Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

McMillen, Robert

Committee Member

Hood, Kristina B.

Committee Member

Nadorff, Michael

Date of Degree

8-15-2014

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine how a manipulated majority position affects attitude change for intergroup and non-intergroup issues. Specifically I wanted to see how norms of tolerance and norms of prejudice differed. The study employed a 3 (majority manipulated position: positive, neutral, or negative) X 2 (issue type: intergroup or non-intergroup) ANCOVA. Additionally, I wanted to examine how participants’ perceived societal direction affects attitude change for intergroup issues with a 3 (majority manipulated position: positive, neutral, or negative) X 3 (perceived direction of attitude: support, stay the same, negative) ANOVA. Participants were randomly assigned to view a majority manipulation position. Attitude change was determined by a difference between a pre-and post-manipulation score. In partial support of my hypothesis intergroup issues elicited more norm-consistent attitude change than non-intergroup topics, however this was driven by a prejudicial social norm effect. No effect was found for perceived societal direction.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19862

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