The LUSO project is a three-year funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. It aims to investigate the structure of colonial and postcolonial ideological thinking and its role in legitimizing contemporary social and racial inequalities.
Critically examining the enduring impact of colonial and postcolonial ideologies, the LUSO project examines the content of colonial ideological thinking, shedding light on how past colonial narratives continue to shape present-day inequalities.
In recent years, social psychological perspectives have shown how colonial/postcolonial ideologies perpetuate discriminatory attitudes and behaviors against formerly colonized groups. These ideologies play an important role in promoting negative attitudes toward colonized groups and create resistance to public policies that promote inclusion and access to material resources for people from ex-colonized groups. However, there is still much to understand about the structure and function of these ideologies in shaping asymmetrical relationships between groups.
The primary aim of LUSO is to explore how the organizing dimensions of colonial ideological thinking persist and operate in Portuguese society, and what function they have in legitimizing discriminatory attitudes and behaviors toward formerly colonized groups. Mapping the organizing components of colonial/postcolonial ideologies will allow us to answer the questions that remain unanswered, namely: To what extent are these ideologies socially accepted today? To what extent support for this ideologies legitimizes prejudice and hostility toward formerly colonized groups? To what extent does support for colonial/postcolonial ideologies vary across a) generations and b) group social status?
The research questions will be tackled through five working packages (WP):
Conducting a Scoping Review to evaluate the structure and dimensions of the construct.
Developing and validating a new instrument to measure the organizing dimensions of Lusotropicalism, a form of colonial ideological thinking.
Examining whether each component of Lusotropicalism is perceived as a legitimate rationale for maintaining hierarchical social relations between the colonizer ingroup and the colonized outgroups.
Investigating whether Lusotropicalism operates as a legitimizing myth within intergroup ideologies, potentially dampening support for inclusive social policies and fostering discriminatory attitudes towards disadvantaged people from formerly colonized groups.
Analyzing the social diffusion of these assumptions within the Portuguese population, while exploring potential moderators such as intergenerational differences and socioeconomic status.
Research Coordinator
Institute of Social Sciences(ICS),
University of Lisbon (UL)
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Cícero Roberto Pereira is a research professor at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), where he has led a line of research on the socio-psychological dynamics of discrimination against minority groups in formally democratic societies, using multi-method research designs and advanced quantitative data analysis models. He has framed his research within the field of social psychology on the legitimacy of social inequality and has made a theoretical contribution as evidenced by the development of the justified discrimination model. His current research topics include the “mongrel complex” effect, the intergroup time bias effect, the regulating function of values and social norms within theories of the legitimacy of discriminatory behavior, and the social comparison process in the well-being of disadvantaged social groups. His research findings have been published in prestigious national and international journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Political Psychology and European Journal of Social Psychology.
Junior Researcher
Institute of Social Sciences(ICS),
University of Lisbon (UL)
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She received her doctorate in Migrations – with a specialty in Social Psychology in 2019 from the University of Lisbon. She has been a Research Visiting Scholar at Intergroup Research Lab at Yale University (2017 and 2019) and at the Social Cognition Lab at UCL University (2018). Currently, she holds a research fellow position at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon (UL). She was the coordinator of the research project WHOLS – Whose Lives Should Be Saved? Patients’ Race/Ethnicity and Medical Rationing during the COVID-19 Pandemic. She coordinates the Postgraduate Seminars in Social Psychology at ICS-UL, and co-coordinates the research project LUSO – The past in the present: Social Pychological Underpinnings of Luso-tropicalism in the Legitimation of Social and Racial Inequality.
Filipa’s current research interests are divided into two streams:
Project Stream 1. The Social Psychology of Colonialism. Focuses on understanding the psychological and ideological consequences of representations of colonialism for contemporary social issues. Specifically, the impact of ideological colonial thinking on contemporary race relations, examining the relationship between lusotropicalism and the legitimization of social and racial inequality in Portuguese society.
Project Stream 2. The Social Psychology of Racial Inequalities in Healthcare. Understanding the context in which racial bias occurs and persists in health care and its implications for clinical and medical rationing decisions.
Keywords: Colonial Ideologies; Stereotypes; Prejudice; Discrimination;
Associate Professor
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra
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Joaquim Pires Valentim (JPV) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra. He holds a PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Coimbra (2004). He has also done the European PhD on Social Representations and Communication (University of Helsinki, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, ISCTE Lisbon). His research fields are on social representations, intergroup relations, cultural diversity, and political psychology. In these areas he has been Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator, as well as team member in Portuguese national funded projects (e.g., FCT) and in European funded projects (e.g., 7th Framework Program and COST). He is currently (2024-2027) coordinator of the Horizon Europe project CONCILIARE – Confidently Changing Colonial Heritage (GA – 101132582). JPV published regularly in peer reviewed international journals, having been co-editor of special issues of journals such as the International Journal of Intercultural Relations (Colonial past and intercultural relations, 2018), and International Review of Social Psychology, and he is author of several books, including (with Karel van Nieuwenhuyse) The colonial past in history textbooks. Historical and social psychological perspectives (2018, IAP). Among other university management activities, he served as coordinator of the PhD Program in Psychology at the University of Coimbra (2015-2021) and he has been evaluator of proposals of scientific projects, namely for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), the Conseil de Recherche en Sciences Humaines (Canada), the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS (Belgium) and the Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation (Greece).
Keywords: social representations; colonial past; luso-tropicalism; intergroup relations
Associate Professor
Institute of Social Sciences, Universidad de O’Higgins
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Ana Figueiredo (AF) (PhD, Coimbra University, 2012) is an Associate Professor at the Universidad de O’Higgins (Chile) and an Associate Researcher at the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES, Chile). AF recently served as the PI of a project funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) “Postcolonial ideologies, politics of recognition and reparation, and current intergroup relations: The Mapuche in Chile” (Nr. 11201211; 2019-2023)” and serves as co-PI in other ANID-funded projects (e.g., Nr. 1221805; 1221107;13220187). AF is currently co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social and Political Psychology (JSPP) and serves as a member of the Governing Council of the International Society of Social Psychology (ISPP; 2021-2024). Her areas of interest are: representations of history, ideology, historical conflicts, majority-minority dynamics, intergroup relations, dynamics of cultural adaptation, and violence and collective action.
Keywords: majority-minority dynamics; collective memory; conflict; violence
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Social Sciences (ICS),
University of Lisbon (UL)
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Rui Costa Lopes (PhD ISCTE 2009) is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL) and Visiting Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon (FP-UL).
At ICS-UL, his research generically addresses the psychosocial processes behind negative intergroup attitudes towards low status groups, namely studying how intergroup ideologies (e.g. multiculturalism, meritocracy) can be used to enhance, buffer or legitimize negative intergroup responses. More recently, his research has been more particularly focused on socially critical decisions (e.g. medical decisions, legal decisions) towards low status groups.
He has served as PI in a FCT-funded project and a project awarded by Social Observatory La Caixa and as a team member in a significant number of funded projects.
His research has been published in journals such as European Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Review of General Psychology, or Plos One.
He is a member of the Directive Board of LiSP – Lisbon PhD in Social Psychology. He served as the Deputy Director of ICS from 2016 to 2018 and as President of the Portuguese Association of Psychology between 2021 and 2023. Currently serves as President of the Outreach Committee.
Keywords: intergroup relations; legitimation; prejudice; discrimination
Emeritus Researcher
Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon (UL)
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Jorge Vala, PhD in Social Psychology, University of Louvain (1984), was a full professor at ISCTE-IUL and a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS)/University of Lisbon, institution where he is currently Emeritus Researcher. Jorge Vala research focus on socio-cognitive processes, namely in the field of social representations and ideologies, social norms, and social identities. His present projects articulate these processes with the study of racism and prejudice, migration issues, political attitudes, social justice, and validation of everyday knowledge.
Jorge Vala was an invited professor at several universities, including the University René Descartes-Paris, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, the State University of Rio de Janeiro and the Federal University of Paraíba. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Psychology and President of the Portuguese Association of Psychology. He was the National Coordinator for the European Social Survey, the European Values Study, and the International Social Survey Programme. He also was Director of the Portuguese infrastructure PASSDA (Production and Archive of Social Science Data) and member of the Scientific Board of the Fondation Suisse pour la Recherche en Sciences Sociales (FORS). Between 2007 and 2009, he chaired the ICS- ULisboa Academic Board. He served as Director of the ICS-ULisboa between 2009 and 2014. Jorge Vala received the J.P. Codol Award from the European Association of Social Psychology (2010) and the Career Award from the Portuguese Association of Psychology (2012).
Keywords:Racism; Prejudice; Intergoup Relations
PhD Candidate
Faculty of Psycology (FP) / Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon (UL)
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WADS obtained a BA in Psychology at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB, 2019). In his bachelor’s thesis, he studied the effect of black sheep on gay men. In 2021, he completed his master’s degree in social psychology at the Graduate Program in Social Psychology of the UFPB (PPGPS/UFPB) with a master’s thesis on system justification in contexts of social inequality, such as in Brazil. His master’s thesis was funded by a scholarship from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Brazil). WADS is currently a PhD Candidate in FP and ICS/UL, working on a project on system justification in sexual minorities, funded by a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/Portugal).
Keywords: Social Psychology; Intergroup Relations; System Justification; Psychometrics
PhD Candidate
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of University of Coimbra
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Ana Cabrita completed her master’s in organizational, work and personnel Psychology, and is currently a PhD student, studying Social and Political Psychology at the University of Coimbra. After finishing his master’s in 2019, she gained experience in the Human Resources field, and in the last two years worked as a Career Consultant at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, supporting students in their career orientation, organizing projects, and providing training. She has been collaborating on different research projects linked to Social and Political Psychology, such as the HOU$ING project (CES – University of Coimbra). She is currently a research fellow in the project “LUSO – The past in the present: Social Psychological Foundations of Luso-tropicalism in the Legitimation of Social and Racial Inequality”, funded by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/Portugal).
Keywords: Social Representations; Human Values; Lusotropicalism; post-colonial Ideologies
Université Libre de Bruxelles
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Laurent Licata is a Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and an expert on social representations of the colonial past in the European Union. He served as PI of COST Action IS1205 “Social Psychological Dynamics of Historical Representations in the Enlarged European Union”. LL publishes regularly in high-impact journals such as the Journal of Social and Political Psychology and the European Journal of Social Psychology, among others.
University of Auckland, New Zeland
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Chris Sibley (CS) (Ph.D., VUW, 2005) is a Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. He serves as a PI for the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS). The NZAVS is a nationally representative 20-year longitudinal panel study that assesses change and stability in the personality, social attitudes, and values of roughly 60,000 New Zealanders each year. CS has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and is the editor of the Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Prejudice, and the Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology.
Bibliografia da Publicação
Bibliografia da Publicação
Bibliografia da Publicação
PhD Student Ana Cabrita presented her latest research at 15th International Congress of Social Psychology.
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, 2022.05941.PTDC
Design: felisberto@felistudio.pt
