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Full-Text Articles in Psychology
The Economic And Psychological Metrics Of Political Decision-Making, Allyson Eslin
The Economic And Psychological Metrics Of Political Decision-Making, Allyson Eslin
Honors College
This project investigates what economic and psychological attributes influence Maine voters in their political decision-making. I examine how two typically separate disciplines—economics and psychology—combine, in order to understand unique characteristics that inform a voter’s political decision-making. This knowledge is vital to the legislators who seek to understand and represent the people who elected them. I examine the impact of economic stress on important political attitudes, a metric that has never been used to examine Maine voters. To gather this data, approximately 2,000 Maine residents were surveyed in 2013 using a questionnaire delivered through the mail. Using inferential statistics and regression …
Imagine A Better World: Two Studies Of Imagined Intergroup Contact, Charles J. Bergeron
Imagine A Better World: Two Studies Of Imagined Intergroup Contact, Charles J. Bergeron
Honors College
A growing body of evidence indicates that positive contact with outgroups improves attitudes towards those outgroups. Unfortunately, those with the most negative attitudes towards outgroups often have the fewest opportunities to meaningfully interact with members of those groups. These studies investigate the effects of imagining intergroup contact with a Muslim person on measures of explicit (Studies 1 and 2) and implicit (Study 2) anti-Muslim prejudice among the most ideologically intolerant individuals. Local and national participants were asked to complete a short imaginative exercise followed by a brief online questionnaire. Results indicate that imagined intergroup contact was effective in improving attitudes …