College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

Winter 3-22-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Verena Graupmann, PhD

Second Advisor

Ralph Erber, PhD

Abstract

The current research attempted to link misattribution of arousal with intergroup anxiety. Specifically, we linked the presence of (i.e., or lack thereof) of sound– a clear misattribute participants can blame their intergroup anxiety on– to anticipating intergroup contact by manipulating the randomly assigned interaction partner and misattribution of arousal sound condition participants were in. Participants viewed a confederate’s name and picture on a screen and anticipated an interaction. Participants’ intercultural interaction comfort was measured as well as their anxiety levels and Stroop task performance. A two-way ANOVA revealed that there was not a statistically significant interaction between the effects of interaction partner and misattribution condition for Stroop scores, although there was a statistically significant interaction between the effects of interaction partner and misattribution condition for state anxiety. Our findings suggest that anticipating intercultural interactions may not deplete attention span and executive control loss as actual intercultural interactions might, particularly for those with moderate to high intercultural interaction comfort.

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