprus) Pawel Cieselski (Adam Mickiewicz University) Elena Heinz (University of Vienna) Iva Kapović (University of Zagreb) Johanna S.W. Kruger (Utrecht University) Ayushi Jolly (Jawaharlal Nehru University) Antonia Tsitseli (Panteion University) Teodora Savic (Comenius University) Denise Ruggieri (University of Bologna) Mohammad Moshen Khoddami (University of Bologna) Alexander Tagesson Executive CommitteePresident Secretary, Grants & Membership Officer Meetings Officer Journals Officer Treasurer Diversity Officer Grants & Membership Officer Wendy Rulkens - van den Hoogen (Executive Officer), office@easp.eu |
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