College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

Summer 8-20-2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Verena Graupmann, PhD

Second Advisor

Ralph Erber, PhD

Abstract

Stereotypes, and other forms of heuristics, are used in our everyday lives to assist our brains absorb information. An argument is made here to show that values can act as a form of heuristics and affect implicit attitudes. Drawing on research regarding implicit attitudes, heuristics, and values, we believe that values, such as equality, can act as a heuristic and consequently alter implicit attitudes on race. In this experiment, participants were primed with equality, intuition, or a stereotype inhibition prompt and ran through the affect misattribution procedure (AMP). Contrary to the hypothesized expectation, the results showed that participants in the equality condition rated pictographs preceding African-American faces as less pleasant compared to Caucasian faces. It is discussed whether these findings represent the results of moral licensing: participants who were instructed to think about the value of equality might have felt less of a need to regulate their bias in the AMP. This study displays the variety of ways heuristics affect decision-making.

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