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Social isolation and lack of support networks are key factors contributing to mental health problems among incarcerated people, which, in turn, are associated with an increased risk of reoffending. Enabling prisoners to form positive group relations and social identities is one approach to address the cycle of ill health and incarceration. We examine the impact of a football-based intervention, the Twinning Project, on prisoners' wellbeing and social relations. Longitudinal and correlational analyses of data from N = 164 UK prisoners show how social bonding is linked with significant boosts to psychological need satisfaction, life satisfaction, efficacy beliefs as well as higher levels of wellbeing.

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With restricted face-to-face interactions, COVID-19 lockdowns and distancing measures tested the capability of computer-mediated communication to foster social contact and wellbeing. In a multinational sample (n = 6436), we investigated how different modes of contact related to wellbeing during the pandemic. Computer-mediated communication was more common than face-to-face, and its use was influenced by COVID-19 death rates, more so than state stringency measures. Despite its legal and health threats, face-to-face contact was still positively associated with wellbeing, and messaging apps had a negative association. Perceived household vulnerability to COVID-19 reduced the positive effect of face-to-face communication on wellbeing, but surprisingly, people's own vulnerability did not. Computer-mediated communication was particularly negatively associated with the wellbeing of young and empathetic people. Findings show people endeavored to remain socially connected, yet however, maintain a physical distance, despite the tangible costs to their wellbeing.

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At times of turmoil, such as during disasters, social crises, or pandemics, our social bonds can be key to receiving support and gaining certainty about the right course of action. In an analysis combining two global datasets (N = 13,264) collected during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examined how social bonds with close social circles (i.e., family and friends) and extended groups (i.e., country, government, and humanity) relate to engagement in health behaviors and psychological well-being. Results revealed that only family bonding was associated with self-reported engagement in health behaviors. Being strongly bonded with both close circles and extended groups predicted less anxiety and depression and better well-being, particularly for those who were bonded with more groups. These findings highlight that close and extended social bonds offer different sources of support and direction during the most challenging of circumstances and that continuous investment is needed to forge and maintain both.

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BACKGROUND: In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, most countries implemented physical distancing measures. Many mental health experts warned that through increasing social isolation and anxiety, these measures could negatively affect psychosocial wellbeing. However, socially aligning with others by adhering to these measures may also be beneficial for wellbeing. METHODS: We examined these two contrasting hypotheses using cross-national survey data (N = 6675) collected fortnightly from participants in 115 countries over 3 months at the beginning of the pandemic. Participants reported their wellbeing, perceptions of how vulnerable they were to Covid-19 (i.e., high risk of infection) and how much they, and others in their social circle and country, were adhering to the distancing measures. RESULTS: Linear mixed-effects models showed that being a woman, having lower educational attainment, living alone and perceived high vulnerability to Covid-19 were risk factors for poorer wellbeing. Being young (18-25) was associated with lower wellbeing, but longitudinal analyses showed that young people's wellbeing improved over 3 months. In contrast to widespread views that physical distancing measures negatively affect wellbeing, results showed that following the guidelines was positively associated with wellbeing even for people in high-risk groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide an important counterpart to the idea that pandemic containment measures such as physical distancing negatively impacted wellbeing unequivocally. Despite the overall burden of the pandemic on psychosocial wellbeing, social alignment with others can still contribute to positive wellbeing. The pandemic has manifested our propensity to adapt to challenges, particularly highlighting how social alignment can forge resilience.

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Psychoactive drugs have been central to many human group rituals throughout modern human evolution. Despite such experiences often being inherently social, bonding and associated prosocial behaviors have rarely been empirically tested as an outcome. Here we investigate a novel measure of the mechanisms that generate altered states of consciousness during group rituals, the 4Ds: dance, drums, sleep deprivation, and drugs. We conducted a retrospective online survey examining experiences at a highly ritualized cultural phenomenon where drug use is relatively uninhibited- raves and illegal free parties. Engaging in the 4Ds at raves or free parties was associated with personal transformation for those who experienced the event as awe-inspiring, especially for people with open personalities (n = 481). Without awe, or a ritual context, indulging in the 4Ds was associated with a lack of personal growth, or anomie. A complex SEM revealed that personal transformation following awe-inspiring raves was associated with bonding to other ravers and prosocial behavior toward this group at a cost to self in a simple economic game. Bonding to humanity was not associated with these events. The findings suggest that employing the 4Ds in a ritualized environment - particularly dancing and drug use - can help build meaningful social bonds with associated positive behavioral outcomes.

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BACKGROUND: Cocaine use among British football fans has yet to be quantified, despite its association with football-related aggression by the media. Identity fusion, a potent form of social bonding, is a well-established predictor of fan violence, which has never been investigated in relation to stimulant use. METHODS: British football fans (n = 1486) completed a self-selected online survey about how bonded they were to their club and fellow fans, their cocaine use, and aggressive behavior toward rival fans over the prior 12-months. RESULTS: Fans reported more cocaine use than the national average (6.19%). Of fans who attended stadia matches, 1.08% had used cocaine in stadia, and 30.05% had witnessed other fans take cocaine at matches. Fans who used cocaine reported significantly more aggression toward rivals than fans who did not. Cocaine and identity fusion significantly interacted, such that highly 'fused' cocaine users were especially likely to have behaved aggressively toward their rivals. Men were more fused and more aggressive than women. CONCLUSION: Football mirrors wider society, be it in social issues or drug use. The widespread availability of cheap but high purity cocaine may be associated with fan aggression, especially among fans who are highly bonded to their clubs and fellow fans.

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Why do we adopt new rules, such as social distancing? Although human sciences research stresses the key role of social influence in behaviour change, most COVID-19 campaigns emphasize the disease's medical threat. In a global data set (n = 6,675), we investigated how social influences predict people's adherence to distancing rules during the pandemic. Bayesian regression analyses controlling for stringency of local measures showed that people distanced most when they thought their close social circle did. Such social influence mattered more than people thinking distancing was the right thing to do. People's adherence also aligned with their fellow citizens, but only if they felt deeply bonded with their country. Self-vulnerability to the disease predicted distancing more for people with larger social circles. Collective efficacy and collectivism also significantly predicted distancing. To achieve behavioural change during crises, policymakers must emphasize shared values and harness the social influence of close friends and family.

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Why do some sports fans experience intense emotions when watching live matches? Identity fusion is a strong form of group alignment in which personal and group identities are activated synergistically to produce a visceral sense of 'oneness' with one's team. Here we examine the role of fusion (using a three-item state measure with high internal validity) in elevating salivary cortisol levels while watching football (n = 41). Our evidence was gathered at field laboratories during the 2014 sFIFA World Cup in Natal, Brazil, with live screenings of two Brazilian victories (Colombia, 2-1; Chile, 1-1 with penalties), and the historic semi-final loss to Germany (1-7). We replicated previous studies showing that salivary cortisol concentrations fluctuate during live football events and are related to group membershipbut we also extended them by showing that identity fusion is even more strongly related to cortisol concentrations than identification. We found an interaction between match outcome and cortisol, such that watching a loss, i.e. dysphoria, was associated with particularly high cortisol concentrations. While women were more fused to the team than men, there were no other gender effects. Taken together, these findings suggest that identity fusion modulates physiological reactivity, resulting in distinct psycho-physiological profiles during stressful events.

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A visceral feeling of oneness with a group - identity fusion - has proven to be a stronger predictor of pro-group behaviours than other measures of group bonding, such as group identification. However, the relationship between identity fusion, other group alignment measures and their different roles in predicting pro-group behaviour is still controversial. Here, we test whether identity fusion is related to, but different from, unidimensional and multidimensional measures of group identification. We also show that identity fusion explains further variance of the endorsement of pro-group behaviour than these alternative measures and examine the structural and discriminant properties of identity fusion and group identification measures in three different contexts: nationality, religion, and football fandom. Finally, we extend the fusion literature to a new culture: Brazil. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research explicitly addressing a comparison between these two forms of group alignment, identity fusion and identification with a group, and their role in predicting pro-group behaviours.

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Willingness to lay down one's life for a group of non-kin, well documented historically and ethnographically, represents an evolutionary puzzle. Building on research in social psychology, we develop a mathematical model showing how conditioning cooperation on previous shared experience can allow individually costly pro-group behavior to evolve. The model generates a series of predictions that we then test empirically in a range of special sample populations (including military veterans, college fraternity/sorority members, football fans, martial arts practitioners, and twins). Our empirical results show that sharing painful experiences produces "identity fusion" - a visceral sense of oneness - which in turn can motivate self-sacrifice, including willingness to fight and die for the group. Practically, our account of how shared dysphoric experiences produce identity fusion helps us better understand such pressing social issues as suicide terrorism, holy wars, sectarian violence, gang-related violence, and other forms of intergroup conflict.

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Previous research has found that the perceived brightness of a face can be distorted by the social category of race. Thus, Levin and Banaji (2006) found, in a U.S. sample, that faces of identical brightness were perceived to be lighter if they had stereotypical White American features than if they had Black American features. Here, we present 2 experiments conducted in Natal, Brazil, that extend this line of research. Experiment 1 tested if the brightness distortion effect would generalize to a Brazilian population. Experiment 2 tested if speech accent would have a similar effect on brightness perception. In Experiment 1, we found that the brightness distortion effect clearly replicated in the Brazilian sample: Faces with Black racial features were perceived to be darker than faces with White racial features, even though their objective brightness was identical. In Experiment 2, we found that speech accent influenced brightness perception in a similar manner: Faces were perceived to be darker when paired with an accent associated with low socioeconomic status than when they were paired with an accent associated with high socioeconomic status. Whereas racial concepts in Brazil are often claimed to be much more fluid compared with the United States, our findings suggest that the populations are quite similar with respect to associations between facial features and skin tone. Our findings also demonstrate speech accent as an additional source of category information that perceptual cognition can take into account when modeling the world. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Pledging lifelong loyalty to an ingroup can have far-reaching behavioural effects, ranging from ordinary acts of ingroup kindness to extraordinary acts of self-sacrifice. What motivates this important form of group commitment? Here, we propose one especially potent answer to this question-the experience of a visceral sense of oneness with a group (i.e., identity fusion). In a sample of British football fans, a population in which high levels of lifelong loyalty are thought to be common, we first examined the hypothesised relationship between fusion and perceptions of lifelong loyalty to one's club. We further explored the hypothesis that fusion and lifelong loyalty are not merely a reflection of past time investment in a group, but also reflect a deeper, memory-based process of feeling personally shaped by key group events, both euphoric and dysphoric. We found broad support for these hypotheses. Results suggest that feeling personally self-shaped by club events (e.g., crucial wins and losses), rather than time invested in the club, leads to greater identity fusion to one's club. In turn, fusion engenders a sense of lifelong club loyalty. We discuss our findings in relation to the growing literature on the experiential origins of intense social cohesion.

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