This Thursday in SPARC, Cicero Pereira (ICS-UL) will present a research line which he is developing on the national inferiority complex and in attach a first article has been published.

Here the abstract:

The national inferiority complex was described in 1958 by the Brazilian journalist Nelson Rodrigues as “how Brazilians voluntarily place themselves in a position of inferiority in comparison to the rest of the world.” In three experimental studies, we tested the hypothesis of a “national inferiority effect” on the behavior of Brazilian participants awarding compensation to a victim of police violence. Study 1 varied the skin color (Black vs. White) and cultural origin (Brazilian vs. African vs. European) of a target and demonstrated the presence of a selective national inferiority effect: participants awarded less compensation to the Brazilian victim than to the European, but higher compensation to the Brazilian victim than to the African, particularly when the victim was White. Study 2 replicated this effect, showing that the victim’s skin color is a key factor in the emergence of the national inferiority complex. Study 3 went further and showed that the perceived injustice of an arrest mediates the national inferiority effect. The discussion suggests that the national inferiority complex could represent a compromise between positive distinctiveness and system justifcation motivations. 

This Seminar will be held in Portuguese; as usual it will be in Sala 3, but here a video link if you cannot attend in person:

https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/87074148871