Keijzer, Laura (2024) Politics and Perceptions: How Social Safety Campaigns and Political Ideology Influence Moral Judgments. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Social safety policies and campaigns aimed at preventing social harm are part of many organizations and institutions nowadays. But what effect does exposure to these campaigns have on our perceptions of social interactions? Research suggests exposure may lead to harm or threat salience, leading people to perceive consequent behaviors as more harmful to others as they pay attention to the subject. However, this relationship may be affected by many potential variables, such as political ideology. I hypothesize that exposure to social safety campaigns leads to greater harm perceptions in ambiguous social interactions, and that political ideology moderates this relationship. We did an experimental study for which we recruited a total of 161 participants. These were divided into a control and an experimental group, in which we manipulated social safety. Participants then reflected on two vignettes and assessed to which extent they found the behavior harmful, to which extent it morally outraged them, and the extent to which they were inclined to punish the perpetrator(s). The analysis indicated no significant differences in group means for either condition. Regression analysis also indicated no significant moderation effect for political ideology. Political ideology correlated negatively with the second vignette's outcome variables, indicating that more right- winged people found the situation less harmful and morally wrong. The lack of significant results may be due to limitations in the study design and the sample, but the theory behind the study posits that this model may need to be investigated further.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Graso, M. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Jul 2024 11:01 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Jul 2024 11:01 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3992 |
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