Benjamin Pastorelli
LightNews LightNews
banner
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Benjamin Pastorelli
@benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
220 followers 570 following 54 posts
PhD in Psychology | Exploring identity, discrimination, diversity, inclusion | he/him | France | just landed on Bluesky
Posts Replies Media Videos
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
An interesting research idea of how games can help us develop our gender identity.

#PsychSciSky #SocialPsych #ResearchSky #AcademicSky #LGBT+ #RPG
The current research explored the influences of role-playing video games (RPGs) on the development of gender identity among transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals. In Study 1 (N = 10), we used a Consensual Qualitative Research approach to interview TGNC individuals and identify common themes regarding the perceived impact of RPGs on gender identity development. TGNC individuals highlighted the influence of character customization, exploration, and the function of RPGs as safe spaces. In Study 2 (N = 100), we quantitatively explored the influence of RPG avatar customization on TGNC gender identity development. Although avatar customization was not associated with gender identity commitment, those playing RPGs with highly customizable avatars were more likely to report an impact of RPGs on their gender identity development. Content analyses reinforced Study 1 findings, indicating that RPGs, especially those with customizable avatars, can shape the gender identity journey for TGNC individuals.
May 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
How to measure structural racism?

There are so many possibilities!
Here's a recent review: buff.ly/PqgdQQ4

#PsychSciSky #SocialPsych #ResearchSky #AcademicSky
#systemicracism
Progress toward racial health equity cannot be made if we cannot measure its fundamental driver: structural racism. As in other epidemiologic studies, the first step is to measure the exposure. But how to measure structural racism is an ongoing debate. To characterize the approaches epidemiologists and other health researchers use to quantitatively measure structural racism, highlight methodological innovations, and identify gaps in the literature, we conducted a scoping review of the peer-reviewed and gray literature published during 2019–2021 to accompany the 2018 published work of Groos et al., in which they surveyed the scope of structural racism measurement up to 2017. We identified several themes from the recent literature: the current predominant focus on measuring anti-Black racism; using residential segregation as well as other segregation-driven measures as proxies of structural racism; measuring structural racism as spatial exposures; increasing calls by epidemiologists and other health researchers to measure structural racism as a multidimensional, multilevel determinant of health and related innovations; the development of policy databases; the utility of simulated counterfactual approaches in the understanding of how structural racism drives racial health inequities; and the lack of measures of antiracism and limited work on later life effects. Our findings sketch out several steps to improve the science related to structural racism measurements, which is key to advancing antiracism policies.
April 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
The abstinence cures advocated by certain masculinist circles (NoFap) could have dramatic consequences for men :
- strong negative emotions,
- suicidal thoughts.

The study: scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=f...

#SocialPsych #PsychSciSky #ClinicalPsych
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
A very interesting review on the links between social class and mental health

Currently, the strongest evidence links lower social positions to depression.

#SocialPsychology #PsychSciSky #ClinicalPsychology
Highlights •We meta-review 149 reviews on social class and mental health/wellbeing. •Evidence across reviews varies for different facets of social stratification. •There is some, but fairly limited evidence for moderators and mediators. •There is higher-quality evidence linking lower social positions to depression. •We require low-bias reviews synthesising high-quality primary studies.
April 8, 2025 at 8:02 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Racism (and all forms of discrimination) has a major impact on health.
Williams & Mohammed (2013) proposed an interesting framework for studying these complex phenomena.

#socialpsych #healthpsych #psychscisky
A Framework for the Study of Racism and Health
April 1, 2025 at 3:30 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Stereotypically male professions are also perceived as being the most prestigious.
This has an impact on children's career plans.

#psychscisky #socialpsych
Based on Jaoul-Grammare, 2024.
March 30, 2025 at 11:30 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
"Racial trauma is just trauma with racism"

It's a bit more complicated!

#psychscisky #healthpsych
Based on Cénat, 2023.
Theoretical framework of the complex racial trauma.
March 28, 2025 at 4:05 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Even "little racist jokes", "innocent" remarks or snobbish looks have an impact on the health of minorities.

These racist microaggressions contribute to depression and can lead to suicide.

#socialpsych #psychscisky
March 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
A different perspective on the reaction of parents of LGBT+ children.

It provides a better understanding of how their own identity evolves after disclosure.

#socialpsychology
Figure and source: buff.ly/QHBtiXX
March 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
The study: Booth, 2023.
buff.ly/O9T7JPR
March 20, 2025 at 5:22 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
The far right has an ambivalent relationship with authority: both anti-elitist and authoritarian.

Even if these attitudes are contradictory, they both respond to the feeling of insecurity fostered by the rhetoric of the far right.

#socialpsychology
Figure and ref in: buff.ly/d584Vu9
March 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Imagining yourself in contact with a different group can help to form a shared identity.

Perhaps video or role-playing games could be good ways of combating discrimination.

#socialpsychology
Figure and results from Hu et al. 2025: buff.ly/bNFuqWJ
March 16, 2025 at 4:30 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Incels are often seen as White. Yet some identify as Black or Asian.

Incel rhetoric builds on this, using concepts such as ‘racepill’, which mainly push to make one's racial identity invisible (‘just be white’).

It raises the question of intersectionality in the incel context.

#socialpsychology
Incels worldview is grounded in hostile sexism largely directed at women and shared contempt for mainstream dating standards and feminism. Some incels posit that they can undertake specific racially-defined actions to increase their access to women by appearing more white and, hence, more desirable. Despite these racialized efforts to appear more white, many incels conclude that these efforts to change themselves are largely ineffective in increasing their access to women. Seeing as over half of incels seek counseling and social work services, this research puts forth several implications for social workers supporting incel clients and highlights the importance of understanding the role that race plays in incel clients’ rhetoric—not only in reproducing racism, but also in provoking violence-sustaining affects (e.g., anger, disappointment, resentment) that gen-erate a shared sense of betrayal and reinforce gender-based violence.
March 14, 2025 at 5:16 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
There is consistent evidence that discrimination is associated with poorer sleep.

It could be due to stress and worry.

This relationship appears to be independent of depression (a disorder that is also often linked to discrimination and sleep).

#mentalhealth
March 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Discrimination appears to
- increase the risk of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,
- increase the severity of symptoms
- reduce the quality of recovery.

This does not seem to be due to treatment underutilization, according to a 2019 study.

#PTSD
March 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Black children are seen as more adult than white children. This is called adultification.

It contributes to the perception that the use of force by the police is more justified, threatening the protection of young people.

#socialpsychology
March 8, 2025 at 4:30 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Against all expectations (irony), there is no link between immigration and crime.

#sociology #economy #immigration #criminality #discrimination
Figure showing that homicide rate decrease over time, while stock of migrants over population increase.
February 25, 2025 at 2:16 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
A burden of poverty (among others).

Low socio-economic status is associated with poorer brain and cognitive development.

This could be due to increased stress and a less stimulating environment.

#psychology #neuroscience #socialscience
Hypothesized mechanisms by which SES operates to influence structural and functional brain development (Brito & Noble, 2014).
February 20, 2025 at 10:37 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Benevolent and hostile #sexism across different domains.

It clearly highlights the complexity of discrimination!

#equality #discrimination #socialpsychology #psychology
Benevolent and hostile #sexism across different domains.
February 11, 2025 at 8:43 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
This diagram illustrates the many areas in which sexism has been studied.

By extension, it gives an overview of the many aspects of our lives that are affected by sexism.

#SocialPsych #sexism
A bubble diagram showing research domains linked to sexism.
February 10, 2025 at 2:04 PM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
This one is interesting too!

www.researchgate.net/publication/...
TITLE. Incorporating Intersectionality Into Psychology: An Opportunity to Promote Social Justice and Equity ABSTRACT. Intersectionality is receiving increasing attention in many fields, including psychology. This theory or framework has its roots in the work of Black feminist scholar-activists, and it focuses on interlocking systems of oppression and the need to work toward structural-level changes to promote social justice and equity. Thus, the current interest in intersectionality in psychology presents an opportunity to draw psychologists’ attention more to structural-level issues and to make social justice and equity more central agendas to the field. The large, ever-growing bodies of research demonstrating the wide-ranging adverse consequences of structural- and interpersonal-level oppression, inequality, and stigma for the health and well-being of many diverse groups of people support that these issues are central to the field of psychology. We as individual psychologists and the field as a whole can work to fully incorporate the insights of intersectionality and therefore contribute to making social justice and equity more central across the varied subfields and realms of our work. Specific ways that we can do this are to (a) engage and collaborate with communities, (b) address and critique societal structures, (c) work together/build coalitions, (d) attend to resistance in addition to resilience, and (e) teach social justice curricula. There are important examples both within and outside of psychology that can guide us in achieving these goals. These suggestions are meant to foster conversation and consideration by psychologists across all subfields and areas of focus
February 4, 2025 at 10:38 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
This article offers some interesting thoughts about intersectionality in psychology.

www.researchgate.net/publication/...
TITLE. What If Psychology Took Intersectionality Seriously? Changing How Psychologists Think About Participants ABSTRACT. Using intersectionality to change how psychologists think about the demographic profile of their participants is one readily available change that psychologists across the discipline can implement to improve psychological science. In this article, we aim to provide a guide for psychologists who are not already engaged with feminist practices and/or are unsure of how an intersectional approach to participants applies to their research. We argue that by engaging with four perspective shifts of intersectional thinking: multidimensionality, dynamic construction, structural power, and outcomes of systemic disadvantage and advantage, psychologists can more accurately represent the “person” that psychology, as a discipline, seeks to understand. We suggest changes at the researcher, journal, and grant-making agency levels to support an intersectional reconceptualization of participants. As psychology continues to change, in order to foster reproducible science practices and research with relevance to real-world problems, there is opportunity to promote discipline-level change that would take intersectionality seriously.
February 4, 2025 at 10:30 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Rediscovering ecological systems theory!

I think it may be useful to highlight the complexity of some phenomena, such as discrimination and its systemic part.

#SocialPsych
#discrimination #racism #sexism #minority #psychology
Ecological systems theory: general schema.
January 28, 2025 at 9:26 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Conscientization of social cryptomnesia may help
· to enhance positive attitude toward activist groups,
· to reduce hostile behaviours.

Social cryptomnesia is certainly one of those concepts that deserves more attention.

#SocialPsych #sexism #feminism #minority
TITLE: Conscientization of Social Cryptomnesia Reduces Hostile Sexism and Rejection of Feminists. ABSTRACT: This paper develops a hypothesis concerning the conscientization of social cryptomnesia, claiming that it is possible to reduce the rejection of minorities by reminding the population that a certain value has been promoted by a certain minority. Participants (N = 93) first reported their attitudes toward women’s rights and feminist movements. They were then confronted with their higher appreciation of women’s rights over feminists (social cryptomnesia) and blamed for it (conscientization) in a more versus less threatening manner. Results indicated that conscientization can be effective not only in inducing a more positive attitude toward feminists, but also in decreasing hostile sexism when the threat is lower. Implications for minority influence research are discussed.
January 25, 2025 at 10:58 AM
benjaminpastorelli.bsky.social
Better words for better work.

As gender is a complex and moving concept, getting an accurate terminology is essential.

Here is an interesting proposition of @floralashes.bsky.social about trans/cis dichotomy.

#SocialPsych #gender #LGBTQIA+ #sociology
Trans is my gender modality: a modest terminological proposal, by Florence Ashley
January 22, 2025 at 7:53 AM