Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

You Look Like Me: The Impact Of Demographic Similarity On Picture Primes’ Effectiveness, Jennifer L. Unnerstall

Dissertations

Past research has clearly demonstrated the ability of various primes to influence behavior; however, little is understood about how and why primes work. The present research takes a theory-based approach to begin to understand this further. First, it investigates whether a picture prime has the ability to influence cooperative and competitive concept activation and implicit associations. Then, it examines whether the characteristics of the picture prime, specifically the race of the individuals depicted in the prime and whether it matches the race of the participant (i.e., demographic similarity), moderate these effects. Secondly, the present research investigates whether the same picture …