Ashwini Ashokkumar

All Publications

• Restoring Honor by Slapping or Disowning the Daughter. Personality & social psychology bulletin Ashokkumar, A., Swann, W. B. 2022: 1461672221079106

  Abstract

  The psychological processes underlying honor violence against kin are poorly understood. We assumed that honor violence against daughters who violate a gendered norm is designed to uphold family honor and nurture positive links to the community. Four studies with Indian men supported this formulation. As expected, endorsement of honor violence (i.e., slapping or disowning the daughter) increased insofar as perceived community awareness of the violation increased. Moreover, endorsement of honor violence was especially common among those whose identities were closely aligned ("fused") with their community. Finally, a desire to restore threatened family honor, rather than a motivation to prevent future dishonor, motivates honor violence against daughters; conversely, a desire to prevent future dishonor motivates constructive activities such as advising. Ironically, a benign, culturally universal desire to maintain positive ties to the community can encourage community members to endorse violence toward transgressive kin.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/01461672221079106

  View details for PubMedID 35289198

• A new pathway to college retention? Identity fusion with university predicts retention independently of grades Social Psychological and Personality Science Talaifar, S., Ashokkumar, A., Pennebaker, J. W., Medrano, F. N., Yeager, D. S., Swann, Jr., W. B. 2020: 108-117

  Abstract

  Individuals who are "strongly fused" with a group view the group as self-defining. As such, they should be particularly reluctant to leave it. For the first time, we investigate the implications of identity fusion for university retention. We found that students who were strongly fused with their university (+1 SD) were 7-9% points more likely than weakly fused students (-1SD) to remain in school up to a year later. Fusion with university predicted subsequent retention in four samples (N = 3,193) and held while controlling for demographics, personality, prior academic performance, and belonging uncertainty. Interestingly, fusion with university was largely unrelated to grades, suggesting that identity fusion provides a novel pathway to retention independent of established pathways like academic performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

  View details for DOI 10.1177/1948550619894995

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8009486