Date of Award
5-1-2018
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Jacobs, Eric
Abstract
The present study examined the effects of societal threat on levels of authoritarianism and social dominance orientation and investigated if those self-report measures were consistent or inconsistent with a measure of implicit attitudes regarding Americans and Immigrants. Exposure to societal threat was hypothesized to increase authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, as well as to increase implicit prejudicial attitudes, as measured by the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), towards out-group members. Based on prior findings, men were expected to have higher levels of social dominance orientation. As predicted, exposure to societal threat significantly increased right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. Additionally, men endorsed greater levels of social dominance orientation than did women. However, there were no statistically significant differences in implicit attitudes between the participants who were exposed to societal threat and those who were not (all p’s > .05).
Access
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